Photo Copyright Cory Knowlton for USA TODAY Sports
In the middle of a demanding preseason camp, Allie Long wanted to take a little break from training and spend a night out with her partner, Casey Cordial. Normally a simple outing, Long had one small roadblock: finding someone to watch her twins Siena and Trent. Stepping up to the challenge was Long’s teammate and longtime friend Kelley O’Hara. “There’s two, you know, I warned her,” Long said. “It’s a little harder!” O’Hara was undeterred, so Long left the twins in her capable hands and enjoyed a night off.
Arriving home later that night, expecting the twins to be in bed, Long instead found O’Hara and several other of her Gotham FC teammates sitting around the twins in a circle on the floor. “They played me a song and were singing to them, they had so much fun! The girls and the babies were so happy,” Long said with a laugh.
This is just one of many ways Long’s life has changed since the Gotham FC midfielder became a mom just 12 months ago. After an emergency C-section last May, Long had to balance recovery from the surgery with being a mother and her unwavering commitment to returning to the field.
From the time she became pregnant in 2021 to her return to the pitch in 2023, Long has felt nothing but support from her Gotham FC teammates and the club’s staff. The path back to playing wasn’t easy, but Long relied on her competitive nature, her extensive support system, and her love of the game to get her back on the field and give herself the chance to be even better than she was before.
The World Cup winner and two-time National Women’s Soccer League Champion sat down with The Equalizer to talk all about her transition from pregnancy, to having her twins, to getting back with Gotham FC.
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