Its been a foregone conclusion for awhile and already officially announced in other threads. However, we've done tribute threads for other players, and if any player deserves a tribute thread, its Christie Rampone. Rampone has retired, and will be honored in a ceremony prior to the SheBelieves game on March 4 in her home state of New Jersey. She debuted for the WNT in 1997, immediately moving to defense after a college career at forward. Over the course of her career, she earned 311 caps, becoming the second most-capped USWNT player (only behind Lilly). Her career has spanned nearly 20 years, in which she came back twice from having children as well as once coming back from an ACL injury. She has 2 WWC golds, 1 WWC silver, and 2 WWC bronzes as well as 3 Olympic gold medals and 1 Olympic silver. Counting both WWCs and Olympics, she was a starter in 7 of the 9 world championships she played in. In 2015, she became the oldest player ever to play in a WWC match at the age of 40. She also served as the WNT captain for 8 years, from 2008-2015, spanning 2 Olympic golds, a WWC gold, and WWC silver. She's one of the few to have played in all three women's professional leagues in the US, famously leading the 2009 Sky Blue team to a WPS championship as player-coach while being 3 months pregnant with her second child. One of the fittest and fastest on the team throughout her career, she was one of the most reliable defenders on the backline. She went from a shy NJ girl who brought her own laundry detergent to her first camp to a vital leader on the team. Humble, gracious, down-to-earth. We'll miss you, Captain America, and I sincerely hope that you'll get involved in coaching in the future.
In fact we have learned why they have placed three matches in mid Atlantic states at a volatile time of year weather wise. Hopefully it doesn't blow up in their faces to give Rampone a day she doesn't seem to really want.
Rampone has also been dealing with Lyme disease while performing so admirably for our USWNT. She was the rock in our defense for years. Her speed was responsible for preventing many goals against. Thank you, Christie Pearce Rampone, sure enjoyed watching you represent our country with pride.