Abby Wambach's Tribute To Alex Morgan is a Must Watch 🙌🥹

For the first time since her record-breaking move to Europe, Alyssa Thompson is back on home soil and representing the Stars and Stripes as the U.S. Women's National Team takes on Portugal. The Chelsea forward is a key piece of the American's future, but tonight we begin by honoring a recently retired striker who hangs up her boots as one of the best. What a career she has had. I'm Abby Wambach and these are my 13 favorite things about Alex Morgan. Number one, Alex Morgan is a fierce competitor. Alex Morgan is lightning fast. Getaway speed is what I called it. Morgan with this great speed. Did anyone beat Alex in sprints? I probably beat her once or something. Alex Morgan is so much stronger than you think. She used her power and privilege for good. Specifically, our Women's National Team equal pay deal. It is a huge win for us, for women's sports, for women in general. Number six, let's get you one now. Our inside joke. When I scored, I would go over and give her a high five and I'd be like, all right, let's get you one now. And then almost always I would end up scoring again or vice versa. She'd say, let's get you a goal and then Alex would score again. Eventually it got to the point where she'd say, no, don't say that. Don't. When Alex Morgan made a run, what she was implying was, I believe you can get it to me. It was Alex's vote of confidence in the ball carrier. Alex Morgan made us raise all of our level of play. We have been known as America's favorite soccer team, but from here on out, we'll just be known as America's team. She loved the game, the grind and the process. There were often times when we were running fitness and her face was just fine. And I was suffering. She gallops all over the field at such great pace. Alex Morgan doesn't just talk the talk. She walks walk. In her retirement, she's still investing in the growth of women's sports. Number 11, Alex Morgan is a true love of my life. When she scored the goal against Canada in the 2012 London Olympics, I did scream in her face. I am in love with you. Alex Morgan stayed true to herself all the way through. The more famous she got, she stayed the exact same. This is advice for Alex. When your children get a little bit older and they care not about you being famous, go get the Barbie. Give it to them. Number 13, I might actually get emotional here, but Alex Morgan is a dedicated family person and loves her children and her husband. For somebody to have been as famous as she is, for the priority of her family to still be number one, it's just gold, man. And I think that that's one of the things that I love most about her. On behalf of the entire country and the U.S. soccer community, thank you for your service. You really did good, kid. Bye. Abby. Abby Wambach with those words. You look a little teary. What's going through your mind? Well, first of all, I'm wondering if that's in Abby's home, the shrine of me. And then I was looking for Abby because I think she's here and I was going to go give her a big hug. She is here milling around. So you were being honored tonight before this game. The United States is going to take on Portugal in just a little while. You're watching the AT&T pregame show. They're going to honor you. And I know that you've done this before. You've done this in San Diego already. But tonight, this is with the national team, your national team. What does this mean for you? I just have so many incredible memories with this team. I really grew up on this team and just seeing all these players out here have their normal routine, just super habitual, whatever they do running out here and doing their warm up just takes me back to all those moments that I was here. It's just it's really special to just run it back one last time. And hey, I'll take any excuse to celebrate tonight. Alex, you epitomize what it means to be a game changer. I mean, the amount of times that you saved us from going home early at big events. I mean, the ones that come to my mind are 2010. You're just a young player. We would have been out of the 2011 World Cup, 2011 France against, you know, in the semifinals. My gosh, 12. I can list so many of them. But when you look back, what are some of your favorite moments? Oh, 2012. Just winning the Olympics, you know, after defeat in 2011. And then 2015 was a special one because you, Abby, Lauren, so many incredible veterans retired after that. So getting that World Cup for you guys was special. 2019, I don't know. It's so hard. The equal pay lawsuit. Like there are so many moments. It's hard to narrow it down. When you think of all the things you have done and you think about, OK, what do I want people to talk about in terms of when they think of Alex Morgan, what do you want them to think? I think they, I would love for people to know that I was just dedicated, as dedicated on the field as off the field. And off the field that was fighting for women in sports, fighting for girls to have equal opportunity, fighting for my family, prioritizing my family, showing that I am putting my family first. Always. They're always my priority to see my children grow up and see them just flourish in San Diego. Now having a home now is incredible. But just knowing that I fought for my team on the field and I fought for my team and myself off the field. Love it. Alex, you had an incredibly impressive career on the field. Now off the field, you're continuing to impact women's soccer, women's sports and people. Talk to us more about your ventures, tribe ventures, and even motherhood and leadership, all those skill sets you had on the pitch. Now you're doing it off the pitch. Yeah, things haven't slowed down so much. I feel like through the transition over the last couple of years, I built Alex Morgan Foundation, which really gives opportunity for girls through sport and support for new moms. I started a venture fund with my husband over the last couple of years. We've invested in the San Diego Wave and a lot of other entities. I have together my media company that is five years down the road of launching. It's been so incredible and really exciting. I think it helped ease the transition more as I retired last year and was pregnant right away. And then obviously I have two kids. My weekends are very filled, going to soccer games, just doing all the things with different soccer games. Not my soccer games, Charlie's soccer games. And you even invested in Unrivaled that's aired here on TNT. And Unrivaled. There's so many fun things that I'm doing now and I get to pick and choose where I decide to put my time and my effort. I get to choose who I work with and just life is good. I can't complain. I was about to say you deserve some time off, although it doesn't sound like you have any of that going on right now. Enjoy tonight. You will be honored right before kickoff. I know there's so many familiar faces from this national team of the past here to root you on tonight one more time. And we just want to say from the TNT sports crew and Powerade, congratulations once again to you, Alex. Congratulations, Alex. Thank you. Hi, there she is. Pink headbands for everyone. We're going to let Abby and Alex catch up. By the way, incredible open to our show by this woman right here. An incredible way to honor Alex and the tributes keep pouring in. So as we go to break here on this AT&T pregame show, Alex has been a role model to so many here in this stadium. So many players still playing, including this very new mother. Alex is my idol still. I mean, I grew up watching her and looking up to her. One of the best parts of my career was getting to play alongside of her and learn from her in so many ways. I'm most grateful for our relationship off the field. How much she's taught me and getting to watch her become a mom and still continue her career and showing me and the world that you can do both. You can be the greatest mom and still play soccer at a high level and continue with your career. And filming this with my daughter here, I honestly knew that it was possible because I watched Alex do it. And I'm so grateful for her and for the relationship that we have and for everything that she's done for women in sports and just in general.