It’s about 9:30 pm on December 15th in Boca Raton and everyone is tired. The whistle has just blown on the final game of the U.S. Women’s national team’s victory tour, a 4-1 win over China. The 10-game push finally slogged to a stop here in muggy Florida. The U.S. went 8-0-2 in the series, scoring 32 goals and conceding six.

The four-month extended celebration capped one of the longest years in U.S. women’s soccer history, and it shows. You can see the fatigue as the women gather up their gear and wearily wave to the fans. They slowly tromp over to the media. The way they move indicates that these players are not just beat from the game. They’re dead from playing almost 3,000 minutes of competitive soccer over the past 12 months. But it’s a good tired. An accomplished tired. The kind of tired you get from winning an Olympic gold medal and earning a place in U.S. history.

"In one simple word: 2012 has been epic,” Abby Wambach said after the team’s second-to-last game in Houston last Wednesday. “Not only on a personal level for me, but for how amazing it was for so many players on this team to step up.”

Wambach netted 27 goals in 2012, a more than respectable tally that would lead the USWNT in most other years. But statistically, the year belonged to her younger counterpart, Alex Morgan. Morgan scored 28 goals and 21 assists, becoming only the second player to rack up more than 20 goals and 20 assists. She was named U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year and stands a good chance to beat out Wambach and Marta for Ballon d’Or honors. But on Saturday night, all Morgan wanted to do was take a break.

“This is the 32nd game we’ve played this year,” Morgan said. “I think we’re all ready to get a little bit of rest. We obviously wanted to come out on this victory tour and have fun and enjoy each other. We wanted to come back for our fans and do this for the fans and enjoy ourselves and I think that’s what we did.”

Ditto for the rest of the squad, who eagerly gushed about their holiday plans, each one perking up at the thought of sun, family, reading, and, most importantly, rest.

There’s a another kind of weary hanging over the women’s soccer community. At halftime of Saturday night’s game, Cheryl Bailey revealed the name of soon-to-be-launched women’s professional soccer league: the National Women’s Soccer League, or the NWSL. It was the final announcement of 2012 regarding the league, a painstakingly slow process that dripped and dropped details over the course of five months.

The league won’t launch for at least another four months, but there’s already some fatigue setting in. Not so much with the buildup to the league, but more like the worn out kind of tired you get from launching a new league for the third time, and the energy that it takes to muster up enthusiasm for another name, another rebranding of the same thing, another leap of faith that this will be the one that sticks and succeeds. But the hardest part of that is knowing that it’s only December 2012, and there are key months ahead that need even more enthusiasm, more belief and leaps of faith than December 2012.

Despite the draining year, some players are ready to keep going. Ali Krieger isn’t tired. Her 2012 international season ended on January 20th when she suffered an ACL and MCL tear against the Dominican Republic in the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament. Krieger, who spent the last five and a half years playing for FFC Frankfurt in Germany, can't wait to come back to the U.S., play in the NWSL, and find her way back into the USWNT’s starting defense.

Other players who hardly wore the American jersey in 2012, like Whitney Engen, Yael Averbuch, Becky Edwards, and Christen Press aren’t tired, either. These are players who don’t care as much about the long, long year of 2012 as they do about the open and bright future of 2013.

Tom Sermanni isn’t tired. He watched the final three games of the USWNT’s victory tour and is ready to take over on January 1st. The squad's first game comes on February 9th against the new coach's native Scotland.

"I've put a load of pressure on myself to do well, keep this program successful and continue to be No. 1 in the world,” Sermanni recently told the AP.

So, as we close out a historic 2012 and ease into a quiet, albeit hopeful 2013, some people are tired, some are eager to start fresh. But there’s nothing to worry about. That fatigue from the 18 players that played 32 games and that worried weariness that comes from the uncertain future of a domestic league will subside. That fatigue will turn over to an ambition and eagerness that matches that from Sermanni, Engen, and others. The dogged belief in women’s soccer internationally and domestically will stay strong through 2013. Until then, take a well-deserved break. Reflect on how great that Alex Morgan header against Canada was or those clutch Hope Solo saves against Japan, and appreciate the U.S. women’s national team for the captivating spectacle that it is.

Maura Gladys works in production for KICKTV. She also runs the goalkeeping blog All You Need Is Glove.