International Superstardom, Soccer and the Gibson Connection

Women's Soccer | 5/24/2016 1:41:00 PM

POCATELLO, Idaho – Early this June, the United States and Japan women's national soccer teams will meet for a couple of friendlies before the USWNT gears up for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Idaho State Head Coach Allison Gibson will be in attendance, and given her ties to both the U.S. and Japan soccer circuits it will serve as a major reunion with several of her counterparts from both countries. Not to mention it's the first time the teams have met since the U.S. defeated Japan 5-2 in the World Cup finals last July in Vancouver, Canada. So to put it simply, it's going to be a pretty good game.

The American and Japanese squads have developed a bit of a rivalry in the past five years, meeting in two consecutive World Cup finals in addition to a 2012 matchup in the gold medal game of the London Olympics. Japan claimed victories in the 2011 World Cup final and the 2012 Olympics; the U.S. of course won the 2015 World Cup. It's become one of the best matchups in women's soccer history, and the rivalry illustrates just how far women's soccer has come in the past 20 years. It has entered an age where 18,000-seat friendlies sell out in 10 minutes and players are international superstars.

Americans are more likely to identify with the big names of today's U.S. women's team: Alex Morgan, Hope Solo and recently retired Abby Wambach, but for those familiar with international soccer, no one is more recognizable or well-known than Sawa.

Homare Sawa has been a fixture in international women's soccer since her debut in 1993. She's been part of a record six World Cups and four Olympic games and was named the 2011 FIFA World Player of the Year. She earned the 2011 World Cup Golden Boot and MVP awards after captaining the Japanese squad that won it all in Germany.  She's played professionally in both the United States and Japan, and she holds the Japanese record for international appearances with 205 and goals with 83. Simply put, she's one of the very best to ever play the game.

Gibson first met Sawa in Japan in 1996. Both Gibson and Sawa were part of the 10-team Japanese professional women's soccer league, the L-League. Though they played on different teams, (Gibson played for Fujita Mercury and Sawa for Yomiuri), both frequented the Odakyu Sagamihara train station; Gibson resided there and Sawa often visited shared mutual friends. Meeting each other was inevitable, whether on the pitch or on the street.

"There were 10 teams in the league, and two were based in Tokyo: my team and Sawa's team," Gibson said. "Dayna Smith and Natalie Neaton (acquaintances of Gibson) played on Sawa's team, and we all lived at the same train station. Sawa and Natalie were good friends, so that's how we met. We all hung out all the time."

Gibson has shared the field with quite a few of the top players in women's soccer. She played alongside Brandi Chastain for the then Sacramento Storm (now the California Storm) under current Santa Clara women's soccer Head Coach Jerry Smith. Julie Foudy, another trailblazer in U.S. women's soccer, also played with Gibson on the Storm. But no one had an impact on Gibson comparable to that of Sawa.

"I think that was probably the thing that drew me to her the most was her infectious passion for the game that we all love," Gibson said. "Watching her play, playing against her, training with her…when you're on her team, you find yourself automatically better within that hour of training. It makes you want to be better; it raises your level and you're having fun. She has affected the game on a global level with that passion."

Following her three-year stint playing professionally in Japan, Gibson returned to the United States in January of 1999. However, that wasn't the end of her friendship with Sawa but rather the beginning. Sawa competed in the 1999 World Cup, hosted by the United States, and following Japan's elimination after group stage play Sawa moved to Denver, Colo. to reunite with Gibson.

Gibson and Sawa roomed together (along with Gibson's former teammate Noshiroya Megumi) for two years in The Mile High City coaching the Colorado Rush, a U-17 club team, and playing for the Denver Diamonds. The Denver Diamonds were part of the W-League, the highest amateur league prior to the creation of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), the first women's professional soccer league, in 2001.

With the formation of the first-ever women's professional soccer league in the United States, both Gibson and Sawa had the opportunity to continue their professional careers after a nearly two-year hiatus. Sawa was part of a group of national and international players initially drafted for the league; Gibson meanwhile was part of a larger group of nearly 200 invited to Florida to try out for the remaining 120 rosters spots in the league. They trained for hours at the Millennium Soccer School, a small indoor facility in the shadow of Denver, prepping for the opportunity to play in the league.

 "I was on that list – the invite-only list – so we were training together for that," Gibson said. "The combine featured 200 invite-only players, and they drafted around 120 out of that for the whole league. And that is where my professional career ended, sad to say. That's when coaching really kicked in."

Gibson accepted a position as an assistant coach at the University of San Francisco in the West Coast Conference and spent five years with the Dons while simultaneously coaching for the Olympic Development Program. Meanwhile, Sawa was drafted to the Atlanta Beat and played for three seasons under Tom Stone, the previous director of the Colorado Rush club team. Sawa was a dominant figure on the Beat, scoring the club's first-ever goal and helping the team to three-straight playoff runs.

Between 2003, when the WUSA folded and Sawa returned to Japan to play professionally for NTV Beleza, and today, Gibson and Sawa remained close friends. The two have communicated regularly via the LINE messaging app and have made the effort to see each other, meeting several times in various locations around the world. Gibson has watched as Sawa's soccer career exploded and consequently, as she was catapulted into international celebrity status.

"In 2011, she was everything," Gibson said. "She was MVP of the World Cup and FIFA World Player of the Year with [Lionel] Messi. Her world couldn't get any bigger; she was named the best soccer player in the world."

And being the best soccer player in the world tends to attract attention.

"Seeing her in Vancouver, this last summer, we went out three different times and [the attention] was nonstop," Gibson said. "Literally nonstop. When I was [in Japan] five years ago, we couldn't go anywhere that she wasn't recognized. People were running out into the street to take pictures of her. She even had a hat and sunglasses on… I had never experienced anything like that with someone, ever. It was super bothersome. Sawa told me, 'It sucks. There's nothing fun about it.'"

However, being friends with one of the best soccer players in the world also has its perks, especially for Gibson who has made her living as a soccer coach. Aside from the support of Sawa as a friend, Gibson acknowledges how beneficial it's been to have Sawa as a coaching resource.

"I'll get training sessions from her and ask what she's focusing on," Gibson said. "I love Japanese-style soccer so much that I'm constantly picking her brain for things. I have sheets and sheets of sessions that she's sent me. I've taken a lot of that from her, which is super cool."

And of course, Gibson has also benefitted from some of the amenities afforded to those of Sawa's status, like prime seats to the 2015 World Cup finals or an authentic signed jersey from one of Sawa's final games. Not to mention a week vacation to Hawaii.

"When she was named the FIFA World Player of the Year, the JFA [Japanese Football Association] wanted to send her to Hawaii," Gibson said. "Just things like that where she asks, 'Do you want to come?'. It was a week in Hawaii, just hanging out and training. We ran every day on the beach and had the chance to catch up, share those moments and celebrate her victories."

Regardless of Sawa's professional soccer accomplishments or international celebrity status, Gibson's invested interests in their friendship have never wavered or wandered.

 

"I think that I remind her of the humility of family and friendship, and how I don't want anything from her," Gibson said. "I just want her happiness, and I want her well-being. Being friends for almost 20 years, I think that's come back around.  I think that's what she's drawn to because now, you can see it in her life: everyone wants something from her. I think that I remind her of the roots of where all this came from."

As the June 2 friendly match between the U.S. and Japan nears, both Sawa and Gibson will be returning to where both of their careers essentially began: Denver.

"[Sawa] was already playing professionally in Japan but really the start of her professional career and the start of my coaching career [happened in Denver]," Gibson said. "I think it'll be cool that all the pieces are reuniting there, even with Dayna [Smith], Natalie [Neaton] and some of the kids we coached and the U.S. and Japan being there…I guess it just gives you a chance to stop and reflect on what the last 17 years have brought all of us. Like, wow, all that has happened in that time since we were both there."

The trip back will serve as more than just a simple reunion. The television company that Sawa works as a soccer commentator for has requested Gibson's presence and cooperation in helping to tell the story of their lives together in Denver almost 20 years ago. Gibson's interview and account of their time in Denver will serve as part of a documentary about Sawa's life and early career. They'll visit the house where Sawa and Gibson lived, the training facility and stadium where they spent most of their days and other memorable places along the way. And of course, they'll watch some soccer.