What The Heart Wants

Three's Not A Crowd

Ali landed in Philadelphia and went down to street level to collect her luggage from baggage claim. After retrieving her bags, she went over to Terminal D to wait for Steph's flight to arrive from Toronto. She scrolled through her Facebook and Twitter feeds in order to catch up on the run-up to tonight's game in San Jose. Rumors had it that Ashlyn would be getting the start ahead of Jane, primarily because there was fear that another protest was possible and Jill didn't want to risk having her on the field since she and Andi were a known quantity in the Bay Area. Jill chose to scratch both Sam and Abby as well as Emily because of safety concerns. Due to this, the starting lineup and subs were announced much earlier than normal.

United States: Harris; O'Hara, Long, Sauerbrunn (c), Hinkle; Brian, Ertz, Horan; Dunn, Leroux, Rapinoe.

Subs: Campbell; Huerta, Short; Lavelle, Lloyd; Morgan, Press.

Ali read through the lines and saw that Jill was making SOME attempt to lessen the potential for a second battle between her players and a small minority of fans who have made an issue of players being out and publicly acknowledging their partners. A few fans came through the D/E baggage claim and recognized Ali from the large Hearts banner located over one of the baggage carousels. She signed some autographs and posed for pictures with them while keeping an eye on the escalator for her teammate. After a few more minutes, she saw Steph coming down to baggage claim and beamed brightly. She waited for her to approach her and then embraced the goalkeeper tightly, sinking into the taller woman's arms. The pair stood there for a few minutes like this, neither one wanting to loosen or break away from the arms surrounding them. Ali noticed a mother and daughter looking at them and whispered to Steph, "I think we're being watched." With that, the two broke their hug and turned to look at the on-lookers.

Sarah (12-year-old fan): That's not Ashlyn!

Julie (Sarah's mom, to Ali): Excuse my daughter's comment. She gets her ideas about soccer players' private lives from her friends and fanfics. I hope she didn't insult you or your friend.

Ali: I wasn't, and I'm sure Steph wasn't as well.

Sarah: Why were you hugging her like that?

Ali: Because she is my friend and I missed her. We hadn't seen each other in a while. I also was congratulating her on her team beating the US on Thursday night.

Julie: We stayed up and watched the game since Sarah was off school on Friday. As much as we wanted the US to win, Canada played a very good game. Their goalkeeper was outstanding. I just wish my son had been able to see it live. He ended up watching it on our DVR Friday afternoon after school. He's a goalie and was impressed with how expressive Canada's keeper was in getting their crowd into the match, something that he likes to do as well when he and his defense make significant stops or after their team scores. That atmosphere in Vancouver was something else, at least from what I could grasp from my couch.

Steph: It was pretty special playing in front of such a large home crowd that brought literally every ounce of passion and fandom to helping us from the stands to see out the victory against a very good offensive team in the Americans.

Julie: Did you play on Thursday night?

Steph: Yes, I did. I'm sure I probably look a bit different today in my traveling togs than I did in my national team uniform on Thursday night, and television doesn't usually get a whole lot of close-ups of goalkeepers except after a big save or when they're taking goal kicks.

Julie: God I wish Connor were with us today so he could have met you. So what has the two of you in Philadelphia?

Sarah noticed the banner hanging from the ceiling and pointed it out to her mom.