In October 2022, in advance of a big U.S. women’s national team match against European champion England, Alana Cook and Becky Sauerbrunn sat in front of reporters to take questions about a topic unrelated to the upcoming match: the newly released report from Sally Yates, which highlighted systemic abuses in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).
After U.S. captain Sauerbrunn kicked off the press conference and answered questions for the first six minutes, she paused to let the usually quiet and reserved Cook take the next one. Cook commanded the room’s attention with her next set of words.