Sam Coffey hopes for one more chance to prove she should make the USWNT World Cup team

Seven springs ago, Sam Coffey got in the car with her father and set off from New York’s Hudson Valley to South Jersey.

Wayne Coffey was in the midst of ghostwriting Carli Lloyd’s memoir after the 2015 World Cup, and this trip offered more than time to talk. Sam had the opportunity to train with Lloyd at the Marlton Memorial Park facility known informally as the “Blue Barn” — and formally as a place named in Lloyd’s honor.

This is not a story of how a lucky encounter with a star launched a soccer career. While Coffey wasn’t a big-name soccer player in high school, she was a known quantity, and had already committed to Boston College. That same spring, she went to her first U.S. youth national team camp.

But that April 2016 day was a milestone on Coffey’s road to her current prominence, and the now-24-year-old hasn’t forgotten it.

“Here comes one of my idols,” she recalled. “She comes in, laces up her boots, says ‘Hi’ — like I’m any other player, not this 16-year-old kid she just met — and we just trained. She was really wonderful to me, just treated me like any other training partner.”

Lloyd hasn’t forgotten either.

“I can remember her just being a sponge,” Lloyd said. “I admired her work ethic and overall attitude of wanting to become better. I was, of course, talking and spending a lot of time with Wayne as we were putting together my memoir, and he had mentioned how my story was helping to fuel Sam, so I thought that was pretty cool.”

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Both players have done far more memorable things since then. Coffey transferred to Penn State, graduated, won a NWSL title with the Portland Thorns, made the league’s team of the season as a rookie last year, and played for the U.S. national team four times in the fall. Lloyd, of course, won another World Cup in 2019 and had countless other highlights.

So why bring back that old tale right now? Because Coffey is so close to the ultimate following of Lloyd’s footsteps.

Four months ago, it seemed she was on a solid track to making this year’s World Cup squad. The U.S. needs defensive midfield depth, and Coffey has an ideal skill set.

Since then, though, Coffey hasn’t played for the national team. She was on the bench for the 2022 finale and the two-game trip to New Zealand in January, and didn’t make last month’s SheBelieves Cup roster.

When U.S. manager Vlatko Andonovski announced the SheBelieves roster, he said Coffey is “very much in the pool,” and he wanted to see “something else” during the tournament.

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“I want to be there,” Coffey said. “I want to compete with this team; I want to help this team win. Of course, that’s my dream, that’s my goal — that’s my ‘why’ every day, that’s what pushes me. But I think through all of this, I’ve really done my best to just let go of the result and focus on the process of just being the best player I can be.”

If the words seem clichéd, the earnestness of Coffey’s personality makes up for that.

“If I’m not showing up every day and striving to be the best version of myself, and making the people around me better and focusing on the details — the little things and the joys in that are part of the process — then I’m doing it for the wrong reasons,” she said. “I’ve really had to check myself [on] those things through some of the challenges that this year has brought me. And I’m not viewing them as setbacks, I’m viewing them just as opportunities, and exciting opportunities to just learn and get better and grow, and know that this is a part of my process.”

Coffey, whose siblings include Inquirer Phillies reporter Alex Coffey, also showed a flash of the inner fire that drives elite soccer players to the top.

“I do take confidence in knowing that I believe in myself, I believe in what I bring, and I’m going to show up in whatever environment I’m in and bring that and bring my whole and authentic self,” she said. “And not doubt that if I’m not getting on the field or I’m not on a roster — of course, that’s definitely difficult — but I’m really just doing my best to focus on the little things. To stay locked in and relentless in this process of learning and growing, instead of being discouraged by things that are also a part of it.”

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She watched the U.S. games she didn’t attend from her couch, writing her observations in a notebook.

“Trying to dive into those games and tactically watch them and learn as much as I can from that, that’s hard,” she said, her voice cracking a little bit. “It’s really hard. And, of course, being happy for them for winning. That’s hard, but it’s a part of it, and I can’t ignore that it’s a part of it. And I am so confident that it’s only going to make me better, and it’s only going to help me.”

Making a World Cup team is one of the hardest things of all. But attacking players can make late runs to squads with hot streaks of goals and assists. It’s not as easy for defensive midfielders.

“One hundred percent, I want to attack these areas that I think I can improve on and help both teams, both the Thorns and the national team,” she said. “I want to get after it. I want to grow defensively; I want to become more dominant defensively.”

But she emphasized that focusing too much on the World Cup “doesn’t do justice to whatever team I’m on.”

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“I think every player owes it to themselves and their teams to to be the best and most authentic version of themselves, both on and off the field,” Coffey said. “And so when I think about what I need to do, it’s that — it’s just be me.”

Lloyd has watched Coffey from afar while preparing to be part of Fox’s World Cup analyst crew. She likes what she has seen.

“Sam has proven her worth with the Portland Thorns as a consistent player who isn’t always flashy, but does the dirty work and keeps things together in the center of the field,” Lloyd said. “She has come into the national scene appreciating the opportunity and never taking it for granted. … Sam is right there, and I feel she has made a good case as to what she can bring.”

In the next few days, Andonovski will announce the roster for the last U.S. games before the World Cup roster is named in the summer. If his past words are still true, Coffey should be on it. If she doesn’t make it, she’s probably out.

The potential swings of emotions make for a high-wire act with few equals in sports.

“I’m on the cusp — I can taste it,” she said. “It’s just the beginning of all of it, of all of what it might be. And if that includes going to a World Cup, that will be unbelievable; and if it doesn’t, it’s still the beginning.”

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