© Jon Durr-USA TODAY Sports

Monday marks the first day of the United States women’s national team without Megan Rapinoe. It remains weird to type that, let alone accept it, perhaps because Rapinoe is not really gone.

In literal terms, the talented forward is still playing – for her club, OL Reign. She has at least a few weeks left in her professional career to chase one of the few things she has not won: a National Women’s Soccer League Championship title. Winning that and paying back a club that shaped so much of her career, would be a perfect way to call time on a career. As Rapinoe has said, however, there are no perfect endings, exemplified by her missed penalty in the shootout with Sweden at the 2023 World Cup.

Rapinoe called time on a 17-year career with the United States on Sunday, ending a career that bridged generations of what was indisputably the best team on earth during her era. Summarizing Rapinoe’s entire career is a futile effort. Rapinoe’s list of on-field accomplishments runs the gambit from two World Cup titles, a Golden Ball, world’s best player, and an Olympic gold medal. Then, there is everything else that Rapinoe stood for away from soccer. Rapinoe is most proud of her off-field accomplishments “by a mile,” she said on Saturday.

Rapinoe was a vocal advocate for equality, gay and trans rights, and racial injustice. She put her career on the line for those things — literally, in 2016, when she knelt during the national anthem in solidarity with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his protests against racism and police violence. U.S. Soccer soon made a (later retracted) rule requiring all players and staff to stand for the anthem, and Rapinoe went without several call-ups during that period. Even three years later, her decision to take on President Donald Trump — and his loyal supporters — in the public light carried life-changing implications.

None of that deterred Rapinoe from standing for what she felt was just. Ahead of her final game in a U.S. jersey, Rapinoe reminisced about a lesson her mom taught her and twin sister, Rachael, in their early teens as they began finding success in soccer and gaining popularity among their peers.

“I think it’s just kind of my worldview that you have a responsibility to use whatever talent you have or whatever way you can to make the world a better place in some kind of way,” Rapinoe said.

Jon Durr-USA TODAY Sports

Megan Rapinoe said her goodbye to the United States women’s national team on Saturday, over 17 years after her debut, and the U.S. defeated South Africa 2-0 in a friendly match at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Trinity Rodman continued her hot streak with a first-half goal, emphatically volleying a cross from Alex Morgan, and Emily Sonnett added a second goal just after halftime off a rebound from Rapinoe’s corner kick.

These are three big talking points from the U.S.’ 2-0 victory, a second over South Africa in four days and a second for interim coach Twila Kilgore.

Rapinoe’s fitting, joyous exit

It was no surprise that Rapinoe went for goal whenever she had the chance on Sunday. A couple of those efforts were optimistic even for her great skillset, but her final attempt – just seconds before her number went up on the board to be replaced in the 54th minute – was close enough to fool half the crowd into thinking she had scored her farewell goal.

(Photo Copyright Sam Greene, The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK)

Megan Rapinoe will play one last game for the United States women’s national team against South Africa on Sunday at Soldier Field in Chicago.

She still has at least a few weeks left in her professional career with OL Reign (we’ll get to that soon), so for now, we want to spotlight some of the biggest moments of her U.S. career, which is the reason she is so well known globally. This is a brief ode to one of the greats.

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2011 World Cup quarterfinal: The cross heard ‘round the world

The explosion in popularity of the USWNT over the past decade might never have happened without the 2011 World Cup. That tournament was the catalyst, and Rapinoe was a protagonist in the moment that sparked it all.

The U.S. made it to the 2011 final after squeaking by Brazil in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinal. The Americans got to the shootout in the first place via one of the all-time World Cup miracles: a 122nd-minute equalizer from Abby Wambach. Rapinoe delivered the cross to Wambach’s head with pinpoint accuracy.

That singular moment embodied the Americans’ never-say-die attitude and captured the attention of a nation. Rapinoe and Wambach talked about how they came home and people were congratulating them for winning the World Cup, even though they had lost to Japan in the final. Obviously, mass fandom was not yet too engaged, but the groundwork was laid for 2015 and the explosion that came four years after that.

2019: Rapinoe’s shining moment

Rapinoe is best known for the 2019 World Cup, in which she scored six goals (tied for most in the tournament) and won the Golden Ball as the best player in the tournament. Perhaps the best of those goals — or the most important — came in the semifinal against France, when she beat goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi at the near post on a smart, confident free kick that epitomized her ingenuity.

She was equally famous for her fight off the field, taking on then-U.S. President Donald Trump in a fierce public battle that put significant pressure on Rapinoe and teammates. They backed it up by winning the tournament.

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2016: The kneel

Rapinoe said on Saturday that her off-field legacy was as important as what she did on the field, which included two World Cup triumphs. Her decision to kneel for the national anthem in 2016 put her career in jeopardy. It helped further the conversation around social injustices in the United States, and it forced some hard conversations within U.S. Soccer.

After initial pushback from the federation — and even a new rule, later redacted, that all U.S. Soccer personnel must stand for the anthem — the federation became more open to the women’s national team’s push for systemic societal changes. Part of that change of tune had to do with a battle around equal pay that the federation was losing in the court of public opinion. Rapinoe was a leading figure in that, too.

2012 Olympic semifinal: The Olimpico

One of Rapinoe’s most famous goals came against rival Canada in the most ridiculously entertaining game the teams have ever contested. Rapinoe scored directly off a corner kick — an Olimpico — as part of a controversial, back-and-forth affair that the U.S. eventually won 4-3 in extra time behind a 123rd-minute goal from Alex Morgan.

Rapinoe would repeat the Olimpico nine years later at the Tokyo Games. She is believed to be the only player to have scored Olimpicos at two different Games. Audacious.