Sophia Smith’s family revels in watching the USWNT’s World Cup breakout star

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Mollie Smith isn’t quite sure where her youngest daughter got her inner drive from.

But Sophia’s mother is certain that the U.S. women’s soccer team’s biggest new star has had that drive all her life.

“If you ask me, she was born with it,” Mollie Smith told The Inquirer in an interview this week, soon after Sophia took the World Cup by storm with two goals and an assist in the Americans’ 3-0 win over Vietnam.

“She had that drive in things that we saw from when she could barely walk,” she continued. “Where that drive comes from? I don’t know. Good question.”

No matter which side of the family tree it grew on, the drive’s ultimate destination also was known long ago.

“She always told us she wanted to be a professional soccer player,” Mollie said. “And when she told us she wanted to do something, I don’t ever remember a time she didn’t do what she said she wanted to do.”

» READ MORE: Sophia Smith stars in the USWNT’s 3-0 win over Vietnam at the World Cup

So what’s it like to watch one of your children rise into one of the world’s biggest spotlights? The rest of us can try to imagine, but actually living it can’t be replicated from the outside.

“Well, it’s kind of crazy,” Mollie said. “Exciting for her, just fun. We’re having a lot of fun down here and seeing her have some success, and them win their first game, I think is a great start.”

Mollie, her husband, Kenny, and their middle daughter, Savannah, made the trip Down Under to watch Sophia. Mollie works in the medical world, doing records and referrals for a pediatric clinic. Kenny is a longtime postal clerk and also coaches youth basketball in the Denver suburbs, where the family is based.

You might not know it if you walked into the Windsor, Colo., post office and looked for U.S. national team decor. All the Smiths’ friends and family know, though, and they’re thrilled.

“Kenny’s kind of like the mayor around our area,” Mollie said. “He’s super friendly; he talks to everybody, knows everybody. He coaches basketball, so he knows everybody’s kids.”

And the world got to see a hint of it when he was invited down from the stands to present Sophia with the player of the game trophy after the U.S.’s win.

“I’m so proud of you,” he said, planting a kiss on his daughter’s cheek as the cameras rolled. “That’s awesome.”

» READ MORE: Julie Ertz steps up, Sophia Smith steps out, and the U.S. flexes its depth to start the World Cup

The Smith family has enjoyed getting to know the families of the other players on the U.S. squad. They already knew some, particularly the Girmas, since Naomi and Sophia have been friends and teammates for many years. Sophia also followed in the footsteps of two U.S. players not on this squad, Mallory Swanson and Jaelin Howell, at Denver-area youth club Real Colorado. Its coach at the time was current Jamaica women’s team manager Lorne Donaldson.

“Oh, my gosh, I don’t think we’ve met nicer families,” Mollie said. “Aside from winning the first game, meeting the families and hanging out with them has been the most fun part.”

The bond between the Smiths and Girmas is sure to grow now, and not just because of their children’s on-field feats. Naomi and Sophia are leading the U.S. team’s campaign for mental health awareness at this World Cup, highlighted by Sophia’s goal celebration tribute to their late Stanford teammate Katie Meyer.

“It takes so much courage and so much bravery for them to talk about that, talk about the stresses that they have in what they’re doing now,” Mollie said. “I mean, in the past, I think you just didn’t talk about that — you just dealt with it your own way. And I think since Katie’s passing, I think it’s definitely brought it to light and definitely given a new urgency to make it OK to talk about it.”

She added, as a mother would: “I love that Naomi and Sophie [the family’s longtime nickname for Sophia] are doing that together. And hopefully it helps someone.”

» READ MORE: Naomi Girma and Sophia Smith lead the USWNT’s campaign for mental health at the World Cup

All three of the Smith daughters are grown women now. Sophia is 22, Savannah is 26, and Gabrielle is 28. The eldest has two toddlers at home, which makes Sophia an aunt — an official one, not just the unofficial aunt that she enjoys being for the U.S. team’s trio of mothers. (Especially for Marcel Soubrier, whose mother, Crystal Dunn, is one of Smith’s Portland Thorns teammates.)

“She spoils them every day,” Mollie said of Sophia’s interaction with Gabrielle’s kids. “In fact, the 2-year-old goes to the door every time she sees the FedEx guy in their neighborhood because Sophie sends her something pretty much daily. So she thinks every package that comes is for her.”

For now, Sophia’s own deliveries are soccer balls thumped into opposing teams’ nets. The next challenge is the Americans’ biggest of the group stage: a rematch of the 2019 World Cup final against the Netherlands in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city (9 p.m. ET Wednesday, Fox29, Telemundo 62, Peacock).

And maybe it hints a little bit at the root of her drive that while her parents are enjoying this moment, they’re also just as focused on what’s to come as she is.

“It seems like we’re completely disconnected from the rest of the world down here,” Mollie said. “So it’s pretty fun to get one game down. But no, there’s definitely still a lot of work to do.”

» READ MORE: Sophia Smith, Naomi Girma and the USWNT’s young stars are poised to break out at the World Cup

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