We asked USWNT players who they want to sit next to during 13-hour flight to New Zealand
After two goals from Trinity Rodman helped seal a 2-0 win over Wales in its final tune-up Sunday afternoon, the USWNT is off to New Zealand. The Americans open World Cup group play July 21 at 9 p.m. ET against Vietnam.
But first, they’ve got to take an almost-14-hour flight to Auckland — a long time to be locked in a 747, even with some of your best friends.
Before the Americans, who are favored to win their third consecutive World Cup, headed Down Under, Paste BN Sports asked players about their travel preferences. Their answers, to say the least, were amusing.
Who do you want to sit next to on the 13-hour flight?
Casey Murphy: “Oh gosh, I hope no one says they don’t want to sit next to me!”
Alex Morgan: “Pinoe likes to literally blast her music all the time, and I wanna sleep a lot of the flight. So I don’t think I want to sit next to Pinoe.”
Crystal Dunn: “I would love to sit next to Pinoe, she’s one of my really good friends. We always have banter, always gonna make each other laugh.”
Megan Rapinoe: “I don’t want to sit next to anybody. I wanna have my own pod, and I wanna lay down. I wanna sleep the majority of the time.”
Morgan: “You know who would be really good to sit next to is Rose (Lavelle), because she just pulls out her book and reads the whole time.”
Savannah DeMelo: “I would love to sit next to Emily Fox, she’s probably my closest friend on the team.”
Sophia Smith: “I would want to sit next to Naomi Girma and Ashley Sanchez because they’re my two best friends on the team and we always have stuff to talk about.”
Naomi Girma: “Probably Soph. On the flight, I’m watching movies and sleeping. I’m very much chilling out. I’m not a big talker on the plane.”
Smith: “Other people would probably not want me and Ashley to sit next to each other because we would not stop talking the whole flight.”
Julie Ertz: “I was gonna say Crystal because normally she can sleep anywhere for a really long period of time, so she’ll probably be passed out.”
Dunn: “Honestly, on a 13-hour plane ride, I’m sleeping for probably 10 of those.”
Ertz: “The worst would probably be Alyssa Naeher. I feel like she’d be the most restless, like wanting to get off (the plane) and not wanting to sleep.”
Ertz: “Now (Naeher’s) gonna be mad I said that.”
Alyssa Thompson (laughing): “Maybe not Julie, just in case (11-month-old) Madden gets a little cranky on the flight.”
Morgan: “I think I’ll sit next to the moms. They’ll probably have a lot of snacks.”
What’s your travel must-have?
Thompson: “My headphones for sure. I need to listen to music to fall asleep.”
Murphy: “Obviously headphones, that’s a given. That’s pretty much it. I try to not overpack.”
Girma: “My Kindle. My last favorite book I read was ‘The Paris Apartment’.”
Smith: “My Kindle, a soft fuzzy blanket and my crystals.”
DeMelo: “This is so random, but I need face sunscreen every day, all the time. So sunscreen.”
Smith: “My crystals are in a little bag. I bring them with me everywhere, every game. Couldn’t tell you what any of them do. I just think they’re good energy for me.”
Ertz: “This is probably terrible. My hair straightener.”
Dunn: “I always take all my hair-care products. That is something I can’t go anywhere without. Like it has to be readily available in the bag.”
Rapinoe: “Probably hair dye. I always have that with me.”
Ertz: “Clearly we like our hair.”
(Note: According to U.S. Soccer, each player is only allowed to bring two bags on the plane. Players had mixed reactions to this.)
Ertz: “I packed terrible, so I feel great about it because I have so much room. I have nothing. I’ll just wear the same thing.”
Dunn: “I mean, how are we going to fit everything? I don’t know. I feel like we all need three bags.”
Lindsey Horan: “Pinoe’s got, like, four bags.”
Rapinoe: “Bring it all.”