Rapinoe, one of the most renowned female soccer players of all time, said she felt “really good” before the game. “I guess I just rode it till the wheels really came right off,” she added. “You don’t always get to have the perfect ending.”
The final also marked the last pro soccer game for Krieger, Rapinoe’s former U.S. women’s national teammate, a fellow two-time World Cup winner and whose team Gotham FC won the NWSL Final 2-1. At her own press conference, she called her friend’s injury “devastating.”
“I’m so gutted for her, not only as a friend but former teammate, and I know what this game meant to her” Krieger said, “and it’s devastating to see one of the best players in the world have to step out because of injury in the first five minutes of the game.”