Ella Masar added to senior national team

Ella Masar had just finished a practice on October 15 with one of the youth soccer teams she coaches when she noticed a mysterious incoming call on her cell phone. 

"Who could this possibly be?" Masar wondered.
 
Good thing she answered. The caller was none other than Pia Sundhage, coach of the USA women's national soccer team, and the conversation went pretty much like this:
 
Sundhage: "Are you healthy?"
 
Masar: "Yes," Masar answered.
 
Sundhage: "Are you in good shape?"
 
Masar: "Always."
 
Then came the zinger. Sundhage asked: "How would you like to join the national team for a game in Germany?"
 
Just like that, Masar, a forward for the Chicago Red Stars of the Women's Professional Soccer League and a former star for the USA U-23 and U-21 teams was headed to Berlin for a week-long camp.

She'll be seeking her first cap with the senior national team when they meet two-time Women's World Cup champion Germany in a friendly Thursday at Impuls Arena in Augsburg, Germany.
 
Masar was one of two late additions to the team, the result of midfielder Angela Hucles' retirement from the national team and a knee injury suffered by midfielder Megan Rapinoe, also a Red Stars player. Kacey White, a midfielder for WPS champion Sky Blue FC, was the other replacement. Masar is one of just three forwards on the team.
 
Team USA-gold medalists at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and unbeaten in seven games this year-will play in Germany for the first time since 2000, when it defeated the Germans, 1-0. The game in Augsburg will be played at a stadium which will be one of nine venues used by Germany in 2011 when it plays host to the Women's World Cup.
 
To get the call was a "dream," Masar says.
 
In fact, it was more than that. Masar is an up-and-coming star, just two years out of college, who has always hoped to someday put on the red, white and blue of Team USA.
 
"If I play, that'll be my dream come true," said Masar, 23. "I think every girl that wants to take soccer seriously dreams of putting on their (USA) jersey with your name on the back."
 
"We're all so happy for her," said Red Stars head coach Emma Hayes, who talked with Sundhage through the entire decision process and is certainly in position to do so, considering the Red Stars have six 2008 Olympians on their roster.
 
If there is one player who'll be floating through the air on game night, it'll be Masar, who describes the deep, even teary, emotions of her first international experience with the national team on her personal blog (find it at chicagoredstars.com).

Masar grew up in Urbana, Ill., and played at her hometown university, the University of Illinois. A former Big Ten Conference Offensive Player of the Year and two-time All-American, Masar still talks with Illini coach Janet Rayfield on a weekly basis, and credits Rayfield for much of her success. She is the first women's soccer player from Illinois to be placed on the national team, a fact Masar wasn't aware of until recently when she was informed by a reporter.
 
"Oh, really?" Masar said.
 
"It's great news for her," Rayfield said. "It's great news for our program. We're very proud of what she's accomplished here.
 
"She has incredible physical qualities in terms of her explosiveness, coupled with her work ethic and desire to make the most of that gift."
 
Said Masar: "I definitely would not be where I am, no matter how hard I worked, without Janet constantly pushing me."
 
Masar was so dominant in high school that she scored a school-record 92 career goals and a school-record 40 goals in one season at Urbana High School. Her popularity remains so high that she was the school's commencement speaker this year. It is common for Urbana residents and Illini fans to be screaming for her at Chicago Red Stars games, to say nothing of the girls on the U-17 and U-10 teams she coaches.
 
"She's very well liked by her teammates," Hayes said. "She's very popular among our fans. Illinois bred and playing. She takes great pride in that."
 
Rayfield remembers going to Urbana High School games during the recruiting process and people telling Rayfield, "Oh, she's like a second daughter."
 
"People in the community recognize her for her athletic prowess, but also for the human being she is," Rayfield said.
 
But can she play world-class soccer?
 
All of Masar's current and former coaches are in agreement about that; otherwise, Sundhage never would have gotten a green light from Hayes. The Red Stars coach expects Masar to be a face on the national team for years to come.
 
"Her commitment in training, day in and day out, is second to none," Hayes said.
 
Just last year, Masar scored twice in the USA U-23 team's 3-0 win over Germany in the championship game of the Nordic Cup. She previously played on the U-21 team, which won the Nordic Cup in 2007. At the Little Illini Soccer Club, Masar led her team to a 51-3-4 record over two years.
 
And then there was her first camp with the women's national team this past January.
 
"At that camp, I broke my nose, I got the 24-hour flu. It can't get much worse than that," Masar said.
 
So when that cell phone call came one October afternoon, imagine Masar's surprise.

And her joy.
 
"I really didn't expect to get called back in, to be honest with you, because I didn't really have the best pro career my first season," Masar said. "I was just training a lot now, saying, 'I've got to get to March, got to get to April, doing the things I need to do, training with the Red Stars.'
 
"I guess God was in favor because I got the call and I feel like I'm ready to perform. I know I couldn't do anything else the last two months to get me here, better than I'm prepared now."
 
And already, Masar has high hopes for the World Cup team in 2011 and the London 2012 Olympic Games, and perhaps beyond that.
 
"That's definitely two of my dreams," she said. "It's my dream to wear my country's jersey with my name on the back. ... All you can do is keep working, and working and working, and not let anything kind of break you down."
 
It is that passion, or perhaps impatience, that has carried Masar to high levels. Keep in mind that this was a soccer player who received only a 10 percent scholarship at Illinois. When she arrived on campus she was a walk-on for the soccer team.
 
Last season with the Red Stars, while battling a hip injury, Masar started just five games out of 16 and scored zero goals. She did have two assists. She played less than half the minutes of some of the other Red Stars.
 
"Ella is one of the most impatient people I know," Hayes said. "That just shows really how ambitious she really is. She had a very good first season in adjusting to being a professional."
 
Discussion of Masar's impatience produced a hearty laugh from Rayfield.
 
"She wants to get to the end of the race before the race has started," Rayfield said.
 
It is that wild energy that Rayfield, and now Hayes, is trying to bottle up and release at precisely the right time.
 
"Yeah, she (Hayes) always jokes, 'Take your time. Patience. You'll get there, you'll get there,'" Masar said.
 
"This is just another step in the stepping block. Whether this goes well, or I don't play, you just have to take it for what it is. Be patient. This is not something easy to break through, and it's not easy to be with the best players in the world."
 
And when this journey is over, Masar will begin another journey by quickly returning to her world of youth-soccer coaching. Her U-17 team is scheduled to play in a tournament in St. Louis, so Masar will travel directly from Germany to St. Louis, probably with a USA uniform with her name on it, packed away in her travel bag.
 
"I'm a firm believer that anything is possible," Masar said. "Lucky for me, I found my own journey with having faith in God and trying to put Him first and doing His will, not my own. That helps me, because if I didn't, I think I would have given up a long time ago."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Paul D. Bowker is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.