Cari Elizabeth Roccaro (born July 18, 1994) is an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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 ...

from East Islip, New York, who plays for the Chicago Red Stars in 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 ...

. She competed for the United States under-20 women's national soccer team and competed with the team to win the 2012 FIFA Under-20 Women's World Cup held in

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. Roccaro previously played for the

New York Fury New York Fury was a semi-professional American women’s soccer club playing in the Women's Premier Soccer League Elite, the top tier of women’s soccer in the United States in 2012. It was part of the Fury Soccer Organization which also supports ...

in the

WPSL 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 ...

Early life

Roccaro attended East Islip High School in

Islip Terrace, New York Islip Terrace (formerly known as Germantown) is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Islip, New York, Town of Islip in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, New York (state), New York, United States. The populati ...

, where she played for the Redmen. During her senior year, she scored 11 goals with an 11–3–1 record. She was named a First Team ESPNHS All-American, a two-time All-American selection by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and was

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

Player of the Year. Roccaro led the Redmen as team captain as a sophomore, junior, and senior. She was named All-League, All-Conference, and All-County as a freshman, junior, and senior and Team MVP as a freshman and senior. A highly decorated player, she was named NSCAA All-American as a junior and senior and Parade All-American as a junior. She was also named New York Gatorade Player of the Year, Long Island Player of the Year, and New York State Player of the Year as a senior. Roccaro played for local club team, Albertson Fury and was a member of the Olympic Development Program (ODP) Region I Team from 2007–2010 as well as the Eastern New York state Olympic Development Program (ODP) squad from 2005–2010.

New York Fury

While still in high school, Roccaro played for Long Island Fury in Women's Premier Soccer League, the second tier of women's soccer in the United States. She joined the club

, in the new

which was created after the folding of Women's Professional Soccer in early 2012.

University of Notre Dame

Roccaro attended the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

where she played as a defender for the Fighting Irish. In January 2013, she was named Soccer America's Women's Freshman of the Year after leading Notre Dame to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division I Tournament. She was also named Big East Conference Rookie of the Year

Club career

Houston Dash, 2016–2017

Roccaro was selected by the Houston Dash with the 5th overall pick in the

2016 NWSL College Draft Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * '' Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film di ...

. Over two seasons with the Dash, she made 33 appearances. On March 19, 2018, she was waived by the club.

North Carolina Courage, 2018–2021

She signed with North Carolina Courage on April 12, 2018. She made two appearances for the club during the 2018 season. North Carolina won the 2018 NWSL Shield & NWSL Championship.

Angel City, 2022

In December 2021, the North Carolina Courage traded Roccaro's rights to Los Angeles-based Angel City Football Club (ACFC) in exchange for roster protection in the 2022 NWSL Expansion Draft. In January, 2022, ACFC announced that Rocarro had been signed to a two year contract. Roccaro had four goals and one assist during the 2022 season.

Chicago Red Stars, 2023-Present

On January 24, 2023, Angel City traded Rocarro to the Chicago Red Stars in exchange for $65,000 in allocation money.

International career

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup 2012 Awards Ceremony 14

Roccaro has represented the United States as a member of the U-15, U-17, U-18 and U-20 national youth teams. In March 2010, she scored her first international goal in a qualifier match against Haiti during the

2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Women's association football, women's football tournament is the second such tournament, and was held in Trinidad and Tobago from 5 to 25 September 2010. Sixteen teams, comprising representatives from all six c ...

. She also played and scored goals for the US during the

2010 CONCACAF Under-17 Women's Championship The 2010 CONCACAF Under-17 Women's Championship was held in Costa Rica from March 10–20, 2010. This was the second edition of the U-17 women's championship for CONCACAF. The first and second placed teams qualified for the 2010 FIFA U-17 Women ...

and

2012 CONCACAF Under-20 Women's Championship The 2012 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship was the sixth edition of the CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship. The final tournament was hosted by Panama from 1 to 11 March 2012. All matches were played at the Estadio Rommel Fernández. The top three ...

. Roccaro was a member of the United States U-20 squad, which won the

2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the 6th edition of the tournament. The tournament was played in Japan from 19 August to 8 September, with sixteen national football soccer teams and mark the first hosting of a FIFA women's football tourna ...

in Japan. She played two matches in the group stage; and played in all three matches in the

knock-out stage A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking ...

. Roccaro captained the United States under-20 women's national soccer team that competed at

2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was an international association football tournament and the world championship for women's national teams under the age of 20, presented by Grant Connell, organized by the sport's world governing body FIFA. ...

in Canada. She played all 360 minutes of the four matches played by the team, which was eliminated in the quarter-final.

Honors

International

* CONCACAF U20 Women's Championship: 2012, 2014 * FIFA U20 Women's World Cup: 2012

Club

North Carolina Courage * NWSL Champions:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

NWSL Shield The NWSL Shield is an annual award given to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team with the best regular season record as determined by the NWSL points system. The NWSL Shield has been awarded annually since 2013 and is recognized as a ...

References

External links

*
US Soccer player profile

Cari Roccaro's New York Fury statistics
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roccaro, Cari 1994 births Living people American women's soccer players Women's Premier Soccer League Elite players New York Fury players Parade High School All-Americans (girls' soccer) Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's soccer players People from East Islip, New York Soccer players from New York (state) Sportspeople from Suffolk County, New York Women's association football defenders Houston Dash players National Women's Soccer League players Houston Dash draft picks United States women's under-20 international soccer players North Carolina Courage players Long Island Fury players Angel City FC players Chicago Red Stars players