Christie Welsh has been so close to being a core member of the U.S. Women’s National Team. She’s been an Olympic alternate and been one of the last handful cut right before a big event more than once. In 2005 she was the team’s leading scorer and seemed a shoo-in for the 2007 World Cup. Then in 2006 without much of an explanation she fell off the radar. She wasn’t with the team again until late April of 2007 and was one of the last three cuts from Greg Ryan’s World Cup roster. She’s been invited in to the February mega-camp and is looking forward to another chance to prove she belongs.

Welsh talked candidly with Fair Game about the ups and downs of her National Team career a few days before heading to California to try and prove herself again.

You gave me a little hint in Baltimore that you had been talking with Pia, and you’ve officially been called into the Feb 1 camp, I guess we can talk about it now.

Basically they are bringing a large group in and there’s two groups and I’m part of the larger group that’s, I guess you could say, battling it out in the first week to try and get to stay for the second. There are 37 people total.

Let’s talk about your career as a whole. You’ve been in and out since 2000 with a lot of ups and downs. Back in 2005, you were on fire, you were the leading scorer and then 2006 you were kind of off the radar again.

I have been doing this since 2000 and it’s been up and down the entire time. Looking at this camp right now, I’m extremely excited to go in. As you get older and after you’ve been in and had the experience, all you want is a chance again. Every time you go in you think, “Alright, this is it.” I thought last spring when I went in was it. I thought, “If I don’t do this now this is it.” And I thought the year before this is it. Every time you go in, you have to make the most of it because you never know when it’s going to be over.

With that, as you go in and you’re let go, all you want is another chance. It’s been up and down. I think back in 2000, I was extremely young and I had no idea what was going on. I think I played well during that time because, my expectations on my self are always high, but the expectations of others was low so you just went out and played. You didn’t worry and you didn’t even know what was going on. You’re like, “Okay, I get to play more soccer. This is fun. The chance to play in the Olympics, wow. Okay.”

And gradually my expectations became more and the expectations of other people on myself definitely increased. I think 2005 was a great year for me. 2006, I went into residency and had a few injuries. I got diagnosed with spondylothesis, which is like slippage of your vertebrae. I got diagnosed with that and I was having major back issues, which I had never really had before. It slowed me down for a bit and I wasn’t able to regroup. In the eyes of Greg (Ryan), I wasn’t able to regroup and get back to where I was supposed to be. At the end of that year, he released me from contract.

In 2007 I knew that I was basically going to have one chance and that was it. At the beginning of 2007, I had been in touch with Greg all the time saying, “Bring me in. Bring me in. Bring me in.” I went in and I think I played the best that I’ve ever played and basically at the end of it, I was told, “Well it’s too late. You did a great job but I’m pretty solid with what I have.”

I wondered at the time, because it was so late and you hadn’t been in for a while, if you were getting a legitimate shot or if he was strictly brining you in to help prepare the team.

I didn’t know either. He constantly reminded me, “You had a great Algarve Cup in 2005 when I was trying to get the job. You performed great. I know what you are capable of. I need you to play like that.”

That’s all I kept hearing in 2006 as I was kind of slipping off. Sometimes there is kind of a downward spiral with players and coaches. Once you’re not doing well, you kind of fall off the radar and it’s hard to get back on. Especially at that level when there are some great players competing around you. When he moved Tarp (Lindsay Tarpley) up to forward as well, that really hurt me. He made that move at the end of 2006. She was playing great and Natasha Kai coming in, she’s got some qualities that are above and beyond a lot of players. You have to compete.

It just came down to performance. You don’t perform well and you kind of slip off the coach’s radar and it’s hard to get back in there, especially when other people are performing. I don’t think my level dropped that much, I just think that it dropped enough for me to not have that spot. All I thought about last year going into residency again was, “I’ve got to be ready because if I don’t go in there and make a huge impact, it’s not going to matter.” I was pushing as hard as I could to get in early last year but I wasn’t’ asked in until late April. At that point I don’t know if there is much I can do but I just have to work my butt off. I was extremely proud of what I did. It just wasn’t enough.

The difficult thing for me was hearing that last year. Being that close again and knowing I should definitely be there and can be there and proved that I should be there, but it’s too late.

Timing is everything with this game and you see that with players that come in and out. Look at Amy Rodriguez right now. She had a fantastic College Cup and comes in right away with the National Team with Pia being the head coach, there’s a nice transition there. She’s getting a shot that for a long time she hasn’t been able to have. She was in a while ago and she’s always been a great player with fantastic speed and good finishing ability. Maybe this is her time now.

You’ve been an Olympic alternate, one of the last one’s cut right before the big events …

In 2000, technically I was an alternate and 2004, which 2004 I believe was my best in terms of making an impact. In 2000 I’m not sure I was really that close to even be considered an alternate, but in 2004 I should have been on the team if not an alternate. I remember sitting in the meeting with April and I was like, “So that’s it? I’m not even an alternate?” (Laughs.) And that was sort of it.

Having been through the ups and downs, how do you emotionally get yourself up for it when you get the call to come back in?

To be honest, I don’t even have to get myself up for it. I’ve had all this time to sit and stew over everything. When I talk to my mom, she says, “Don’t get your hopes up again.” She takes that approach with me because she’s been on the other end of the phone, so many times when I’ve been bawling my eyes out because my dream has been crushed. She’s got that perspective and I’m thinking, “I’m not going to (excuse my language) half-ass it.” If I’m going in there then I’m going in there 100%.

As soon as I found out that Pia was the coach, I tried to get in touch with her to let her know that I’ve been there and know what it takes. I know the players and I know what I can bring. If nothing else, I can go in there and make players better. I don’t know if that’s what Greg brought me in for last year, but he didn’t communicate that to me. I don’t think many coaches would. The big thing is, as you get to this age and you’re older and you’ve been in, all you want is the honesty. If I’m going to be that role player, please tell me.

I’ve had this time to look at my career and look at everything and we’ve been waiting for this league to start up again. I just want to play. Right now all I’m thinking in my head is how excited I am to be able to go out to LA for one, maybe two weeks, if I get to stay and just play soccer and just worry about that. In all this time in between I’ve had to figure out how to pay health insurance every month and how I’m going to pay rent.

What have you been doing to pay health insurance and rent?

Before last summer I was in constant communication with Greg trying to figure out the best way to get myself ready to go into camp. I spent the beginning of last year and my own money and took myself out to Athletes Performance, which basically runs out of the Home Depot Center. I went out there for about 3 and half weeks in January and February of last year. Then I went to Penn State and trained there. I needed to get in an atmosphere where I could be playing so I moved down to DC in the very first week of April last year and just started training down here with the Freedom and the players that were around. I got myself ready and then I went into residency and then came back and played the rest of the summer with the Freedom.

I actually got a job with National Geographic. I’ve been working with them since late August.

That sounds cool. I seem to recall that you are into nature photography.

I am and it is like my dream job to be a photographer for National Geographic, but right now I’m working in the television department with a show called Wild Chronicles, which is a show that airs on PBS. It’s fantastic. I love it. One of the producers there has a daughter that plays at UVA right now so she completely understands all my soccer goals and where I want to go and how I’m training for the league. They’ve been great. I work by the hour and then I go train. I coach as well. I have a little U-10 team that I coach.

A standing room only crowd attended the Women’s Professional Soccer’s Town Hall Meeting at the 2008 NSCAA Convention to get the scoop on the new league. The meeting was moderated by USA Today columnist Christine Brennan and had six panelists representing the league including President and General Manager of the Boston Breakers, Joe Cummings, Boston Breakers Head Coach Tony DiCicco, Chicago Owner Gary Weaver, Chicago General Manager Marcia McDermott, Sky Blue Soccer (NJ/NY) Marketing/Public Relations Manager Gloria Averbuch and former NY Power player Emily Janss. Unfortunately, League Commissioner, Tonya Antonucci was under the weather and was unable to participate.

Two attendees that were especially eager for some news were Christie Welsh and Lori Lindsey. Both played in the WUSA and are among the dwindling number of former players that have been hanging and keeping themselves ready for when and if the league ever came back. Both currently play on the Washington Freedom’s W-League team.

I chatted with them for a few minutes after the meeting to get their take.

FG: What did you guys think? Was this new information or have you been hearing things through the Washington Freedom organization?

CW: I haven’t heard much to be honest. We’ve been pretty much out of the picture and training on our own and trying to get ourselves ready for the eventual launch. Today I was hoping to hear a little bit more about what’s going to happen with players and how they are going to be allocated. Obviously, that’s going to take some time to figure out, but that’s the stuff that we’re really interested in. We want the smart people to figure out the business plan and to get that organized and then as soon as we can, to help in anyway that we can. The t-shirts they handed out, I’ll be wearing this around as much as I can to get the logo out and the name. We’re just wondering what we can do to help and what we can do to prepare.

FG: Both of you were around last time and you stuck it out and kept yourself fit, obviously hoping this was coming and then it always seemed to be “next year”. Does it seem real?

LL: I think finally it seems real. Since 2003 when the league suspended everyone’s been saying “the league’s going to be back next year, the league’s going to be back next year,” and finally I think they’re just taking their time and getting it right. I think we heard some of that today about the front office and there’s going to be more information coming about the other side of things about what we need to do to get ready to come for combines or however they’re going to select players.

FG: How many of you guys are out there that have been waiting and just trying to stay ready for the league to come back?

CW: We were just talking about that amongst ourselves on the way here. We were wondering ourselves, how many people are out there. We play in indoor leagues at night and we just ran into a couple girls the other day that still have it and are playing, but they don’t play on W-League teams and we were wondering if they were going to decide to quit the jobs that they now have and are secure financially and jump into something like this again.

LL: I think there are only like five of us.

CW: We’ve just been focused on playing in the league, whenever it is, it might be ten years from now but that’s what I’m going to do. 20 at most, maybe that are like us. We play in the league, the tournaments.

LL. We play with the National Team whenever we can.

Both Welsh and Lindsey will continue to play with the Washington Freedom this year to bridge the gap and expect that they will see more familiar faces dusting off their cleats to try and get themselves back in the mix.

* Photo - Boston Breakers President and General Manager Joe Cummings and Chicago General Manager Marcia McDermott represented Women's Professional Soccer well at their Town Hall Meeting at the 2008 NSCAA Convention. (Andy Mead/YCJ)