Alina Lisi Garciamendez Rowold (born 16 April 1991) is an American-born Mexican former

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 defender. She has been a member of the Mexico women's national team.

Early life

Born in

Los Gatos, California Los Gatos (, ; ) is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of the ...

, to Edsel Garciamendez-Budar and Lisi Rowold-Garciamendez, Alina's family moved to Texas, where she attended Ursuline Academy in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

. Garciamendez helped lead Ursuline to four consecutive Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools Division I championships, extending the school's streak to 19 consecutive titles. A three-time TAPPS District 1-5A Player of the Year, Garciamendez was rated as the 34th-best college prospect in the class of 2009 by ESPN Rise. During her senior year, she scored eight goals and had 12 assists as a senior midfielder, completing her fourth season as a starter and second as a captain. She also participated in track and field. Garciamendez won a national club championship with Dallas Texans Red 91 in 2008 and reached the finals in 2007. She also won three Region III championships and four North Texas State Cup titles. She is of Mexican descent.

Stanford University

Garciamendez has started every match since she arrived at Stanford in 2009, setting a school-record of 100 matches. During her freshman year, she was a vital part of a defensive line that allowed only 0.58 goals per match and totaled 14 shutouts. She was named to the Soccer America All-Freshman and Top Drawer Soccer All-Rookie first teams and selected to the All-Pac-10 second team and Pac-10 All-Freshman team. She was also named among CollegeSoccer360.com's Primetime Performers of the Week on Oct. 20 following Stanford's shutouts of USC and UCLA. As a sophomore, she became team co-captain and scored her first collegiate goal against Santa Clara in the second round of the NCAA tournament on a header at the far post in the 49th minute. The goal gave Stanford a 2-0 lead and proved to be the winner in a 2-1 victor. Mirroring her freshman year, she was the foundation of a defense that allowed 0.45 goals per match and had 15 shutouts. During her junior year, Garciamendez contributed to 18 shutouts and a team goals-against average of 0.34 from her central defender position. She scored on a header for Stanford's final goal in 3-0 NCAA semifinal victory over Florida State. She was named to the Soccer America MVPs second team, NSCAA All-Pacific Region first team, All-Pac-12 first team, and NCAA College Cup All-Tournament Team. Soccer America honored her as a Preseason All-American. In 2012, she was a semifinalist for the MAC

Hermann Trophy The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the United States's top men's and women's college soccer players. History In 1967, Bob Hermann, the president of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) and the ...

award.

Playing career

Club

In 2013, Garciamendez was allocated to the

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 ...

for the inaugural season of the

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 ...

as part of the

NWSL Player Allocation The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) federation players were players whose salaries for playing in the NWSL were paid for by their respective national federations from 2013 to 2021. American federation players were contracted to the United Sta ...

. However, she later opted to join German side,

FFC Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt is a German women's association football club based in Frankfurt. Its first team currently plays in the German top flight, Frauen-Bundesliga. From 1998 to 2020, the club was known as 1. FFC Frankfurt. Eintracht have won se ...

, signing a contract through 2015. In October 2013, it was announced that her NWSL rights had been traded to the

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, ...

International

Garciamendez joined the Mexico national team system in February 2008. She scored two goals at the U-17 CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Trinidad and Tobago in July, 2008 and played two matches as forward at the 2008 FIFA under-20 Women's World Cup in Chile. She was captain of the Mexico team at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Germany and scored on a short-range volley against Nigeria, in the 78th minute, to tie the match 1-1, allowing Mexico to win its group and advance to the knockout stages. She also captained the Mexico team that finished second in the eight-team U-20 CONCACAF Championship in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Garciamendez was a starter for the

Mexico women's national football team The Mexico women's national football team represents Mexico on the international stage. The squad is governed by the Mexican Football Federation and competes within CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Associatio ...

at the

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It was held from 26 June to 17 July 2011 in Germany, which won the right to host the even ...

. She also started during the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament semifinals on January 24, 2012, but the team fell one victory short of a berth in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

References

External links

*
Profile
at

Mexican Football Federation The Mexican Football Federation (; abbreviated as Femexfut or FMF) is the governing body of association football in Mexico. It adm the Mexico national team, the Liga MX and all affiliated amateur sectors, and controls promoting, organizing, direc ...

*
Stanford player profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garciamendez, Alina 1991 births Living people Citizens of Mexico through descent Mexican women's footballers Women's association football defenders Mexico women's international footballers 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1. FFC Frankfurt players Mexican expatriate women's footballers Mexican expatriate sportspeople in Germany American women's soccer players Soccer players from California Sportspeople from Santa Clara County, California People from Los Gatos, California Soccer players from Texas American sportspeople of Mexican descent Stanford Cardinal women's soccer players American expatriate women's soccer players American expatriate soccer players in Germany 21st-century American women