Consistent Starts and a Positive Mindset Are Paying off for Cari Roccaro

Cari Roccaro has been in the league since 2016, and had never scored a goal until July 30, in Angel City’s home game against the Reign. Since then, the 28-year-old midfielder has notched two more, against Orlando and Kansas City. That’s on top of her July 9 assist to forward Claire Emslie against San Diego. 

“Right after I got COVID,” she says, “I came back and I started wearing these boots and I got an assist and three goals. I haven't done anything like that in the league, ever.”

The boots in question? A pair of year-old Nike Tiempos Roccaro found in the trunk of her car. “I just need a comfortable pair of broken-in boots, because I came back from COVID two days before the [July 9] San Diego game. I put them on, and it was like, ‘wow, I’m actually doing stuff with these.’”

Superstitions aside—and Roccaro says she’s got plenty of them, from nail color to prewrap—there are also more tangible explanations for the hot streak. One major factor: consistency. “I literally just needed playing time,” she says. “Nothing's changed. It's not like I figured out how to head a ball or tap in a pass two feet away from the goal. I just needed to feel free to be creative on the field and just relax.”

According to Head Coach Freya Coombe, it’s Roccaro’s hard work since the beginning of the season paying off. “She was consistently making runs into the box, and [for us] it was reinforcing those behaviors and saying, ‘Cari, it's going to come, you keep doing the work because you're going to get rewarded… the ball is going to fall at your feet or you are going to get that service that you need.’”

For Roccaro, it’s about being in the right environment. She spent the first two years of her professional career playing center back—where she still says she feels most comfortable—in Houston. When she was traded to North Carolina in 2018, that club’s roster was one of the strongest in the league, featuring players like Crystal Dunn, Sam Mewis, Lynn Williams, and Debinha. She found herself coming off the bench when the full roster was available, at whatever position she was needed.

“I’ve been all over the place,” she says. “When I wasn’t starting I would sub in at like different positions. Like, ‘I’m the ten tonight, or I’m the six, or, oh, now I’m at center back.’ I was all over. That’s hard.'

Joining an expansion team as an established professional meant Roccaro kicked off her time at Angel City in a new way. “Coming into this environment where this team was brand new and needed leadership,” she said, “versus my past teams, where I was coming into a team that already had an established culture and veterans and leadership… I feel less pressure, more free. I feel like I have the ability to be creative, try new things, push myself to get better.”

For a professional athlete, withstanding pressure is as vital a job skill as being able to strike a dead ball or execute a well-timed slide tackle. “This job is tough,” Roccaro says. “Everyone wants to be the best and win, but you can't put your worth and value as a human being in that.”

When she’s not playing, she records a podcast with her friend Ginny McGowan called Butterfly Road, where they talk about mental health challenges ranging from self-esteem to grief to body image, often with guests from the professional sports world.

“With the podcast, being able to just talk to my co-host Ginny about things, and then to help others,” she says, “it's, one, very therapeutic for both of us to help each other through things and kind of let it out. And two, when other people listen…it's been really rewarding for people to reach out to us and say, ‘you've helped me so much with this.’”

I’ve also really helped myself, too,” she adds. “When I go back and listen to my own episodes, I'm like, ‘Oh, that was good. I need to remember to do that!’”

In LA, Roccaro says, she feels valued on and off the field in a way she hasn’t always in the past. “Coming to Angel City, it's like, ‘Yeah, we want to win the championship, we want to make playoffs.’ But my worth and value and who I am—Angel City and me being a part of it is so much more than just the football part.”

Coombe’s leadership contributes to that mindset for Roccaro. “Freya's provided me with a little bit more belief and confidence that I think I was lacking,” she says. While both player and coach agree she needs to keep growing in certain areas, Coombe’s confidence in Roccaro’s strengths has been transformative. “[I feel I can] trust my gut and intuition on the field, where [I’ll think,] ‘I should really make this run in the box.’ And then good things happen when I do.”

“She keeps putting herself in those positions through her sheer hard work and the work rate that she's got,” says Coombe, adding “you can't take anything away from that header in the last game. I thought that was really, really class… we’re really pleased with her getting the reward for her hard work this year.”

Or maybe it’s the boots.