The 18-year-old Californian helped Monterrey finish Liga MX runner-up and win the Mexican Cup -- and was named to the Liga MX Best XI.

Amanda Cromwell, a biology major who graduated from the University of Virginia in 1992, had aimed to go the medical school, and took her MCAT exam while playing for the USA during the qualifying tournament for the 1995 Women's World Cup. But Cromwell ended up playing for the USA through 1998, and pro ball through 2003 while having embarked on a coaching career that led to her current position as head coach of UCLA.

The CEO and Executive Director of Washington Youth Soccer wants U.S. Soccer to restructure youth competition.

Jan Osborne, currently a consultant to MLS, became the U.S. Soccer National Teams Administrator in the 1980s, when players were paid a $5 per diem.

Perhaps the most intriguing U.S. rival is Costa Rica, which is heading to the World Cup once again, while the USA is not.

Former Brazil star Sissi, one of the 13 women featured in Chelsea Clinton's upcoming book, "She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History," coaches girls soccer and is Technical Director at Walnut Creek SC.

He grew up in Brooklyn playing basketball, and since becoming CEO of the U.S. Soccer Foundation in 2008 Ed Foster-Simeon has championed the cause of bringing soccer to the inner cities of America. A new U.S. Soccer Foundation field-building program, ‘It’s Everyone's Game,’ recently launched to build 50 small play areas -- 10 per year for five years -- per city in municipalities across the United States. The “mini-pitches” are installed on playgrounds and in schoolyards and parks. They are made of an acrylic surface and cost $60,000. The playing field includes permanent, small-sized goals.

Anchoring FOX Sports' "World Cup Today" from Moscow's Red Square will mark the fifth men's World Cup covered by Rob Stone.