Tobin Heath has played in front of tens of thousands of people in Beijing, Germany and Rio de Janeiro, winning two Olympic gold medals and one World Cup trophy in her nine-year career with the United States women’s national team.
Somehow her spotlight felt brighter during the United States’ 1-0 loss to England on Saturday at Red Bull Arena in the second game of the four-team, round-robin SheBelieves Cup. England shocked the top-seeded Americans on substitute Ellen White’s goal in the 89th minute. It is the first time England has beaten the U.S. since a friendly in 2011.
Approximately 800 people from her family and former club team packed the stands to see the 2016 US Female Player of the Year in action, just 30 miles from her hometown of Basking Ridge, N.J.
“It’s always an honor and a privilege to play in front of supporters from the club I grew up with,” Heath said after the game. “It’s never fun to lose, but I thought it was a really competitive game.”
Entering the game in the 76th minute for captain Carli Lloyd to a cacophony of screams, Heath didn’t disappoint her fans with a flurry of cutback moves and one-touch passes.
“The girls look up to Tobin because she’s willing to give back,” said Tom Anderson, president of Players Development Academy and Heath’s youth soccer coach. “And when she comes back, she’ll jump into a practice and play keepaway with the girls.”
When Heath first joined the national team in 2008, as a 20-year-old junior out of the University of North Carolina, coaches turned her playing time into its own game of keepaway.
“Tobin used to be a player who wasn’t as professional off the field and didn’t realize she had to take care of her body,” Lloyd said, “but she’s taken her game to another level. I think she’s learning when to do her cheeky stuff and when to connect and play one and two touches.”
Earning her 129th cap (international appearance) Saturday, Heath, 29, has become indispensable in coach Jill Ellis’ midfield. Heath’s breakout 2016 season, during which she recorded a career-best six goals and eight assists on her way to claiming the top national award and challenging Lloyd for FIFA Player of the Year, came as no surprise to those who knew her.
“Last year, when they started to look at the common denominator and away from the big scorers, there’s Tobin Heath,” Tim Heath, Tobin’s uncle, said. “She gets the job done, she does what she’s supposed to do. She’s always been a giver, a natural playmaker.”
As a young girl, Heath stood out from the pack because of the hours she spent watching soccer and drilling moves outside of training, making her a “master of the ball,” in the words of Glenn Crooks, who previously coached Heath with New Jersey’s Olympic Development Program as well as Lloyd at Rutgers.
Heath was playing a European style of soccer long before many of her American teammates made a point to experience the game overseas, like Lloyd signing this year with Manchester City, Alex Morgan with Olympique Lyonnais and Crystal Dunn with Chelsea.
“Tobin’s been one of our most consistent players,” Ellis said. “She’s one of the best one-[on]-one players in the world. She’s dynamic and accountable on both sides of the ball.”
Promising for Ellis, and frightening for her opponents, Heath will never stop finding skills to add to her arsenal.
“Just like the time she nutmegged her mom in the kitchen,” Crooks said of Tobin kicking the ball between her parent’s legs. “Tobin will keep getting better because there will always be another move that she learns.”