As the U.S. women’s national team began training at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground ahead of Saturday’s SheBelieves Cup semifinal match against Japan, one couldn’t help but reflect on the Atlanta soccer landscape during Emily Sonnett’s last trip there with the USWNT in 2016.
The Georgia Dome was reaching the end of its lifespan ahead of the construction and planned opening of Mercedes-Benz Stadium next door. Metro Atlanta probably wasn’t on the short list of destinations for a U.S. Soccer national training center and headquarters. World Cup matches, much less Copa America matches, in the city were a dream.
Not to mention Atlanta United was six months out from kicking a ball. In 2016, expecting an MLS team in the South to routinely draw crowds of over 40,000, or sometimes over 70,000? Not a chance.
But here we are.
“Did I think it was going to be that way? I’m not sure, but I cannot believe how much it was capitalized on,” Sonnett said shortly after the USWNT began its initial training session on Tuesday morning just 15 minutes from her parents’ home in her native Marietta.
Scarves and Spikes will be at Nest on Four on Saturday, April 6, at 6:30 p.m. after the Canada-Brazil SheBelieves Cup semifinal! Join us as we look back at the day’s action at the Benz and look ahead to Atlanta United’s away match at NYCFC. See you there!
SheBelieves Cup is part of a long arc of international soccer events set to take place in the area over the next several years. A star-studded Copa America hosted by the United States will see Lionel Messi’s Argentina raise the curtain against Canada in Atlanta on June 20, with the U.S. men’s national team facing Panama there a week later for its first appearance in the city since 2015. Atlanta will also host eight World Cup matches, including a semifinal, in 2026, and could host FIFA Club World Cup matches in 2025, as well as Women’s World Cup matches in 2027 should the U.S./Mexican joint bid win approval.
Then, of course, is the arrival of U.S. Soccer’s national training center and headquarters, which will break ground on Monday south of town at Trilith, much to the pleasure of an “obviously biased” Sonnett.
“I thought, ‘Will I be old enough to use it?’,” she joked when asked about her reaction to U.S. Soccer’s decision.
Atlanta’s rise in the soccer ranks was probably out of the realm of the imagination of a younger Sonnett, who grew up playing with her twin sister, Emma, with the North Atlanta Soccer Association. The sport made for some fond memories, along with the building of lasting friendships.
There was also those famously hot Georgia days.
“I think at a state cup, just being so incredibly hot down in Columbus,” she recalled. “Heat probably set me up for success. I don’t know why, but I feel really fit from that.”
That success has been wide ranging. the 30-year-old was a 2nd-half substitute during the USWNT’s last visit to Atlanta, a friendly against the Netherlands at the Georgia Dome in September 2016. With that appearance coming just short of a year after her senior national team debut against Brazil in October 2015, she’s now a mainstay in the national setup: 88 caps plus a Women’s World Cup victory in 2019, on top of a club career that includes 2 NWSL titles. She’ll hope to make it three this season at NJ/NY Gotham FC, who’s built something of a super team to strengthen a 2023 championship roster.
One piece of the puzzle is missing: an Olympic gold medal. It helps that the three other teams in this year’s SheBelieves field will be in the 2024 Games this summer as the U.S. seeks Olympic gold for the first time since 2012.
“This has always been a tournament that we build on. How can we prepare for those big moments, for World Cups, for Olympics?” Sonnett said. “Having these teams in and being able to play high-quality, obviously with new players in to kind of understand what that tastes like, to have a tournament and to kind of get into tournament mode again after Gold Cup, and then now this, and then obviously Olympics coming around the corner, it’s going to be huge for our development.”
As for what she’s told her teammates when asked about Atlanta hot-spots? Muchacho in Reynoldstown is a go-to, along with Little Tart Bakeshop in Grant Park.
There are a couple of other very important details, as well.
“I told them it’s usually hot and the pollen count’s pretty high. I think they’re noticing that a little bit,” she added wryly.
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