Dream Achieved: Meghan Klingenberg is a World Cup Winner
The Pittsburgh-area native and her teammates are headed to Heinz Field next month.
No big deal but we just won the World Cup. pic.twitter.com/tFOp2y8Ojh
— Meghan Klingenberg (@meghankling) July 6, 2015
Meghan Klingenberg, at just 26 years of age, has turned a childhood dream into reality by being part of the U.S. Women’s National soccer team, which won the World Cup Championship Sunday night by dominating Japan 5-2. The U.S. Women's National team became the first team to win the tournament three times.
Klingenberg says this game is more meaningful than winning an Olympic gold medal.
“There’s something different about the World Cup,” she recently told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It’s just the pinnacle of the women’s game, if you will. And winning that world championship and being considered the best team in the world is something we want.”
Klingenberg was captain of Pine-Richland’s girls soccer team, where she helped to lead the squad to a state championship in 2005.
Her coach, Jodi Chmielewski, thinks Klingenberg’s World Cup performance will influence more people in Pittsburgh to become involved in soccer.
“She’s a role model on a lot of different levels, just having a local player, seeing her go to [the University of North Carolina] and have the success she had there, and now on the world stage to be so successful,” Chmielewski told the Post-Gazette. “That’s really been a great example for the youth players to see.”
Many of those young fans are likely to be at Heinz Field on Sunday, Aug. 16, when the U.S. Women’s National team plays its first post-World Cup match against Costa Rica.
You can purchase tickets for the 1:30 p.m. game at ticketmaster.com or ussoccer.com.
