Crystal Dunn:  “I step into camp, and I feel like I lose a part of myself. I no longer get to be Crystal who scores goals, assists, is this attacking player. I step into an environment where I have to be world-class in a position that I don’t think is my best position.” (USA TODAY Sports)

By Michael Lewis

FrontRowSoccer.com Editor

It has been a perennial question and topic that is brought up annually since she was shifted to defense on the U.S. women’s national team several years ago.

Which position is Crystal Dunn better suited to play?

Is it as an attacking player in the midfield, or up front or as a left back?

The Rockville Centre, N.Y. native is one of the best offensive-minded players in the National Women’s Soccer League, helping the Portland Thorns to the league title last year.

She also has excelled on defense, playing a key role while helping the U.S. women’s national team to the 2019 Women’s World Cup crown.

That question resurfaced this past week in a story in GQ magazine.

“I step into camp, and I feel like I lose a part of myself,” Dunn was quoted in the story. “I no longer get to be Crystal who scores goals, assists, is this attacking player. I step into an environment where I have to be world-class in a position that I don’t think is my best position.”

USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski, who is preparing the team for Sunday’s encounter against .Japan in Nashville, Tenn. in the SheBelieves Cup, addressed that issue on Saturday and steadfast that that Dunn should play at left back. Dunn, 29, was moved to defense by former USWNT Jill Ellis some five years ago.

“Dunny, obviously, she’s a world class player, but she has a choice too,” Andonovski said during a combined live and Zoom press conference on Saturday. “She can compete as a midfielder, but she has to compete with Rose Lavelle and Lindsey Horan and Catarina Macario, when she comes in as well.”

Lavelle was awarded the Bronze Ball as the third best player at the 2019 World Cup. Horan is the captain of the current squad and Macario is recovering from a knee injury she suffered last year.

“She doesn’t feel comfortable playing left back or she doesn’t want to be left back? Nobody is forced to play in any position,” Andonovski said about Dunn. “She is a left back. She’s world class and probably one of the best left backs in the world. As a midfielder, she has a pretty stiff competition in a position, so everybody has a choice and then we make the decisions.”

Dunn missed a good deal of the 2022 NWSL season, giving birth to her first child, a son. She returned to action on the club level, helping Portland to the league title. The one-time South Side High School standout returned to the national side later in the year.

“We’ve talked in the past about it,” Andonovski said. “Obviously now she she’s back on the national team and she’s working her way back up. Actually, I think her playing in the in the position that she’s playing for us right now is the easiest thing that that we can do or easiest for her to get back out, because once she comes in this environment … she’s already preparing.

“Okay, this is what I feel most comfortable. This is where I want to be. And this is what I’m what I’m good at.  We saw that against Canada. I don’t know if she’s physically ready to sustain it for 90 minutes, but 45 minutes and the shift that she put in it was amazing.”

Andonovski was referring to the 45 minutes Dunn played in the 2-0 win over Canada in the tournament opener on Thursday night.

Asked whether he would consider switching the talented Dunn to the wing, the U.S. head coach replied, “Any player can compete at any position, and I’ll do often to try anything. But if I was a player on the national team right now, Mallory Swanson is probably the last player that I would want to compete against. We don’t exclude anything at this moment.

Andonovski added that Dunn has the “liberty to go forward as a left as a left wing.”

“We have seen her in the middle, getting the ball and doing her thing but what she’s also special at, in the midfield,” he said. “But if we feel like at any point in time she she’s going to be better suited in those positions and give us the best chance to be successful, then we can see her there.”

Andonovski, who is preparing the squad for the WWC in New Zealand and Australia this summer, said this was the first time he had heard about Dunn’s sentiments.

“I mean, I seriously don’t read media and I don’t have social media,” he said. “This is the first time I hear this, but Crystal has not expressed that with me recently. And as I said before, it’s a choice. Nobody is forced to play on the national team. Nobody is forced to play to play in any position. And every time I’ve talked to Crystal, she just shares how much she enjoys being on the team, and loves helping the team being successful. So obviously, as a coach, I’m happy to hear that, and I’m happy to help her in the in the position that or the tasks that she has to do.”

In the mixed zone after Andonovski’s presser, this is what Dunn had to say: “I just want to be clear. I am not choosing anywhere that I would like a different position. I step into this environment, I know exactly what my role is. I know my strengths. And it’s not all to say like, ‘Hey, I am not happy.’ But I think it’s more so to say, ‘This is how I feel internally at times. And, it’s okay to express that.

“It doesn’t mean that I’m trying to cause havoc or stir anything like that. I think at the end of the day, it’s really just being authentic. I think that’s really my message that I would love to make sure is very clear.”

Dunn was an attacking player at the University of North Carolina, winning the 2013 Hermann Trophy as the best women’s player in the country.

Joining the Washington Spirit in 2015, Dunn was left off the USA team that secured the WWC championship that year. Dunn went on to winning the NWSL scoring title and MVP honors that year.

As the starting left back at the 2019 World Cup, Dunn shut down some of the best players in the world as the Americans captured an unprecedented fourth world championship.

She has made 129 appearances, scoring 24 times.

Here is Dunn’s full quote from the GQ article:

“I think it’s hard because I’m the only one who has to do it,” she said. “I step into camp, and I feel like I lose a part of myself. I no longer get to be Crystal who scores goals, assists, is this attacking player. I step into an environment where I have to be world-class in a position that I don’t think is my best position. But I’ve owned it. I’ve made it my own, and I’ve tried to create it in my most authentic way. But I don’t love it. I love playing and I love competing, so that brings me up to the level that I need to be at, but it really is hard when I look around and I’m like, Well, no one else has to do this. I am the only person who does not stay put in one position and always has to change given what my coach thinks of me.

“It hurts at times,” she continued. “I try to accept it as: it’s a compliment, you get to play different positions, you’re good at so many different things. But if I believe I’m good at this one thing, why doesn’t my coach think I’m good at that one thing? Why would he or she move me? There are years that go by where I’ve owned it, I’m doing positive thinking about it, and then there’s moments where I’m like, I don’t think I could do another day of this. And I think I was probably pushing that limit at the end of 2021. I think I severely needed a break because of all the roles and responsibilities I had to manage. I got sick of feeling like I wasn’t good enough, feeling like I’m always having to earn my right onto the field.”

Here is a link to the story:

https://www.gq.com/story/crystal-dunn-profile

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.