Photo by Jim Pierce.
Northeastern women's soccer player Veronica Napoli has scored 26 goals in 56 games for the Huskies.

On Sunday, the U.S. women’s soccer team suf­fered a dev­as­tating loss to Japan in the FIFA World Cup final. We asked Veronica Napoli, a senior for­ward for the North­eastern Uni­ver­sity women’s soccer team, to ana­lyze the sig­nif­i­cance of the loss and ponder her past, present and future on the field.

How dis­ap­pointing is the World Cup loss?
It’s not as dis­ap­pointing as you might expect. After the U.S. beat Brazil in the semi­final round, I think people began to realize how great of a team the U.S. has and how badly the players want to win.  After all Japan has gone through this year, I think people were happy to see them come out on top.

You have scored 26 goals and dished out 11 assists in 56 career games with the Huskies. Why did you start playing soccer?
I grew up in Merano, Italy. Every day, I ran over to the soccer field across the street from my house with my two brothers and other boys in the neigh­bor­hood. I was the only girl who played. My ear­liest memory of the game is watching the older kids. I couldn’t wait to jump in and play.

Watching soccer is one of my favorite things to do, and I try to go to as many games as I can. After watching Italy win the men’s World Cup in 2006, I was so inspired to play. Soccer is life in Europe, which is why I love Europe so much.

The women’s soccer team plays its first reg­ular season game of the 2011 cam­paign on Aug. 19. What are your expec­ta­tions for the club? After you grad­uate, do you want to con­tinue to play at an elite level?
I have high expec­ta­tions. Every player is working hard and can’t wait for the season to begin. I think about making the NCAA tour­na­ment every day, and I know that we have the talent, coaches and ath­letic sup­port from North­eastern to do it. We’re like the U.S. women’s team in the sense that our greatest strength is the cohe­sive­ness of our overall club.

From a per­sonal stand­point, I love soccer and I def­i­nitely want to con­tinue playing. If I were to play pro­fes­sion­ally in Europe, I would be so happy; if I were to play in the women’s pro­fes­sional league, I might be even happier.