Canales Daily: Lightning-fast Rod

By Andrea Canales

Birds gotta fly and fish gotta swim. For her part, Amy Rodriguez was born to play soccer. She was a natural from a young age, and a star at youth national team levels all the way to the highly competitive U.S. women's senior team, where she debuted in 2005 at the tender age of 18.

Yet three years later, Rodriguez only had a handful of caps. She'd been busy with her college team, for one thing, leading USC to their first NCAA championship. That experience had recharged the natural drive of the competitive forward and spurred her to make a fateful decision.

Rodriguez stepped away from the university fields where she'd recently been so successful. She left school for most of 2008. With nothing other than a national team camp invite to hang her hopes on, she decided to focus all her considerable energy on making the women's national team.

The task was more difficult partly because the system that was then in place for the U.S. women was a fulltime residency camp. In other words, players were already getting paid to focus on their national team jobs, and quite a few of them were proven forwards. The previous coach, Greg Ryan, had geared the entire team to the skills of one attacker in particular. Abby Wambach was powerful in the air, yet able to also turn on defenders to unleash strong shots. In many ways, the target forward was the polar opposite of Rodriguez.

But there was a reason why Ryan was no longer coaching the squad, and new guide Pia Sundhage was willing to look at fresh talent.  Rodriquez gambled that complete concentration on soccer would push her forward, allow her to adjust to the jump in level to the international game and get her on that Olympic squad.

Yet it was a bet that Rodriguez made knowing she had an ace up her sleeve. What she lacked in size she compensated for in blink-and-you-missed-her-quickness. Rodriguez, however, wasn't some track athlete on the field, lost with the ball at her feet. She was fast, sure, but that was bundled with a controlling touch on the dribble and an excellent sense of when to pass versus attack on her own. With an ever-improving final shot, Rodriguez was the complete package of a nice alternate to Wambach.

Then Wambach broke her leg just before the Olympics began and Rodriguez was no longer Plan B.

Of course, the ending payout of the choice that Rodriguez made is well known by now. A-Rod, as she is called, not only made the Olympic team, but also scored in the tournament, and crucially, provided the assist on the winning goal during the epic final versus Brazil.

"It was totally worth it, and I've got the gold medal to prove it," Rodriguez said, looking back on her magical year. "It was a hard decision, but I'm glad I made it."

Any attacking player knows that sometimes chances only come once a game, and if one hesitates, that opportunity may be gone forever.

Rodriguez, who had always been a top student, credited the freedom her time off from classes gave her to train exclusively and intensely.

"It was easy for me to focus on soccer, because I didn't have the school aspect," said Rodriguez. "I put all my attention towards soccer and it worked out for me."

After the Olympics, she returned to school. Now Rodriguez is likely to be the top pick from the university ranks when she enters the inaugural college draft of the new Women's Professional Soccer league.

Somewhat surprisingly for someone who was earlier determined to influence her own destiny, Rodriguez seemed carefree about where she might play professionally.

"I'm very open to the idea of going anywhere," Rodriguez asserted.

What the offensive sparkplug wanted more than anything was to keep firing.

"As long as I'm getting some action, I'm pretty content," Rodriguez claimed.

The sacrifice and the gamble Rodriguez made on herself in 2008 came back to her in abundance. It's not surprising she was satisfied with her year. One lesson Rodriguez took from her experience wasn't one she'd soon forget.

"If you take a big risk, you can get a big payoff."

--Andrea Canales is Chief Editor of Goal.com USA