This was always the plan, the goal, the dream. The beginning of the dream, at the least, for Lena Silano, like so many girls then and now and forever more.

She loved soccer, loved playing the game, loved watching Abby Wambachdominate U.S. opposition. Was determined that she could be there, too, at least somewhere in there. Nothing sounded better, more glorious, than stepping onto a field in a full stadium, cheered on by the throngs, positioned to play hero at the pivotal moment.

Lena Silano’s there, or just about. She enjoyed a promising rookie season with the National Women’s Soccer League’s Washington Spirit this year, starting nine games and scoring one fine, critical goal while adding layers to her game — and to her understanding of the game — within the club’s rich developmental process.

She followed the path so many before her have trod, from revered club to the college game, a little summer-league action, and finally onto a professional roster. It’s such a familiar journey, if one is apt to skip the details, ignore the setbacks, genericize the toil required along the path, and forget that for every player that makes it so far, there are hundreds who don’t.

Silano, who grew up in Agoura Hills, just west of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, has made it so far. Nothing’s guaranteed, but she’s in the mix, doing all she can to climb rungs — to be a starter, to be a standout, to reach whatever comes next — and to survive in a profession that offers no promises.

That she’s here at all is a most remarkable thing.

She went into the club game late, was never rated particularly high, barely saw the field her first two seasons at Long Beach State, and, the way things were going, knew her time in the game was nearing its end. What she did to transform herself during the COVID pandemic — then what she accomplished her last two years with the Big West Conference program, and now what she’s doing with the Spirit — makes for a most inspirational tale. Hers is a valuable perspective for every young player carrying similar aspirations.

“She always said she was going to play professional soccer,” Elysia Laramie, one of her closest Long Beach State teammates, told Soccer America. “And I think for her, no one else needed to believe in her, because she believed in herself so much. And it was something we could all see.”

Silano, 23, had the tools. She was strong, had a sturdy frame, was undeniably athletic, and that spark that great strikers possess was inside her. She had that “nose for the goal.” What she lacked was the understanding of the game and how to best put those tools to use, how to get the best from them, how to become the player she would need to be to realize these dreams.

She found vital help along the way, from club coaches and directors, from so many teammates, and especially from those with whom she worked closest: her personal coach, Robert Miller, and Long Beach State head coach Mauricio Ingrassia. Belief is a powerful tool, and finding those who believe is pivotal.

“I remember early on, like her freshman year [at Long Beach State], I was like, ‘Hey, you’re an All-American,’ ” said Miller, a Westlake Village-based strength and conditioning coach who has worked with Silano since her senior year at Agoura High School. “She’s like, ‘Bro, I don’t play.’ And I’m like, ‘You don’t play yet. Right? You don’t play yet. But if you keep working, you’re going to play, and you’re going to shock the world.

“‘And if you want to play professional soccer, you will play professional soccer. Let’s make a plan. And if you fail, we fail. I’m right there alongside you.’ And so she believed in me. She trusted me. And we had a plan, and we did it like we went after it. … I knew she could, because I knew she was willing to put in the work. Put in work, you can do whatever you want.”

Keith West, who worked with her at Real So Cal and recommended her to Ingrassia, says she “had all the attributes of a special player.”

“It just took time,” he said. “And soccer is like golf, right? The more you play it, the better you get.”

Ingrassia calls her a work in progress.

“There’s been flashes,” he said, “and I always tell the kids that you’re not defined by what happens, but by your struggles. And she is a perfect example of that. I mean, this is a kid that was never an All-American. Nothing. She was never a Top Drawer Soccer-rated player. She was never any of those things that everybody chases as a youth. She was none of that. But her ability to respond to things and to work in adversity is what her career is about.

“You know, that’s why I think this is America’s story. This is someone that just worked from the bottom, was never given anything.”

Here’s her story.

Start of the journey

Silano’s journey begins in earnest when at 14 she joined Real So Cal, one of the region’s top youth clubs, after one season with a local club following a few years in AYSO. She was, essentially, a novice.

“I’m not sure what club she had come from, but it was not what you would call a high-end-competitive club,” said Alberto Bru, RSC’s coaching program director. “She was not at the high level, not on our first team at that time.”

She made a quick impression. She was most athletic, had a knack in attack, and staff saw her potential, but also the amount of work her development would require.

“She was always an athlete, and she had a good shot, a good nose for the goal, and she was a strong runner …,” said Bru, who coached the first team. “Her needs were understanding the game a little bit better, play with the team a little bit better, and confidence. She never thought she was as good as she was.”

She soon was making an “impact on her team, so she moved to our second team, and she started to make an impact on that team and became one of the better players on that team,” Bru said. “So we were aware of her.”

West, also Cal State Northridge’s women’s coach, noticed Silano around this time.

“I saw her play, and I was liking what I saw. I was like, ‘OK, I like this kid for Northridge,'” he said. “So I went to Alberto and told him, ‘Hey, there’s some players over here on our other team [that] we’ve got to take a look at for the top team.’ And, sure enough, he agreed.”

Silano, used as a winger, stood out more profoundly after age groups in 2017 became aligned by calendar year, rather than summer-to-summer, and she was soon on the Bru’s No. 1 roster for players born in 2000, playing in ECNL matches.

“Going to the 1 team was definitely eye-opening,” Silano said. “I think you do grow the most when you’re around people who are better than you and paving that way, showing you that you can do this — like, you’re doing it — [and it] really helps me elevate my game.”

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