Stadio Euganeo in Padua, Italy, seats 30,000, but only about 5,000 seats were filled Nov. 20, 2010 as the U.S. women’s national team found itself in a home-and-home playoff with the Italians trying to qualify for the 2011 World Cup. There was a small group of Americans, mostly from a nearby military base, but seeing as Padua is about an hour drive or a 30-minute train ride from Venice, it’s not the most convenient for football fans.
Still, one USWNT fan in attendance stood out to the players.
“This weird, bearded dude shows up in Italy, and we’re all like, ‘Who is this motherf—–?'” Megan Rapinoe recalls to FOX Sports. “‘Like, this is so weird.’
“And then Alex was like, ‘That’s my dad.'”
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Alex Morgan was 21 years old then and had earned her first senior national team cap earlier that year. She wasn’t the leader or activist or mom she is now – she was the newbie fighting for playing time against older, veteran players. In her first game, Morgan, then the youngest player on the team, came off the bench and scored the winning goal in stoppage time.
Her father was there to witness it — because, of course, he was.
Mike Morgan never misses his daughter’s games or the big moments she creates in them. Since Alex was 14, Mike guesstimates he has been to every single match. During her college days at Cal, he’d fly to the Bay Area — about an hour and 20-minute flight from his home outside Los Angeles — for a Friday night game, fly home that night, then do it again Sunday.
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“He racked up an incredible amount of Southwest [Airlines] miles within those four years,” Alex says.
No matter the venue, if the USWNT is playing, Mike Morgan is a good bet to be in the stands. (Photo by Molly Darlington – AMA/Getty Images)
[Alex Morgan again adds spice to England rivalry]
Mike’s travel also includes, but is not limited to, trips to see Alex and the national team play in China, Japan and France, for World Cups, Olympics, CONCACAF matches, SheBelieves Cups, NWSL games, you name it. In January, he was the only USWNT parent to attend the friendlies in New Zealand. And this is a man who didn’t own a passport until he was 60, something he deemed necessary when Alex first made the national team more than 13 years ago.
This summer, he will travel back to New Zealand and to Australia to be the USWNT’s No. 1 fan as Alex stars in her fourth World Cup. The tournament begins July 20 with the final slated for Aug. 20.
“Yeah,” Mike says, almost trying to shrug off how impressive his attendance record is, “I’ve been to a few places.”
His presence at games has become something of an inside joke for the team. U.S. players know he’s always going to show up, no matter where in the world they are playing.
“He’s literally at everything,” Rapinoe says after shouting his name and waving at him across a team hotel lobby. “It’s so cool, though. He’s chill, he’s low-key. He’s just become a character in our whole story.”
Adds former USWNT star Abby Wambach, who was one of Alex’s earliest mentors: “There was just this beautiful comfort back in the day when we were playing in Portugal at the Algarve Cup and there’s nobody there. Maybe like three people in the stands for certain games. And one of them is Alex’s father.
“And you might think, ‘Wow, that’s wild. How does he have the time and how does he get to those places?’ He just was always showing up, and I think if I have the resources and ability to do that for my kids, that’s the kind of parent I would love to be.”
Mike, a 74-year-old former contractor, owned his own business, which gave him the flexibility to travel. He retired about five years ago and chooses to spend his time not just watching his daughter, but following soccer “from sunup to sundown,” says Alex, who also noted that her dad “was never a soccer fan” before she started playing.
Now, he’s what Wambach calls “fan numero uno for sure.” He cheers for Alex, of course, but “there’s no person that would come to the post-game celebrations that would be happier for the team,” Wambach says. “He’s centered his whole life around it. And I just think that is so special.”
Mike usually travels alone or with his partner, and likes to be useful while Alex is busy. When he went to New Zealand earlier this year, he did some “pre-work” scouting Auckland and Wellington, where the USWNT will play group-stage matches at this summer’s World Cup.
That likely meant finding a few good coffee shops, as the father-daughter duo always makes time for coffee dates on road trips, whether national or international. (Mike usually orders a regular latte, but Alex changes it up. Right now she’s on a flat white with almond or oat milk kick.)
The two also used to play gin in Mike’s hotel room when Alex was a younger player, but with the amount of responsibility she has these days there’s not much time for cards.
“I think I probably still owe her money,” Mike says, smiling. “We haven’t played in a few years now that she’s a spokeswoman. I’m lucky to get her for coffee.”
Dad also likes to organize the Morgan family’s wardrobe for big tournaments. Alex usually has somewhere around 30-40 friends and family members out there supporting her at World Cups and Olympics, and Mike makes everybody T-shirts. Each tourney gets a new design.
The Morgan family is usually seen sporting unique T-shirts, all coordinated by Mike. (Courtesy of the Morgan family)
“They’re almost so obnoxiously ugly that they’re funny and cool,” Alex says. “They’re just huge logos and massive U.S. crests and my name and number in rainbow colors. He is very proud of making those shirts and making sure all of our family members have one and wear them to each game. He definitely sticks out.”
If not for those shirts, Mike likely wouldn’t really stick out at a game. In the early days, he’d always take photos of the team when they walked out onto the pitch, “but that got to be too hectic so I don’t even do that anymore.” He visits with other players’ parents but once the game begins, he’s pretty quiet.
“People don’t like sitting around me because I’m kind of intensified on the game,” Mike says. “And probably more than anything, I’m just praying for no injuries. I know she’ll take care of everything else.”
(Photograph courtesy of the Morgan family)
And he’s definitely not one of those parents who gives his kid a pep talk or constructive criticism after games. “He’s moved on from the pointers,” Alex says. “He’s not going to be like, ‘I think you should have shot there.”
Off the top of his head, Mike didn’t know exactly how many games he has been to — Alex has more than 200 caps with the USWNT — but it’s easily in the hundreds. He plans to add at least seven more this summer, culminating in what the USWNT hopes will be a record third World Cup title in a row and fifth overall.
“My dad has always been my biggest supporter,” Alex says. “And I think just knowing that I could always look in the stands and see him — now it’s a little harder with 20 or 40 or 60 thousand fans, which is great. But just knowing that I have someone on my team in the stands rooting for me the person rather than me the athlete, that means a lot.”
