Abby Dahlkemper's return to the Bay means she gets to be 'Abby' - and that's more than enough

Bay FC’s acquisition of Abby Dahlkemper - a three-time NWSL Champion, four-time Shield winner, USWNT Olympic bronze medalist and World Cup-winning centerback - could prove essential to the club’s NWSL playoff push.

For Dahlkemper the move was a timely matter of the heart.

At 31, the decorated veteran defender - who’s been named to NWSL’s Best XI First Team for three seasons and was Defender of the Year in 2017 - is finally home in the Bay.

Dahlkemper is excited about the chance, telling INDIVISA that it's a rare and meaningful opportunity for an athlete to be "able to play where they grew up, where they grew up loving the game, where they fell in love with the game, where, you know, you dreamed big. And I grew up in the Bay.”

Beyond the irresistible pull of returning to Northern California, playing in front of parents, brothers, and friends - Dahlkemper says she’s had a good number of ticket requests, but that’s a good problem - the move reunites her with an old mentor, Bay FC head coach Albertin Montoya.

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2024-10-20T02:00:00.000Z02:00

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She calls Montoya "one of the best coaches in the world to me. I owe him and Erin, his wife, so much credit to help develop me, to teach me the importance of the technical, tactical views of the game, and just make me fall in love with soccer.”

Dahlkemper has known Montoya since she was 11 years old. During her time at Mountain View Los Altos Soccer Club (MVLA), Montoya coached teams and served as technical director, helping shape her technical skills.

“Having him as coach was just an added bonus to being able to play a professional sport at home and be around my family, my nieces, my brothers, mom, dad, good family friends," she says. "So really, to me, it was ultimately a no-brainer. When the Bay was interested, and it was an opportunity to go home, I just thought, 'When would this chance come again?' ”

Having watched hometown professional club FC Gold Pride - a club Albertin also managed - when she was younger, Dahlkemper knows the impact a local professional team can have on the thriving talent coming out of California.

The decorated center back from Menlo Park is finally home, after nearly a decade in NWSL playing for clubs across the country. If it’s the right choice for the player, Bay FC is well-positioned to attract local talent that want to stay local from the start.

“It's a hotbed for women's soccer,” Dahlkemper said of the Bay. “You have top universities here on the women's side, top clubs, MVLA Mustang, Stanford, Santa Clara, Cal. I mean, you obviously want to keep a talent close to home. I'm biased, but I think from the player care support, the Bay is really setting the standard for how all teams should be in the league, and it's just an honor.

"And I'm just so happy to be a part of this club… I think as much as we can try and get people, and you know, women, to stay local if they want to, it'd be amazing.”

Since moving from San Diego to the Bay, Dahlemper appeared in all four of the team’s regular season games and made an immediate impact in the starting lineup. With her calm experience leading the backline, Bay’s clocked two wins, a draw, and a hard-fought 1-0 loss at home to undefeated, first-place Orlando. That’s four solid games against teams in playoff positions. Should they keep the pace of that form, the playoffs could be in reach for the expansion team.

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With just five games to make a playoff push, Dahlkemper emphasized that they’re focused on each game, where they can feel themselves have fun, while always improving.

“We feel ourselves getting better," she says. "We feel ourselves in each and every game that we play, regardless of the result, we know we're going to be dangerous. So I think it's just fun, and [we’re] just enjoying it. I think when you're having fun, you're enjoying it, and you're just grateful to be out there. I think you're just gonna be at your best.”

Making the playoffs won’t be easy. The NWSL table is famously competitive. And while Bay currently resides one spot short of a playoff position in ninth - tied with Louisville on points but edged out on goal differential - every team could still make the playoffs. Clubs jockeying for one of eight playoff spots from sixth place (Chicago Red Stars) to eleventh place (Seattle Reign) are separated by just nine points.

After scoring in her final game for San Diego Wave on Aug. 24, Dahlkemper also contributed a goal in her first regular season game for Bay FC on Aug. 30, just seven minutes into a 3-1 win in Portland.

“I actually couldn’t believe it,” she said, adding that she was proud to help contribute to the team’s victory, describing that moment as: “everything you could dream of and more. I was just so, so happy, and really took in that moment to enjoy what had happened and what I could do to help the team.”

Dahlkemper’s contract extends through 2026. As the team’s first USWNT player and making an immediate impact so tangible from the start, it’s easy to imagine a more pronounced leadership role for the veteran defender moving forward.

But for now, Dahlkemper is focused on doing her part to help the team, and just “being Abby."

"The main thing I've been focusing on since I've been here is just focusing on being me, and knowing that that's going to be enough," she says. "I think as a center back, you have to be vocal. You can see the whole field. So naturally, you're gonna demand things of teammates in front of you and help them out. And I think the better your teammates are around you, the better you're going to be, and the better it pushes you.”

And that helps ease any pressure, allowing Dahlkemper to play within herself.

“For me, it was just kind of coming in, focusing on being Abby," she says, "and hopefully I could help the team and contribute on the field and in any way possible to get results. And hopefully I've done that. I've just tried to focus on being me and like nothing more. And I think that that's more than good enough.”