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