This Is the Los Angeles Sol: Aly Wagner

Part 13 in a series of articles on the players that make up the 2009 Los Angeles Sol.

June 7, 2009, Home Depot Center. She rises to take the ball, but ends up clashing heads with Washington Freedom Alex Singer.

Blood. Red blood. It drips down her forehead like colored sweat.

And a wry smile to go with the collision. As if a hip injury wasn't bad enough, things got a bit more adverse.

Fast forward to the following week against Sky Blue FC. Back on the pitch, looking like as if the gash never happened.

Such is the nature of Los Angeles Sol midfielder Aly Wagner. She is a footballer that has gone through growing pains and budding successes throughout her career. Tragedy and triumph. 

Wagner is a battle-tested athlete whose will cannot be broken, and whose courage can only be strengthened, with each battle on the pitch she takes part in.

As for that gash, the Black Knight of Monty Python fame said it best: "Hmmm, it's just a flesh wound."

Alyson Kay Wagner was born on Aug. 10, 1980 in the heart of the Silicon Valley—San Jose, Calif.

As a sports town, San Jose has its Sharks, Giants (a minor league farm team for the major league club up the 101), SaberCats (who are  one of the strongest Arena Football League franchises under Darren Arbet) and Stealth (a National Lacrosse League team).

And there is, of course, those San Jose State Spartans. 

Spartan Stadium, the home of the football team there, was the former home of the San Jose Earthquakes before they moved to nearby Santa Clara University's Buck Shaw Stadium.

Outside of sports, the HP Pavilion at San Jose is one of the busiest venues for concertgoers. On average, the Shark Tank (a nickname for the Pavilion) hosts 184 events per year. 

Other attractions in San Jose include the Lick Observatory (home to one of the world's largest telescopes), the Winchester Mystery House (a 160-room Victorian mansion), the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies (home of the largest Beethoven collection outside Europe) and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library (the largest U.S. public library west of the Mississippi).

Major companies that call San Jose home include Adobe Systems, BEA Systems, Cisco Systems, SunPower, and EBay. flextronics, HP, IBM, Hitachi and Lockheed Martin also have facilities in the city.

Wagner came from a family of sportspeople. Her sister Sam played soccer, brother Jered played football for Santa Clara when their football team was still in existence and brother Jeff was a triathlete.

In fact, outside of soccer, Wagner does compete in this event, finishing 184th overall in the 2005 Wildflower triathlon.

But soccer is the sport that Aly has made her mark on.

As a youth player, Wagner teamed up with future Santa Clara Bronco and USA National teammate Danielle Slaton as part of the Central Valley Mercury, winning three straight national titles from 1996 to 1998.

During that same stretch, Wagner led the Panthers of Presentation High School (a girls-only Catholic school) to three straight CIF Central Coast Section champion ship appearances. And in all of those seasons, Wagner was selected as the MVP of the Santa Teresa League.

In 1998, Wagner was named Gatorade National Player of the Year, and signed a letter of intent to play for Jerry Smith's Santa Clara Broncos. But her road to success at the collegiate level hit some speed bumps. 

In her freshman season, Wagner tore an ACL while training with the USA women's Under-21 team and had to redshirt.

In 2000, Wagner helped the Broncos to Final Four appearance while being named West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year. Her redshirt season saw her score 10 goals and 12 assists.

In 2001, Wagner went through in a year that saw injuies hinder her playing time. But this was also a season that saw her score the game-winner over Anson Dorrance's North Carolina Tar Heels to give Santa Clara the College Cup in a 1-0 victory.

Wagner earned Offensive MVP honors in that match, and was a finalist for the M.A.C. and Hermann Trophies. 

In addition, Wagner was named to the NSCAA All-American Second Team, and was Soccer America's Female Player of the Year. Wagner finished that season with 17 goals and 20 assists to pace the Broncos.

In 2002—Wagner's final season with Santa Clara—Aly led the Broncos to the National Championship game, only to fall to fellow WCC rival Portland 2-1. 

Wagner was named to the NSCAA All-American First Team and won an NCAA Top VIII award, which is given to the top eight students from all NCAA sports over the past year. And she won the 2002 M.A.C. Hermann Trophy, capping off a successful run at Buck Shaw Stadium.

Wagner finished her career with nine goals and assists each in 18 appearances during her senior season.

The national team called for Wagner early...and often. Her debut was on December 16, 1998 against the Ukraine at Drake Stadium on the campus of UCLA. It would be more than four months until she scored her first goal, against Japan on Apr. 29, 1999.

Wagner's accolades with the USA National Team are well-documented: the 1999 and 2002 Nordic Cup victories, the 2005 Algarve victory, the 2000 Australia Cup title, the third-place finishes at the FIFA Women's World Cup and the gold medals earned in the Olympics. 

And in all of these tournaments, whether by scoring a game-winner or facilitating a game-winner, she played a significant part in helping the USA secure its place among the world's best sides.

However, as an international player, Wagner has been hampered by injuries.

In 2001, leg injuries prevented her from playing for the national team. In 2005, she missed the final international game of the year due to knee surgery. 

And in 2007, injuries hindered her performance, and she needed to fix a double-hernia in January 2008 just to make the Olympic team.

Nonetheless, Wagner's hard work and determination culminated in 21 goals and 40 assists in 131 appearances (as of this post date).

Wagner began her club football with the WUSA's San Diego Spirit as the No. 1 pick in the 2003 WUSA Draft. That year, Wagner helped lead the Spirit to an appearance in the playoffs. 

After the league folded, Wagner played for Olympique Lyonnais in 2005, helping lead the team to a runner-up finish in the Challenge de France (the women's French Cup).

The champions of that match, Montpellier HSC, featured a certain midfielder by the name of Camille Abily whose paths would cross with Wagner's four seasons later at victoria Street.

In 2008, Wagner was allocated to the Los Angeles Sol by Women's Professional Soccer (WPS). Wagner would be on a squad that not only included Abily, but Han Duan, Shannon Boxx, Aya Miyama...and Marta.

As Aly Wagner prepares for another battle on the turf of the Home Depot Center, she sits in the change rooms, focused and reflective of everything that got her here.

The blood that was flowing out of her head then mixes with adrenaline and courses through her veins now.

She rises from her bench, and walks with her teammates to the field between two lines of young aspiring women footballers, ready for another game.

Hmmm, it is just a flesh wound after all.