How a professional soccer player sees the importance of the Women's World Cup

AccuWeather

From its role in promoting a worldwide love for the game to how players train for a variety of weather conditions, Maddie Nolf talks with AccuWeather about the ways the Women's World Cup shapes the future.

Transcript

00:00 The Women's World Cup is well underway down under.

00:03 The US Women's National Team is trying to become

00:05 the first three-peat champion.

00:08 Three-peat would be a tremendous feat.

00:10 And Maddie Knopf is a professional soccer player.

00:12 She joins us now from her perspective

00:15 on the World Cup matches in Australia and in New Zealand.

00:18 So Maddie, thank you so much for making time for us today.

00:22 Yeah, I'm grateful to be here.

00:23 Thanks for having me on.

00:24 Well, this is great stuff.

00:25 And how important is the success of the US Women's National

00:29 Team for all levels of soccer here in the US?

00:32 Yeah, I think when the national team has success,

00:35 you're going to see the youth be built up.

00:37 You're going to see the professional league be built up.

00:39 I've obviously played professionally for five years.

00:41 And we've benefited greatly from equal pay

00:45 and different things like that.

00:46 But more just the love of the game.

00:47 I think it's important to have people watching the women.

00:50 And that produces excitement for young girls and professionals

00:53 like me that haven't made the national team yet.

00:55 So it's huge.

00:57 Really cool stuff.

00:58 And you and I have something in common.

00:59 We both are Penn Staters.

01:00 Now, I am not an athlete.

01:02 But you played for Penn State.

01:03 Now you play in the Scottish Premier League

01:06 with the Rangers Football Club.

01:08 So in what ways is playing international soccer

01:10 different than when you were in college?

01:13 Yeah, actually, I think that international soccer was quite

01:17 similar to my college experience because it's very technical,

01:20 very knowledgeable.

01:21 And Erica Walsh, who actually has

01:23 coached with the US Women's Team for a number of years,

01:26 was our head coach at Penn State.

01:27 So it was a really unique experience.

01:29 But it's definitely different than professional soccer

01:31 here in the US because we're known

01:33 for being very hardworking and go-getters,

01:36 strong, physical, fast.

01:38 And that's something we look forward to watching

01:39 the US team do.

01:41 We just put a lot of high pressure

01:43 on teams that are more laissez-faire and very

01:46 intelligent and things like that.

01:47 So one's not better than the other, but it's very different.

01:50 So I definitely experienced that overseas.

01:52 And it was unlike the professional game

01:55 that you're going to see in America.

01:57 And Maddie, we're always dialed into the weather conversation

01:59 here at AccuWeather.

02:00 And while we may be sweating it out in the United States

02:04 right now, it is winter in Australia and New Zealand.

02:06 So what kind of weather challenges

02:08 will the US national team be facing during this tournament?

02:13 I've dealt with a lot of cold playing at Penn State.

02:16 So I remember one year, we had to get turf shoes.

02:18 And we were kind of skating on ice.

02:21 I don't know the exact pressures that they'll be under.

02:23 But I was in the U-20 World Cup a number of years ago.

02:27 And we played actually in Australia in the hottest--

02:30 well, we played in Papua New Guinea.

02:31 But we trained for a month in Australia

02:33 to prepare our bodies for the weather

02:35 because it was so, so hot.

02:36 So our preparation at that age was on point.

02:40 So I'm sure the US is going to be really considering

02:42 all the factors they've already put in the work.

02:45 So I would bet that our team is ready to go,

02:47 probably is trained in colder environments

02:50 to prepare their bodies for that.

02:51 As a professional player, what do you look for?

02:53 And what should soccer fans be watching during some

02:57 of these World Cup matches?

03:00 I personally think they should be watching to enjoy it.

03:03 The World Cup is all about falling in love with the game.

03:05 So watching as many games as you can,

03:07 watching all the countries-- we have so much more representation

03:10 in the women's game now.

03:11 So that's really exciting.

03:12 There's not going to be a bad match.

03:14 So just putting the TV on as much as possible,

03:16 just to fall in love with the game

03:18 so that you can support the women

03:20 and that we have really cool careers in the future.

03:23 Absolutely, really good stuff.

03:24 Maddie Knopf, professional soccer player

03:26 and always a Nittany Lion.

03:27 Thank you so much, Maddie.

03:29 Thank you.

03:29 I appreciate it.

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