'Basically, it's footy & coffee': Inside the USWNT's caffeine-fueled bonding

AUCKLAND, New Zealand – If you follow any of the United States women's national team players on social media, you might have noticed an unusual post popping up frequently throughout this World Cup: Coffee art.

Alex Morgan shared a photo of a cup of coffee with a photo of her daughter Charlie printed on top. Julie Ertz did one of the emoji with its tongue sticking out. Ashley Sanchez posted one with a selfie of her and Naomi Girma. Lynn Williams recently had one with a silly image of Megan Rapinoe on it.

[Megan Rapinoe went from star to sub for USWNT, but she's not sweating it]

Nike, a U.S. Soccer sponsor, provided the squad with the fancy coffee machine, a Cinoart Coffee Printer (retail: $2,873.85), which allows players to upload photos directly from their phones that will appear on top of their coffee.

"It's like a little splash of joy every morning," left back Crystal Dunn, whose go-to is an iced Americano with a splash of oat milk, said of the "sick" coffee printer. "Everyone knows that the stakes are really high now, and just finding those little things that you can wake up to and be excited about, just to calm the nerves a bit, has been great."

It's been the perfect gift for a U.S. team that views coffee not just as a pick-me-up but as a bonding ritual.

"We all enjoy getting coffee together and that's a way to be social with one another other than just, like, being at training together," right back Sofia Huerta said. "It definitely brings us together."

Turns out, New Zealand is the perfect place for a bunch of coffee obsessives. It's impossible to walk one block here without seeing a coffee shop – or four.

"The coffee culture is up there for sure," Huerta said.

There are places like Starbucks and Mojo, a regional chain. But mostly, New Zealand is a coffee-obsessed country with mom-and-pop shops everywhere that use locally roasted beans and all kinds of milk from dairy to alternative.

The good thing for the USWNT players – as they prepare for their third and final group stage match against Portugal (coverage begins Tuesday at 1 a.m. ET, with kickoff at 3 a.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app) – is that if they don't have time to run around the block and grab a cup before training or a meeting, they can order some in the confines of their base camp hotel.

[USA vs. Portugal: Everything to know, how to watch group-stage finale]

There's a coffee bar and barista in the lobby – which is a regular bar when the hotel isn't solely occupied by the USWNT – so players and staff can caffeinate any time they wish.

"We are a huge coffee team," said Williams, who orders a double shot Americano with steamed oat milk if it's a cold day, or adds regular oat milk if it's a hot day.

Of course, the players have been walking around and exploring local shops in Auckland and Wellington – the two cities where they've played matches so far – when they can. It's their chance to socialize, decompress and bond when they have downtime.

Morgan usually finds an hour here and there to grab an oat milk latte with her father, Mike, while on the road. She's one of the many USWNT players who enjoys multiple coffees per day – she recently came to a news conference around 3 p.m. local time with her second cup in hand. While everyone has their own limitations, studies have shown that caffeine can improve performance.

"Basically, it's footy & coffee currently," Morgan posted on Instagram.

The team has a few matcha and tea drinkers as well, and then there's 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson, the youngest player on the team, who hasn't caught the buzz yet.

"I don't drink coffee," Thompson said. "I usually get like a chai or a matcha if we go out to a coffee place. If they don't have it, then I just don't get anything."

[USA vs. Portugal scouting report: How Americans secure much-needed result]

Aside from the smaller cup sizes, one thing that's different about getting coffee in New Zealand versus the U.S. is that they don't typically add flavors like vanilla or caramel to drinks. While Emily Fox loves a simple iced latte or flat white, Huerta usually goes for a vanilla iced latte with almond milk but has had a hard time finding them.

"They don't really do vanilla and I'm like, ‘What the heck?'" Huerta said. "That's the only reason I like coffee."

As the World Cup becomes more stressful and the pressure of winning a third-straight title gets closer, players can always find solace in their regular coffee dates.

"Yeah, sometimes I think it's a sickness," Dunn said. "But like, listen. We gotta get our coffee intake."

Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of "Strong Like a Woman," published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her on Twitter @LakenLitman.