Don’t Overlook Lynn Williams Ahead of the World Cup

Lynn Williams is on a tear—and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Hitting her stride with her new NWSL club Gotham FC, Williams is making a compelling case for herself ahead of this summer’s World Cup. The star forward has six goals in 11 games (tied for second in the league), and with U.S. women’s national team coach Vlatko Andonovski emphasizing club performance in his roster decisions, it’s hard to imagine Williams missing the team’s July trip to Austria and New Zealand.

Her impeccable form follows a surprise trade from Kansas City to New York/New Jersey ahead of the 2023 NWSL season (Gotham FC traded for Williams during the 2023 NWSL draft) and comes on the heels of a complex hamstring injury that sidelined Williams for nearly all of ’22. But Gotham FC has proved to be a perfect home for Williams, with the club seemingly entrusting the league veteran with the keys to the squad’s offense.

“I feel like I have the freedom to see what I see on the field and the trust that I am going to make the right decision and the trust that I am going to put the ball in the back of the net,” says Williams. “I think as a player all you want is your teammates and your coach to trust you.”

Drafted in 2015, Williams is an NWSL vet. But this is the first regular season she’s playing with a team other than the Courage (previously the New York Flash) as she was injured during the preseason Challenge Cup with the Current. In her seven seasons in the league, she has been an MVP, a Golden Boot winner and has three NWSL championships to her name. And she recently passed Canadian superstar Christine Sinclair on the all-time goalscorers list, now behind only Australia’s Sam Kerr.

And yet, Williams is somehow still underrated, only making her first major tournament appearance with the USWNT at the Tokyo Olympics—originally joining the squad as an alternate before rosters were expanded.

“I feel like what’s got me here and what’s got me to this point is feeling like I am overlooked all the time,” says Williams, “and I don't know if that’s always the best way to play, but I feel like that is one of the reasons why I’ve gotten where I am and so people can just continue to doubt me.

“I feel like a lot of people are like, She’s only fast, and I am like, well, I’ve scored a lot of goals for only being fast.”

Williams’s persistent mindset is hard-won, having managed several major injuries throughout her time as a soccer player, experiences she says actually helped her clear this latest hurdle. While the specific type of hamstring injury she dealt with was foreign to her, the rehab process—and all that comes with it—was not.

Her nearly year away from the sport shifted her perspective. Williams’s fondness for the game only grew as her absence from the pitch wore on, blanketing her comeback with a certain level of gratitude.

“I think the past couple of years have been tough,” says Williams. “The trade, and not expecting the trade, but it ended up being something amazing. And then going through my hamstring injury, I really think I put my head down and grinded and gave myself the best shot to be the best Lynn I could be.”

The Tokyo Games were a turning point for Williams—and an opportunity to quiet those doubters—when she earned a start for the USWNT’s quarterfinal matchup against the Netherlands, despite initially being brought to Japan as an alternate. It took only 28 minutes for Williams to make her mark, lofting a stellar assist to midfielder Sam Mewis for the team’s breakthrough goal, then just three minutes later, she scored a goal of her own. Without her heroics, it's hard to imagine a struggling USWNT making the podium at all, let alone going on their bronze-medal run.

“It more solidified something that I had already known inside myself,” Williams says. “It was more like, ‘Of course, I did this. I knew I could do this already.’”

The seasoned striker has had an up-and-down journey with the national team, notching her first cap in 2016 (in true Williams fashion she scored). She has emerged as a cornerstone on the front line under Andonovski, critical to the team’s high press and goal-scoring effort. But she wasn’t always a USWNT mainstay; under coach Jill Ellis, she struggled to make a name for herself. She was one of the players on the chopping block for the 2019 World Cup roster, earning her last call-up in April 2018, seemingly sealing her fate ahead of the major tournament cycle. Missing out on the World Cup hit Williams hard, though she could recognize where things went wrong. And when she noticed a similar mental roadblock during the run-up to Tokyo, Williams was determined to switch her approach.

“With the Olympics, I recognized that I was kind of in the same cycle and the same rut, and doing the same thing that I was when I got cut from the [2019 World Cup] team where it was like, I wanted something so bad that I was gripping onto it so tightly and watching it slip away,” says Wiliams. “And in that moment I realized, Oh my gosh I am doing the same thing, I need to go talk to a sports psychologist because I am clearly not equipped to handle this myself.”

Without her sports psych, she isn’t sure she would’ve been able to step on the field in Japan at all. A key part of the work they did together was loosening Williams's grip, encouraging her to play with more freedom. “I’ve always noticed anytime I am playing with joy, I play my best,” says Williams. “Anytime I feel uptight and feel like I have pressure on myself, I am not playing that well.”

Williams’s renewed ethos has paid dividends on the pitch. She attributes her form to feeling empowered to try things on the field, (helped by her weekly, or sometimes bi-weekly meeting with her sports psychologist) playing with the liberty to give it 100%, rather than going out rigid or bound by anxiety.

Her robust mindset is certainly being put to the test as she stares down what could be the most pivotal stretch of her career. Williams is committing to staying present though, and most importantly, keeping things in perspective. Soccer is what she does, not who she is, says Williams. Being cut from the 2019 World Cup roster stung, but life went on, and “there were so many other beautiful parts about it.”

Outside of soccer, Williams is currently enjoying making a hit podcast—Just Women’s Sports’ Snacks— with her best friend and former teammate Mewis. She’s gotten more comfortable sharing more of herself with listeners (something she says has taken time), even opening up about her recent engagement to longtime partner Marley Biyendolo on the podcast. Life is good for Williams right now—on and off the pitch —and she wants to revel in it all, no matter how large the next chapter looms.

“I obviously want to make the World Cup team, and that would be incredible, but I think that when we start looking too far ahead, we miss all of the little moments that could help us get there and we forget about this journey,” says Williams.

“If I think about the World Cup, then I might not get there because I have stressed myself out, I probably didn’t play my best, I got caught up in all the bad mistouches that I’ve done, and all the goals I should've scored and the bad games I’ve had.”

Williams's goal is clear: to make the summer’s World Cup squad and serve the team to the best of her ability. But this time she’s enjoying the ride.