Kristie Mewis knows what making the U.S. women’s national team’s 2023 World Cup roster could mean.
A member of the Tokyo Olympic team in 2021, Mewis has yet to make a World Cup roster in her career. That could change this summer, as the 32-year-old midfielder sits on the bubble of head coach Vlatko Andonosvki’s final USWNT roster, set to be named in June.
On the latest episode of Snacks, Mewis opened up about how she’s been thinking about this pivotal moment in her career.
“Lately the feeling that I’ve been having is like, it could get ripped away from me at any moment,” she said. “And then I’m obviously a little bit older in my career, so it’s like, oh my god, will this be it for me? Like, if I don’t make this World Cup team — this is so deep –do I feel fulfilled in my career? And that’s like such a scary thought.”
Still, she believes those feelings are “natural” for players that are on the roster bubble.
While Mewis won the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup as a member of the Houston Dash, she never won an NCAA title with Boston College and has yet to win an NWSL championship. Mewis currently plays as a midfielder for Gotham FC with Snacks co-host Lynn Williams.
“I just feel like being named to this roster, everything that I’ve done my entire life will have been worth it,” she said. “This is so deep. I hate it. But that’s like actually how it feels to me. And maybe it doesn’t seem that deep to other people or maybe it’s true.
“Like people who are lock-ins, I think they feel different pressure, whereas I feel like this is actually gonna change my life and change how I view my career. And that’s really hard to stomach every single day waiting for the roster to come out.”
Until that day comes, Mewis said she finds comfort in the fact that she will have “done everything that I possibly can to make the roster.”
“I don’t have one regret at all, but like up until that roster gets named, I will not have one regret,” she continued. “And I feel like that whether I make it or not, that is what will determine if I feel fulfilled or not.
“And there are obviously so many other important things in life other than soccer, but I feel like this is just a whole lifelong thing.”