Sam Coffey had ‘so much fun’ — and played well — in her U.S. women’s soccer team debut

WASHINGTON — Denise Willi has spent enough time around the journalists in her family to know the rules of objectivity in a stadium, even if she isn’t one herself.

But when you’re in the stands to watch one of your daughters make her debut for the world’s top women’s soccer team, it’s OK to let the rules go.

So if you were at the United States’ win over Nigeria on Tuesday, and during warmups saw someone in a Sam Coffey jersey taking pictures from all over the place, now you know who it was.

“She’s worked so hard for this day, and I’m so happy for her,” Willi said on the night Coffey became the 250th player to earn a cap for the senior U.S. women’s team. “More than anything, I just wish her all the luck in the world, and that this is her dream come true is incredible. I’m speechless, really.”

Coffey’s father, Wayne, was just as awestruck, but he had a few more words on hand. That will not surprise anyone who read his years of work for the New York Daily News, or his ghostwriting of Carli Lloyd and Briana Scurry’s memoirs. When he was working with Lloyd, he brought Sam to South Jersey to train with the World Cup champion.

His other two children work in the media now. Son Sean is a TV anchor in northeastern Pennsylvania, and daughter Alex is one of The Inquirer’s baseball reporters.

“Well, on a scale of one to 100, it was about a million,” Wayne said. “It’s trite as hell, but you imagine what this will feel like, and it’s just completely overwhelming to just see your kid realize a lifelong dream.”

» READ MORE: Alex Coffey reflects on watching her sister make her USWNT debut

Mom and Dad stood together in the stands, holding each other close, as they watched Sam walk on to the field for kickoff. The trio had spent time together the night before, but the parents didn’t know she would be starting.

Did the midfielder have any nerves before kickoff? The journalism major and sociology minor at Penn State reported from the scene.

“It was very difficult to eat food today — thank God for a blender,” she said. “But as I got closer to the game, I just kind of felt this spirit of calm, and Vlatko [Andonovski, the manager] and the staff and all of my teammates were just so encouraging toward me.”

Coffey gave a specific nod to Rose Lavelle, who offered some words of encouragement in the tunnel.

“She was like, ‘It’s just another soccer game,’” Coffey said, “At the end of the day, it’s just the game that we all love, the game that we’re gifted at and can play together. And I knew if I overthought that or changed who I am, that I wouldn’t play my best game, and my style of play, and wouldn’t be able to offer the team my full self.”

From there, she went on to play the entirety of the 2-1 win.

“I definitely just entered the game with total gratitude and awe of this moment, but I also didn’t let it get too big,” she said. “I just kind of continued this narrative in my head of just belonging here, and I’ve worked my tail off to be here, and I’ve had countless people who have poured themselves into me in help of reaching this day.”

» READ MORE: Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle spark U.S. women’s soccer team to 2-1 win over Nigeria

Andonovski liked what he saw.

“I thought that she was very calm on the ball, very composed,” he said, “and for someone who’s playing [her] first cap in front of a full stadium, in a tight game, I thought that she did a very good job. We saw moments of her understanding of the game and ability to to break lines and find our midfielders or forwards in higher areas.”

The report card wasn’t perfect; Andonovski said “there were moments where I think she can still grow, and that’s mainly on the defensive side of the game.”

But he added that he has “no doubt in my mind that she will get better.”

» READ MORE: Penn State alumna Sam Coffey is a top NWSL Rookie of the Year contender

It was a twist of fate that Coffey’s debut came on the night the U.S. Soccer Federation held a signing ceremony for its new equal-pay collective bargaining agreements with the women’s and men’s national team players’ unions.

“I really am just, like, in awe of these women that not only are professional athletes, play for the U.S. women’s national team, have the weight of the world on their shoulders, but are paving the way for this next generation,” she said. “And now we owe it to them to not only give everything we have to this team, but also to this fight that we still are fighting. This is obviously such a pivotal event, what happened today, and I don’t think it’s really hit me that that just happened.”

It will soon enough, along with all the other emotions from the field.

“I just had so much fun,” Coffey said. “It’s one of the best nights of my life, truly.”

» READ MORE: U.S. Soccer throws a long-awaited party for its equal pay collective bargaining deals