Breakers Preseason Interview Series: Kristie Mewis and Stephanie McCaffrey

Boston Breakers Kristie Mewis and Steph McCaffrey played together for two years at Boston College. Their easy rapport came through in their interview together and could be a significant strength for the Boston attack, linking up through the midfield to create scoring opportunities. At the Breakers' first outdoors preseason practice, Mewis was stationed deep left to provide service for McCaffrey in a pure striker role. Mewis was also extremely candid about her position with the national team and her hopes to make the roster in the future.

Q: First of all, Kristie, Tom Durkin gave an interview to The Bent Musket last week where he said Jill Ellis was very clear with you about the goals you would have to achieve if you wanted have a look at the World Cup roster. How do you feel about those goals and where you are now?

Mewis: I know that I'm probably not good enough right now to be on the roster or else I would be there, but it only motivates me. And I just want to do better so hopefully I'll be back with them maybe after the World Cup and obviously I'll try for before, but she's kind of pretty set on what she has right now, which I agree with, so we'll see how it goes. But it's motivating and I'm not going to let it get me down I guess.

Q: You think time in Japan helped with that?

Mewis: Yeah I do actually. I really enjoyed my time in Japan. It was so much fun. It was such good soccer over there. So yeah, I think it only helped me, being over there for three months.

Q: Your sister's at the Flash now. Any smack talk, any competition, any bets on who's going to do better or score first?

Mewis: Not really yet. We've kind of just been working our way in with our teams and I've been hearing how she's doing and stuff like that. So she seems to be happy out there. Once the season gets a little bit closer I'm sure we'll start smack talking each other.

Q: She said in a twitter Q&A that if she could eat dinner with any celebrity it would Tom Brady and they'd have ribs. Can you rate this plan?

Mewis: Yeah I guess that's pretty good, she loves him.

McCaffrey: Why would she choose ribs. She'd look gross.

Mewis: I don't know, why would she choose ribs? She does love ribs though.

Q: So you're saying this plan is flawed.

Mewis: Yeah, it is.

Q: Steph McCaffrey, congratulations on signing with the team. You signed pretty early. How do you feel about that?

McCaffrey: It's good. It's good to just kind of get that out of the way and be able to come in, I guess you could say with less pressure on you. I think it was a good stepping stone to getting integrated with all the girls right away and they've been nothing but welcoming and accommodating so that was good.

Q: So do you feel like coming through the Breakers system kind of helped you on the NCAA side with BC and improved your prospects for the draft on the pro side?

McCaffrey: Yeah for sure. I think the college academy team plays a really similar system to the professional team so it's not as big of a jump for me. And again it helps me come in quickly. I already know the style of play so I can kind of just worry about learning everyone's tendencies.

Q: How are you liking playing with Kristie Mewis again?

McCaffrey: It's good. I think that we have different strengths and we're really good friends. I think we play really well together because we do have different strengths.

Mewis: We played two years together at BC so I think that helps too. So we have a little bit of experience and we kind of know where each other is going to be on the field and we can read each other, so I think it's going to help when the season starts.

Q: I noticed Durkin had you [Mewis] out there on the left kind of sending in some service for you, using you [McCaffrey] as a striker. How do you guys feel about your positioning and how you're going to be used this season?

McCaffrey: It's good. For me I play in the nine up top and I've played on the right. I played in the nine in college so I'm happy to play with the Breakers. And she has - when you have the best left foot in the country you should play on the left, so I think it's good.

Q: And how was La Manga? You and [Stephanie] Verdoia were over there [with the U23 USWNT].

McCaffrey: It was good. Kind of the best way possible to prep for preseason is to play in international games so it was a great trip. It was a good amount of time with a great group of girls who are all going to be playing in NWSL, so you couldn't ask for anything better right before preseason.

Q: And you got a call up to a national team camp, congratulations. US Soccer has talked about having a philosophy where the coaching is consistent through all the youth levels up to the national system, so do you feel like they're implementing that well?

McCaffrey: Yeah I do. They teach the same principles and the same system of play and the expectations are the same all the way through. Obviously players are bigger, stronger, faster, and especially better technically on the full team, but it wasn't a huge jump in terms of what's expected.

Q: Final question for both of you. It's a zombie apocalypse. Who on the team is first to go-

McCaffrey: Her.

Q: -and who is going to lead the team to safety.

Mewis: I would lead the team to safety because I have the most common sense on the team, and Steph would be the first to go because she has no survival skills whatsoever.

Q: Rebuttal?

McCaffrey: Kristie does not have the most common sense on the team. Ask her what her GPA was in college. But yeah I would probably be the first to go. I'm not that tough.

Q: I just want to point out Julie King said the two of you would team up to lead the team together.

McCaffrey: Yes we'll go with that.

Mewis: Yeah, people would follow us.