Lynn Williams is on a roll.
The Gotham FC star forward, 30, just signed a three-year contract with her NWSL team and recently got engaged. And on Wednesday, it was announced that she has made the U.S. 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup roster!
When she found out about the latter, there were plenty of happy tears for the California native, who overcame a major injury last year to claim a spot on her first World Cup team.
“Last April, I tore my hamstring tendon off the bone, and had to have surgery for that,” Williams tells. “It was pretty devastating timing. I knew that the World Cup was coming up the next year, I know the frontline competition in the U.S. is incredible, and I was gonna be missing an entire year.”
She continues, “So my initial reaction to that was like, holy s—. Like, I don’t know if I could, if I’m gonna be able to make it back, I can’t believe this is happening. And I knew that it was gonna take at least a year for me to get back to feeling some semblance of myself, just because I’ve had injuries before. So I already knew all these things and, when I was coming back, I just said, ‘I’m gonna pour my everything into this and, and then hope to God it works out.’”
The 23-player roster, announced Wednesday morning, also includes Williams’ Gotham teammates Kristie Mewis, 32, and Kelley O’Hara, 34. O’Hara will be making her fourth World Cup appearance.
Williams says the team is full of first-timers like herself.
“It’s a much younger roster,” says Williams, who competed as an alternate in the Tokyo Olympics. “So we’re definitely gonna have to lean on [the veterans] heavily for their experience and their guidance, but also at the same time, we, the players that haven’t been at a World Cup before, really need to step up and just give everything to the team and what the team needs in that moment.”
The Pepperdine alum injured her hamstring during her first game on the Kansas City Current last year. After being traded to Gotham in January, she has had a standout first season.
Her savvy play has earned her plenty of fans. In March, she injured her arm during her Gotham debut and returned minutes later wearing a 90-degree splint — and then made the game-winning goal.
“I need my legs to play soccer, not my arms,” she said after the game.
This week, she signed a multi-year contract through 2026. She says she likes being in the New York City area because it gives her a bigger platform to showcase her many talents.
“I felt like Gotham is a perfect place,” she says. “Obviously as a forward, when you’re scoring, it’s very nice to do that, but I also think that what makes me on the national team is my ability just to defend in close space. And I didn’t wanna lose that.”
She adds, “I think the hardest part of the game is scoring. So I think that if I put myself in a good position to do that … But anytime I lose the ball, I’m gonna get it back. Anytime my team loses the ball, I’m gonna do my best effort to get it back as well.