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On Thursday September 1st NGS Player Enya Vahey had the once in a life opportunity to meet USWNT Captain Carli Lloyd at a sporting event in Kingston, MA.

Carli shared inspiring stories with young soccer enthusiasts and her father Mike was kind enough to pass on some key points from the Q&A.  Lloyd highlighted the following points:

1) Just get out and play.  It doesn’t need to be organized.  No coaches, no uniforms.  Just find a wall to bounce the ball against or some friends to play a pick-up game.  You’ll never be good or last in the game, if you don’t love to play all the time.
2) Social media is a waste of time.  Go out and play ball instead!
3) You’ve got to be honest with yourself and turn your weaknesses into strengths.  She talked about being the “soccer princess” on every team through college.  Everyone told her she was the “best” and then she got cut from the women’s under 21 team.  She had finally met her match and didn’t have the stamina or maturity to play at that level.  She could not accept why was cut and blamed everyone and everything else until she realized that she was not in shape and did not have the mental toughness to deal with criticism.
4) Always have the underdog mentality because you’ll never make it if you think you’ll always be a star.  No one called her or cared after they got back from Rio because they lost, but she still has to go out and practice and play the same as when they won the World Cup.