CRYSTAL DUNN

You always have to prove yourself. I always thought I had to go beyond things to get great grades. When I was applying for college, even though I knew I was going to play soccer, I always knew I had to do something above and beyond and not give anyone a reason not to overlook me.

In training when I'm receiving the ball I always know where I want to go. At the end of the day it's just soccer.

I like to be on the pitch, I like to perform and impact the game.

It's a lot for me, as well, to feel like I'm at my best, because if I am playing multiple positions, I can't develop. I personally feel like I don't ever achieve what I want to achieve being thrown around.

For me, it's about controlling what I can control. I can't control where I'm going to be put on the pitch. I can only control my effort and my ability to embrace anything thrown at me.

I think I'm always learning, I'm always trying to be at my best.

I played on many a team where I was the only black girl.

As a player you need to make whatever decision you think is best for your career.

As a black woman I always felt growing up I had to do above and beyond stuff to be noticed, to feel like I could hang with everybody else.

I feel like I am definitely an attacking player. I don't really know where specifically that is, whether it's centrally or out wide. I do feel like I just naturally have a mindset to go to goal or create goals or things like that.

The thing that made it so hard to get that call from Jill Ellis in 2015, letting me know I wouldn't be at the World Cup, was that I felt like I'd lost what I love most about putting on the U.S. kit: representation.

It's a stereotype that black players are just really fast, but at the end of day I want to be skilled, I want to be technical, I want to have vision and that's what I've always tried to promote in my game: not relying on one thing but just being able to outwork players in so many different ways.

I remember when I was in college, my junior year NWSL was not a thing and my senior year, it started up and I had a place to play now. It's really great that it's been able to be stable for these last seven years and we can always continue to push for more growth.

It's kind of interesting on a team sport because you have young players, you have older players, you have veterans. But ultimately, when you step in between those lines, you're just a player.

Especially going from an attacking player to a defensive player, your whole mindset has to change. You have to work on one-v-one defending versus one-v-one attacking.

People are so surprised about how small I am compared to other players.

If I didn't have quads and hamstrings, soccer would be a lot different for me than it is now. I would be pushed all over the field. My lower body is something that has made me the player I am today, and it makes me feel strong.

I remember when I was young, before we started lifting and working out, I looked like I was bench-pressing other humans. I looked different than other girls. I had to be OK with the fact that I had a strong physique, no matter if people looked at me in an accepting way or not.

My first hero was Serena Williams. No contest.

Being a player that plays multiple positions, that's my mindset every single day because I don't have the luxury of just being really good at one thing.

The World Cup is a really long tournament, so you have to prepare for whatever.

It's Megan Rapinoe, If there's no drama, there's no fun.

I went to high school in Rockville Center on Long Island. It's this small, soccer-loving town that my parents moved to, from Queens, before my brother and I were born.

If I focus on the short-term goals, then the long-term goals are going to be in my favor.

In the early stages, when I realized I was going to be probably the shortest player on the teams I was on, it was hard. I felt like girls were getting recruited over me strictly because of their height, and it made me self-conscious.