Amanda Jaqueline Paswall (; born 7 October 1989) is an American-born Portuguese former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Washington Spirit The Washington Spirit is an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that participates in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It is a continuation of the D.C. United Women of the W-League and cont ...

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) sin ...

and

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defunct Women's ...

in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), Liverpool Ladies in England's

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

, the

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom was an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Germantown, Maryland, that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The Freedom was founded in 2001 as a member of the defunct Women's Uni ...

and

MagicJack MagicJack is an Internet-based telephone service (VoIP) provider in the United States and Canada. It offers nationwide VoIP and cellphone services. MagicJack VOIP service is a computer peripheral that, in combination with telephony service ...

in the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and for the Portuguese national team. DaCosta was recently inducted in the Florida State Athletics Hall of Fame for her outstanding college career (3x All-American, 4x All-ACC, NCAA Freshman of the year, and National Finalist).

Early life

DaCosta is a native of

Somers, New York Somers is a town located in northern Westchester County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 20,434. The nearby Metro-North Commuter Railroad provides service to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan with a ...

and attended Somers High School where she was five-year varsity soccer athlete. She earned all-section and all-league honors four times and was named league MVP twice. From 2000 to 2005, she played five years for both the ENY North ODP team as well as the Region 1 ODP team.

Florida State University

DaCosta was a four-year starter for

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivis ...

. During her tenure with the Seminoles, she served as the team captain in 2010 and led the team to a 16–6–1 mark and a sixth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals. She scored a total of 17 goals. She shared the FSU school record for career game-winning assists (10), ranked third in career assists (24) and is ranked fourth in career games started (94). DaCosta was a First-Team All-ACC selection and NSCAA All-Southeast Region team in 2010. She was named to the NSCAA All-Southeast Region Second Team in 2009 and NSCAA and Soccer Buzz First Team All-American in 2008. In 2010, DaCosta was named as a First Team All-ACC member, making her the first athlete in school history to garner all-ACC accolades all four years of her career. DaCosta was inducted into the FSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022.

Playing career

Club

Washington Freedom / magicJack, 2011

In 2011, DaCosta was drafted to the

in the

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

league. The team later became

after a change in ownership and move to Florida. In December 2011, she was signed to

Sky Blue FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

, however the WPS league folded before the 2012 season began.

Boston Breakers, 2012

In 2012, DaCosta joined the

in the

Women's Premier Soccer League Elite The Women's Premier Soccer League Elite (WPSL Elite) was a women's semi-professional soccer league created by the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) to support the sport in the United States, both from continued interest by WPSL teams in profess ...

Liverpool LFC, 2013–2014

In late 2012, DaCosta signed with

Liverpool L.F.C. Liverpool Football Club Women is an English women's football club, founded in 1989 as ''Newton LFC'' and subsequently renamed ''Knowsley United WFC'' and ''Liverpool Ladies''. A founding member of the top-tier FA Women's Super League in 2011, L ...

for the

2013 FA WSL The 2013 FA WSL was the third season of the FA WSL, the top-level women's Association football, football league of England. The season began on 14 April and ended on 29 September. Arsenal were the defending champions, having won their ninth co ...

season. (Liverpool Ladies had not, as yet, made an official announcement of DaCosta's signing, however DaCosta announced the move on he
Twitter page
and subsequently played in Liverpool's first preseason match against

Manchester City Ladies Manchester City Women's Football Club (formerly ''Manchester City Ladies F.C.'') are an English women's football club based in Manchester who play in the FA Women's Super League. They are affiliated with Manchester City F.C. who play in the Pre ...

). She scored her first goal for Liverpool Ladies against

Arsenal Ladies Arsenal Women Football Club, commonly referred to as Arsenal, is an English professional women's football club based in Islington, London, England. The club plays in the Women's Super League, the top tier of English women's football. Arse ...

Emirates Stadium The Emirates Stadium (known as Arsenal Stadium for UEFA competitions) is a football stadium in Holloway, London, England. It has been the home stadium of Arsenal Football Club since its completion in 2006. It has a current seated capacity ...

in the FA Women's Super League on 37 minutes on May 7, 2013.

National Women's Soccer League, 2015–2017

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

DaCosta played for

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

, helping the team reach the playoffs' semifinal where it lost to

Seattle Reign FC OL Reign is an American professional women's soccer team based in Seattle, Washington. Founded by Bill and Teresa Predmore in 2012 as Seattle Reign FC, it was one of eight inaugural members of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). In 2020, ...

. On January 25, 2016

announced the acquisition of DaCosta from Washington Spirit along with a fourth round pick in 2017

NWSL College Draft The NWSL Draft is an annual event which takes place in January of each year where the teams of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) select players who are in their senior season in college or have exhausted their collegiate eligibility. Prior t ...

in exchange for an unnamed player. On November 3, 2016, it was announced that DaCosta was traded from Chicago to the

. On August 8, 2017, DaCosta announced her retirement from professional soccer.

International

In 2006, DaCosta was a member of the under-17 national team. In March 2008, she competed with the under-20 team at the

2008 Cyprus Cup The 2008 Cyprus Women's Cup was the inaugural edition of the Cyprus Women's Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Cyprus. Six national teams, including five senior teams and one youth team, were invited: Canada, Nether ...

. She played a key role in helping the U.S. advance to the championship final against the full Canadian National team. DaCosta was invited to participate in training camp with the U.S. U-23 Women's National Team in Cleveland, Ohio in 2009 ( June 12–19) and twice in 2010 in Carson, California ( January 13–20) and Sunrise, Florida. ( March 7–14). In 2012, she was an active member of the U.S U-23 squad, and ended her campaign netting the game winner for the U.S to beat Norway in the 3-Nations Tournament (Stjordalen, Norway). On December 1, 2015, she made her first appearance for the

Portugal women's national football team The Portugal women's national football team represents Portugal in international women's football competition. The team is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) and competes as a member of UEFA in various international football ...

, in a Euro 2017 qualifier against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. DaCosta subbed on in the 46th minute. She represented Portugal at the final tournament in the Netherlands. DaCosta won a total of 19

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for Portugal.

Coaching career

In August 2012, DaCosta announced that she would be coaching with Tallahassee United Futbol Club (TUFC) and Cornerstone Middle School as well as for Florida State University in an outreach skills program dubbed Project 4.0.

Broadcasting career

In 2012, DaCosta did the color commentary for the Seminoles soccer team on ESPN3.

Honors

FSU AthLetic Hall of Fame

Inducted in 2022

Club

; Liverpool Ladies * WSL Women's Super League (2):

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

;

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

References

External links

US Soccer Federation player profile

Washington Spirit player profile

Amanda DaCosta blog on Equalizer Soccer
{{DEFAULTSORT:DaCosta, Amanda 1989 births Living people Citizens of Portugal through descent Portuguese women's footballers Women's association football midfielders Liverpool F.C. Women players Women's Super League players Portugal women's international footballers Portuguese expatriate women's footballers Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate women's footballers in England People from Katonah, New York Soccer players from New York (state) American women's soccer players Florida State Seminoles women's soccer players MagicJack (WPS) players Women's Premier Soccer League Elite players Washington Spirit players Chicago Red Stars players Boston Breakers players Women's Professional Soccer players National Women's Soccer League players United States women's under-20 international soccer players American expatriate women's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in England American people of Portuguese descent UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players

Early life

Florida State University

Playing career

Club

Washington Freedom / magicJack, 2011

Boston Breakers, 2012

Liverpool LFC, 2013–2014

National Women's Soccer League, 2015–2017

International

Coaching career

Broadcasting career

Honors

FSU AthLetic Hall of Fame

Club

See also

References

External links