Tag: Heather O’Reilly

The Soccer Tournament reveals star-studded field of 32 teams

Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Heather O’Reilly and plenty more will play in the 7v7 event

The Soccer Tournament has unveiled its official 32-team field and group pairings, with several big names from the game’s past and present set to take part.

The $1 million winner-take-all event will take place from June 1-4 in Cary, North Carolina, and will feature teams from all over the world competing in 7v7 matches.

TST is based off The Basketball Tournament, a similar event that has featured ex-pros and celebrities.

The field will be split into eight groups of four teams each, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the knockout stage. The groups are as follows:

Group A: Borussia Dortmund, Hoosiers Army (Indiana Alumni), Kingdom FC, Newtown Pride FC

Group B: Wolverhampton, Blade & Grass FC, Villita FC, DMV Diplomats

Group C: Club Necaxa, Hapoel Tel Aviv, SLC FC, Virginia Dream

Group D: West Ham, Dallas United, Culture by Mo Ali FC, Far East United

Group E: Wrexham Red Dragons, Como 1907, US Women, Say Word FC

Group F: Hashtag United, Conrad & Beasley United, Nati SC, Gracie FC

Group G: Team Dempsey, Sneaky Fox FC, Zala FFF, Jackson TN Boom

Group H: Charlotte FC, Duke Sevens (Duke Alumni), NCFC, Raleigh Rebels

Here are some of the notable participants:

Borussia Dortmund

The German giants are in Group A and will feature club legends like goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller as well as social media influencer Noah Beck.

Blade & Grass FC

The Group B side will include the ex-USMNT duo of Geoff Cameron and Brek Shea, as well as other players with Premier League experience yet to be announced.

West Ham

The Hammers are placed in Group D and will bring a roster with some of the club’s past greats, including Carlton Cole, Marlon Harewood and Matt Jarvis.

Wrexham Red Dragons

The newly minted League Two side owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney will field a team full of names that viewers of “Welcome to Wrexham” will recognize.

Como 1907

Joining Wrexham in Group E will be the Serie B side whose ownership group includes Cesc Fabregas and Thierry Henry. Fabregas will participate in TST as a player-coach.

US Women

One of the most prominent teams in the tournament will be US Women, which will be led by ex-USWNT stars Heather O’Reilly, Lori Lindsey, Kristine Lilly, and Cat Whitehill. The team’s coaching staff will include Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers, and Heather Mitts.

Conrad & Beasley United

Conrad & Beasley United will be led by, you guessed it, Jimmy Conrad and DaMarcus Beasley. The former will participate in a player-assistant coach role while the latter will be general manager. Their roster also features MLS legend Dwayne De Rosario.

Team Dempsey

Clint Dempsey will serve as coach of Team Dempsey, which will feature two of his former USMNT teammates in Eddie Johnson and Jermaine Jones.

Sneaky Fox FC

With a roster including former USMNT players Landon Donovan, Alan Gordon, Nick Rimando, and Jay DeMerit, Sneaky Fox FC will be a formidable rival for Team Dempsey in Group G.

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The USWNT has lost three straight and some legends are getting restless

Heather O’Reilly and Carli Lloyd aren’t happy with the USWNT’s mentality

The U.S. women’s national team lost 2-1 to Germany on Thursday night, the team’s third consecutive defeat.

To put it simply, the USWNT just doesn’t lose three games in a row. Before the Germany defeat, it had been 29 years since the USWNT’s last three-game losing streak. It has never lost four in a row.

That three-game streak in 1993 came well before the legendary USWNT careers of Heather O’Reilly and Carli Lloyd began. Both were dismayed by what they saw in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday and made their opinions crystal clear on Twitter.

O’Reilly and Lloyd both questioned the team’s mentality, an intangible but vital part of the USWNT becoming the most decorated women’s national team ever.

“Rewatched the match from last night and have to say I am tremendously disappointed. Simply not good enough in so many regards,” O’Reilly began in a thread.

“Let’s start with mentality. Last 30 minutes. Too many allowed crosses in the box and not dealt with well at all. On the flip side, no urgency in the last 5 mins. You are about to lose at home. Get the f—— ball down the field and fight.”

Lloyd, like O’Reilly a World Cup and Olympic champion, echoed the sentiment of her former USWNT teammate.

“The winning culture and mentality that has carried on from generation to generation within the USWNT has been fizzling away,” she said on Twitter in response to O’Reilly.

“I said it when I retired. I saw it slipping away. Players have to embody that. That’s been our DNA since the 80s, but not so much anymore.”

O’Reilly did end her thread on a positive note, putting more pressure on a USWNT side that will already be feeling the heat ahead of its final game of 2022.

“Thrilled the team has a chance for redemption in a few days to make things right,” O’Reilly said ahead of the USWNT’s rematch with Germany at Red Bull Arena on Sunday.

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USWNT legend Heather O’Reilly scores winner as Shelbourne FC advances in UWCL qualifying

HAO’s march to the UWCL is picking up steam

Heather O’Reilly came out of retirement to play in the Champions League, and she just helped Shelbourne FC get one step closer to qualifying.

O’Reilly, who less than three weeks ago announced that she was coming out of retirement to join the Irish champions, nodded home the game’s only goal as Shelbourne defeated Slovenian side ZNK Pomurje 1-0 in the first round of the UWCL qualifying process.

The three-time gold medalist needed just four minutes to get on the scoresheet as Shelbourne turned a furious start into a lead. The former USWNT winger, who had hung her boots up in 2019, reacted first after a cross into the area wasn’t headed clear, sneaking past her marker to float a header back across goal and into the upper corner.

Before O’Reilly’s goal, Shelbourne had already won a penalty kick only to see it saved, but they never really let their hosts out, with O’Reilly eventually providing the crucial touch to give them the lead.

“What a dream come true,” O’Reilly said in a video posted by Shelbourne after the match. “I don’t head the ball a ton, I’m usually on the serving end of things, but it was bouncing around in the box, and I just put a little bit of height on the header. I knew I had to get it up and over the goalkeeper, and I placed it exactly where I meant to place it.”

O’Reilly and Shelbourne will remain in Slovenia for the final of the four-team tournament that makes up the UWCL’s Champions Path first round, which is exactly as convoluted as it sounds. They’ll face Icelandic club Valur IF, who won the first game of Wednesday’s double-header 2-0 over FC Hayasa of Armenia, in a one-off final.

Sunday’s game will pose a taller task, as Valur’s squad features 10 players with caps for Iceland, including numerous long-time regulars for the national team, as well as Venezuela forward Mariana Speckmaier (who won the NWSL championship in 2021 with the Washington Spirit) and in Cyera Hintzen and Brookelynn Entz, two Americans who were drafted by NWSL clubs in recent years.

If O’Reilly and Shelbourne win again, they’ll join 10 other teams that won four-team, geographically centralized tournaments in the second round, along with Slavia Prague (Czech Republic), Rosengård (Sweden), and HB Køge (Denmark), who all received byes. If they can win a two-legged tie in the second round, O’Reilly’s dream of UWCL soccer will be one more achievement added to her endless list of successes.

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Ex-USWNT star Heather O’Reilly comes out of retirement to join Irish club Shelbourne FC

HAO slow down? Never

Heather O’Reilly is not slowing down even one tiny bit, with the Champions League now in her sights.

The former U.S. women’s national team winger put together 231 caps, won a World Cup and three different Olympic gold medals, picked up two NWSL championships at the club level, and more recently finished the Boston Marathon and appeared on American Ninja Warrior just months after having a second child.

O’Reilly’s entire career was defined by endless energy, and that trend is continuing. The ex-USWNT star announced on BBC’s World Football that she is coming out of retirement to sign with Irish club Shelbourne FC.

“I had a long, successful, trophy-ridden career and I am very proud of that, but there was this one hole on my resume that I never played Champions League football,” O’Reilly said. “It was a disappointing end to my time over with Arsenal when I wrapped up with them in 2018, it irked me, it bothered me. It was always a thing in the back of my head.”

O’Reilly credited a nudge from Arsene Wenger, who coached her team at Unicef’s Soccer Aid charity match, for her return to pro soccer.

Shelbourne won the Women’s National League in 2021 by a single point, and thus got themselves into the first round of Champions League qualifying. O’Reilly said that once she decided to pursue a UWCL appearance for the first time in her career, she touched base with the club, which is based in the Dublin suburbs.

“I reached out to them. I don’t know if it was known that I was interested in coming out of retirement,” said O’Reilly. “It has been three years nearly since I officially retired from club football. People needed to know that I was interested.”

O’Reilly and Shelbourne do not have an easy path to the Champions League group stage. UEFA’s convoluted qualification process sees Shelbourne in the first round of the Champions Path, which for them means a four-team mini-tournament that will be played from August 18-21 in a yet-to-be-determined location. They’ll face ZNK Pomurje of Slovenia, and if they advance, they get a game against either Icelandic side Valur or FC Hayasa of Armenia.

If Shelbourne comes through that test, they’ll join the other 10 winners of the Champions Path mini-tournaments, plus seeded sides Slavia Prague (Czech Republic), Rosengård (Sweden), and HB Køge (Denmark), in the draw for the second round. Shelbourne would be paired off in that draw, facing a two-legged home-and-away tie in the last two weeks of September for a spot in the group stage.

If O’Reilly’s UWCL dream is successful, it will also be a big achievement for Irish women’s soccer. Only two clubs from Ireland have ever made it to the Champions League proper: Peamount United in 2011-12, and and Raheny United in 2014-15.

In the meantime, Shelbourne has a seven-point lead to maintain at the top of the WNL as they near the halfway point in the season.

“I’m chasing my dream,” added O’Reilly. “I had this unchecked box and I’m looking to go do it, and for good reasons. I’m thrilled about it, the club is thrilled about it, and I think it’s one of those situations where it’s just a win-win all around.”

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USWNT legend Heather O’Reilly makes American Ninja Warrior debut

The former USWNT entered the course, naturally, with three gold medals around her neck

Heather O’Reilly has accomplished many things in her athletic career: 231 U.S. national team caps, three Olympic gold medals, a World Cup win, two NWSL titles.

But now you can add one more significant item to that list: American Ninja Warrior.

O’Reilly, now an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina, made her debut on the NBC show in an episode that aired on Monday night.

The 37-year-old entered the course, naturally, wearing her three Olympic gold medals around her neck, and had her former USWNT teammates Julie Foudy and Abby Wambach beamed in to cheer her on.

O’Reilly got past the first obstacle but, sadly, she was unable to overcome rollercoaster, the second obstacle.

Still, making it onto the show at all was no small feat, as the show’s commentators mentioned O’Reilly had only given birth to her son Jack (who was born in November 2021) three months prior.

O’Reilly explains how she became a Ninja Warrior

Appearing on the Train With the Best podcast in March, O’Reilly explained that her journey on the show started when a casting director for American Ninja Warrior sent her a message through Instagram.

“I had barely watched the show,” she said. “I think I just kind of flipped through it. And my first thought was, ‘Well, that would be hilarious. Tell me more.’

“I just filled out the application and I sent in my little video and next thing you know, I’m heading to San Antonio in a few days to a qualifier on American Ninja Warrior.

“I’ve been sort of half serious-about it. Because I am competitive – if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it well. In this case, I have been humbled and have learned very quickly that people have been doing this for a long time, they’re very good. They’re way better and stronger than I am.

“This is a fun random life experience, we’ll see where it goes. YOLO as the kids say! We’re going roll the dice and see what happens in my American Ninja Warrior experience.”

You can see O’Reilly’s appearance on the show here, starting at the 39 minute mark.

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