Gamero is a Southern California girl at heart. Although she lives a bit inland in Cerritos, Calif., she loves to make her way west to the sand and waves of the South Bay, charging into the surf at Hermosa Beach or Manhattan Beach, board in hand and hoping the swells aren’t TOO big that day.
She makes sporting and spiritual parallels between surfing and soccer.
“Timing is everything,” said Gamero, while talking about surfing, but also about her unique qualities on the pitch. “When you’re waiting for the wave, you have to paddle at the exact right time as the wave starts building. The hardest part is standing up, but once you do, once you get that right, that’s when the fun begins.”
On the field, the U.S. U-17 WYNT, a fiercely united squad whose dynamic, ball-possession style has already made many fans in India, builds its attacks likes waves. Playing right wing in the USA’s 4-3-3 formation, Gamero is at the crest. When the ball rotates her way, she checks her shoulder and feels the distance she has from her defender, and then things start rolling.
“On the field, it’s always about trying to be craftier than your defender, making her move the way you want her to move,” said Gamero. “I love to draw in defenders, then move the ball as they dive in. You have to have patience to wait for them to bite. Sometimes you speed up and sometimes you slow down, and when they freeze for that moment, that’s when you’re past them. Like surfing, the hardest part is the beginning, but when you feel that separation from your defender and you’re running at goal, that’s when you have the most fun.”
Watching her play, it’s abundantly clear that Gamero was born with special abilities. Her dribbling is the kind that brings stadiums to their feet. At top speed, she’s able to go inside or outside, bobbing and weaving, finding space where there seemingly is none, culminating more often than not in a shot, a cross or a corner kick earned.
