Julie Ertz has a world championship and Player of the Year honors in her sport. So she’s already got an edge on husband Zach – that is Ed Dickson Jersey Elite , if they were competitive.
She says the athletic couple doesn’t really try to one-up each other all that much.
”Maybe in board games,” she says with a laugh.
Julie and Zach are currently the sporting world’s ”It” couple. Julie is a midfielder for the World Cup-winning U.S. national soccer team, while her husband Zach is a tight end for the Super Bowl-bound Philadelphia Eagles. The joke is that they both play football, just different kinds.
Just as Zach was in Canada for the 2015 World Cup final cheering on Julie, she’ll be rooting for him on Sunday in Minneapolis. In fact, she’s already there, acting as a correspondent for the U.S. team’s Twitter feed .
The couple was married last March after a romance that started when Julie, then Julie Johnston, was an emerging soccer star at Santa Clara and Zach was playing at Stanford.
Julie’s career took off in 2015, well before Zach reached the NFL’s biggest stage, when she was selected by national team coach Jill Ellis for the World Cup roster. At 23, she was the second-youngest player on the squad for soccer’s premier tournament.
”You train as if whenever you’re called upon you’re ready,” she said. ”I think that was a huge mentality that was important for me. I know I really wanted to make the team Authentic Customized Packers Jerseys , but I knew that I had a long way to go. So I tried every day to take it day by day and really learn anything I could at practice, and do every extra thing that I thought I needed to do.”
Johnston played on a backline that included Meghan Klingenberg, Becky Sauerbrunn and Ali Krieger. The defense was anchored by Hope Solo, who was spectacular in goal. The group went 540 minutes during the tournament without conceding a goal on the way to a 5-2 final victory over Japan.
With her trademark baby-blue headband, Johnston quickly proved she was one of the sport’s fastest-rising stars. Today, she’s introspective about her world championship.
”I could give you 1,000 moments that were special, but looking back it was the journey, and everything that I learned about myself and what I didn’t think I could do,” she said. ”I learned a lot, and it really pushed my love for the sport even more than I already loved it.”
She shifted to a defensive midfielder position with the national team last year and did well. At the Tournament of Nations she came in as a substitute and scored the winner of a 4-3 victory in the 89th minute.
She played at that position the rest of the season, scoring six goals, including two against New Zealand. In December she was selected the national team’s Player of the Year Korey Toomer Jersey 49ers , earning more than half of all the votes.
But probably the happiest thing she did last year was marry Zach. The two tied the knot in March in California.
Zach, 27, is in his fifth season with the Eagles. He broke out this season with 824 receiving yards, behind only New England’s Rob Gronkowski (1,084) and Kansas City’s Travis Kelce (1,038) among the ends. His eight touchdowns were double his previous career high, and he had eight catches for 93 yards in the NFC championship game.
The two were apart when the Eagles clinched their spot in the Super Bowl with a 38-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Julie was in San Diego for a national team match against Denmark. She was among the players who scored in the 5-1 victory.
Afterward, when she was told Zach was going to the Super Bowl, she burst into tears .
”Zach knew I was there obviously in spirit and I was praying for him and I was excited for him and cheering him from miles away,” she said. ”It’s a part of our job and we sacrifice a lot, and time’s the biggest thing. But to find out that they are going to the Super Bowl was amazing, exciting, emotional. It’s really cool to see your loved one’s hard work pay off.”
That’s part of the mutual respect their marriage is built on.
”She understands how hard I worked and how hard this team worked to get to this point. We’re each other’s No. 1 fan. Our relationship wasn’t built on the athletic success. We truly love each other and that’s the most important thing Cheap Braden Smith Jersey ,” Zach said.
To that end, Julie said it’s Zach’s turn in the spotlight.
”This is his time,” she said. ”I’m here. I’m a fan! I’m going to be in the stands, cheering with everyone else.”
—
WASHINGTON — The Washington Nationals will try again Saturday to cool off Philadelphia’s Odubel Herrera.
That is something nobody has been able to in more than a week.
Herrera homered for the fifth straight game and finished with four hits Friday night, helping the Phillies rout the Washington Nationals 12-2 in the opener of a three-game series.
He is hitting .472 (17 for 36) with six homers, 11 runs and 10 RBIs in his last eight games and raised his season average to .308.
“I don’t think there’s any words for it. I mean it’s simply incredible what he can do,” Friday’s starter and winner Zac Eflin said.
“The thing with Odubel is that he can shake off anything at any given time. … It can look like he’s struggling and then next pitch he hits it 440 feet.”
Herrera hit a tiebreaking two-run shot in the third inning for his 13th homer of the season, matching the club record for consecutive games with a long ball. He has connected in six of his last seven overall.
The Phillies (40-33) pounded out 15 hits and jumped ahead of the Nationals (40-34) for second place in the National League East behind the Atlanta Braves.
“To me, today was the first game where we really got blown out. That was a blowout right there,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said after Washington lost for the eighth time in 11 games, including the completion of a suspended game.
“We’ve just got to keep our heads up, guys go home and rest, come back tomorrow and do it again.”
Washington’s Michael A. Taylor extended his hitting streak to 13 games with an RBI double and Bryce Harper went 1-for-3 with a walk in the leadoff spot.
The Phillies got a homer and four RBIs from Carlos Santana Cheap Customized Tennessee Titans Jerseys , who also singled and walked twice.
Philadelphia’s Aaron Nola (8-2, 2.55) opposes rookie RHP Erick Fedde (0-2, 5.63) in a matchup of 2014 first-round draft picks on Saturday. Nola was the seventh overall pick in the first-year player draft and Fedde was the 18th.
Nola hasn’t taken a loss since May 20 but scuffled in his last start, allowing four runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings of a no-decision at Milwaukee. The Phillies prevailed 10-9.
“My command really wasn’t where it usually is,” Nola told mlb.com. “My fastball was cutting a little bit and missing off the plate a little bit. They had a good approach against me.”
Against the Nationals, Nola is 1-4 with a 4.50 ERA in 10 starts. Harper is 8-for-17 with two home runs versus Nola, Daniel Murphy is 8-for-20 and Anthony Rendon is 4-for-17.
Fedde makes his fourth start of the season for Washington and third since replacing injured Stephen Strasburg in the rotation. He’s coming off a loss to the Yankees on Monday, when he allowed three runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings.
“He pitched well except when he made one mistake,” Martinez told the Washington Post, referring to Aaron Hicks’ two-run homer in the fifth. “We were very, very excited to see this.”
Fedde will be making his first career start against the Phillies.
.
