Alex Morgan Says Being a Mom Has Actually Upped Her Soccer Game — Here's Why (Exclusive)

The soccer star says she's actually a better player now that she's a parent: "I'm more level-headed."

While most women find that having a kid can impede their physical abilities, soccer star Alex Morgan, who's about to go into her fourth World Cup, says being a parent to her daughter Charlie, 3, has only upped her game.

"[Parenthood] just makes me feel more balanced all around," the co-captain of the United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) and captain of the San Diego Wave tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "I'm able to give everything to the sport and my teams, but when I go home, I'm not dwelling on whether I had a bad training or bad game. I just have to be a mom, and tend to my child's needs instead of overanalyzing things."

She adds, "Plus, whether the game was bad or not when I step off the field and my daughter runs up to me, everything's good."

Morgan and her husband, soccer player Servando Carrasco, whom she met in college while playing for UC Berkeley, welcomed Charlie in 2020, and Morgan credits the USWNT for allowing her and her fellow moms on the national team (Julie Ertz and Crystal Dunn) to bring their families along for the ride.

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Related: Alex Morgan Says It Was 'Really Difficult' to Return to Soccer After Birth of Daughter Charlie

"I think that that's really special, to not have to leave our child at home while doing what we love and playing our sport," she says. "You get the best of both worlds and that's how it should be, but it's not how it always was."

Morgan says being a mom has also taught her patience she didn't always have.

"I'm a lot more calm and level-headed in how I approach soccer now," she says. "I'm also feeling confident, and like I'm playing my best soccer. I feel capable, like someone the younger players can look to in times of uncertainty."

So has Charlie shown an interest in the sport herself?

"She does already love soccer, but she's just pretty athletic in general," Morgan says. "She's very competitive, and when we get to a hotel she wants to race me down the hallway. Be the one to touch the walls first. She wants to sing and dance all day and all night. She's very active!"

She says Charlie is also the self-appointed leader of the baby squad.

"Crystal's son Marcel is 1, and she loves to walk him around, holding his hand, getting him blueberries. And she loves that her mom plays soccer because, at the end of each game, she gets to go on the field and kick the ball around!"

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