So she’s already got an edge on husband Zach – that is http://www.cardinalsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-zach-allen-jersey , if they were competitive.

She says the athletic couple doesn’t really try to one-up each other all that much.

”Maybe in board games,” she says with a laugh.

Julie and Zach are currently the sporting world’s ”It” couple. Julie is a midfielder for the World Cup-winning U.S. national soccer team, while her husband Zach is a tight end for the Super Bowl-bound Philadelphia Eagles. The joke is that they both play football, just different kinds.

Just as Zach was in Canada for the 2015 World Cup final cheering on Julie, she’ll be rooting for him on Sunday in Minneapolis. In fact, she’s already there, acting as a correspondent for the U.S. team’s Twitter feed .

The couple was married last March after a romance that started when Julie, then Julie Johnston, was an emerging soccer star at Santa Clara and Zach was playing at Stanford.

Julie’s career took off in 2015, well before Zach reached the NFL’s biggest stage, when she was selected by national team coach Jill Ellis for the World Cup roster. At 23, she was the second-youngest player on the squad for soccer’s premier tournament.

”You train as if whenever you’re called upon you’re ready,” she said. ”I think that was a huge mentality that was important for me. I know I really wanted to make the team, but I knew that I had a long way to go. So I tried every day to take it day by day and really learn anything I could at practice, and do every extra thing that I thought I needed to do.”

Johnston played on a backline that included Meghan Klingenberg, Becky Sauerbrunn and Ali Krieger. The defense was anchored by Hope Solo Gary Jennings Jr. Jersey , who was spectacular in goal. The group went 540 minutes during the tournament without conceding a goal on the way to a 5-2 final victory over Japan.

With her trademark baby-blue headband, Johnston quickly proved she was one of the sport’s fastest-rising stars. Today, she’s introspective about her world championship.

”I could give you 1,000 moments that were special, but looking back it was the journey, and everything that I learned about myself and what I didn’t think I could do,” she said. ”I learned a lot, and it really pushed my love for the sport even more than I already loved it.”

She shifted to a defensive midfielder position with the national team last year and did well. At the Tournament of Nations she came in as a substitute and scored the winner of a 4-3 victory in the 89th minute.

She played at that position the rest of the season, scoring six goals, including two against New Zealand. In December she was selected the national team’s Player of the Year, earning more than half of all the votes.

But probably the happiest thing she did last year was marry Zach. The two tied the knot in March in California.

Zach, 27, is in his fifth season with the Eagles. He broke out this season with 824 receiving yards, behind only New England’s Rob Gronkowski (1,084) and Kansas City’s Travis Kelce (1,038) among the ends. His eight touchdowns were double his previous career high Phil Haynes Jersey , and he had eight catches for 93 yards in the NFC championship game.

The two were apart when the Eagles clinched their spot in the Super Bowl with a 38-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Julie was in San Diego for a national team match against Denmark. She was among the players who scored in the 5-1 victory.

Afterward, when she was told Zach was going to the Super Bowl, she burst into tears .

”Zach knew I was there obviously in spirit and I was praying for him and I was excited for him and cheering him from miles away,” she said. ”It’s a part of our job and we sacrifice a lot, and time’s the biggest thing. But to find out that they are going to the Super Bowl was amazing, exciting, emotional. It’s really cool to see your loved one’s hard work pay off.”

That’s part of the mutual respect their marriage is built on.

”She understands how hard I worked and how hard this team worked to get to this point. We’re each other’s No. 1 fan. Our relationship wasn’t built on the athletic success. We truly love each other and that’s the most important thing,” Zach said.

To that end, Julie said it’s Zach’s turn in the spotlight.

”This is his time,” she said. ”I’m here. I’m a fan! I’m going to be in the stands, cheering with everyone else.”

—

When the fledgling Alliance of American Football held four exhibition games recently in San Antonio, something was missing.Kickoffs.“We were all looking around saying, ‘Does anyone miss kickoffs?’ The answer was, no, we did not miss them,” said Mike Pereira Ugo Amadi Jersey , the NFL’s former vice president of officiating who is a consultant for the latest attempt at a spring league.So, yes, when the eight-team AAF kicks off this weekend, there will be no kickoffs as a nod to player safety and one of many twists to make games faster.There will be plenty of other differences between the NFL and the AAF, which was founded by Bill Polian, a Hall of Famer and former NFL general manager, and Charlie Ebersol, a longtime TV and film producer.Among them will be a ninth member of the officiating crew, called a SkyJudge who will be in the press box and can instantly correct “obvious and egregious” officiating errors, like the one that marred the NFC championship game. Overtime will be different, too.The AAF opens Saturday with the San Diego Fleet visiting the San Antonio Commanders and the Atlanta Legends at the Orlando Apollos. Games continue Sunday with the Memphis Express visiting the Birmingham Iron and the Salt Lake Stallions at the Arizona Hotshots.Those games will start without kickoffs. There will still be a coin toss, with the winner deciding whether to receive or defer. The team that gets the ball will simply send out its offense to start from its 25.“The players got used to it very quickly,” Pereira said in a phone interview from his home in Sacramento. “It’s a bit of a timesaver. Our goal is to play in 2 1/2 hours.”Perhaps the most timely change is the SkyJudge, who is able to use real-time technology to correct clear errors involving player safety anytime during a game and pass interference inside of five minutes left in the fourth quarter.The SkyJudge was already in place before the non-call late in the NFC championship game that pretty much cost New Orleans a spot in the Super Bowl. NFL officiating chief Al Riveron called Saints coach Sean Payton after the game and admitted the game officials missed the helmet-to-helmet hit and pass interference penalty by Rams defensive back Nickell Robey-Coleman.Pereira said it was modeled in part after the college targeting rule, which allows replay to step in and call targeting even if was not called on field, or take it off if was called but wasn’t not really targeting.“If you get a helmet-to-helmet spear and it’s not called on the field Dwayne Haskins Jersey , it can be picked up by the ninth official,” Pereira said. “He has the ability to do it in real time. It doesn’t go to replay. … He can call down to the field and say, ‘Hey, spearing on No. 33 of Birmingham, 15-yard penalty, let’s go.’“It’s correcting errors on the field by another member of the officiating crew without having to go to replay to do it and having a three-minute stoppage to do it.”If the SkyJudge gets a quick replay, he could view it before the ball is snapped. They just can’t delay the next snap.Also gone are onside kicks and point-after kicks. When teams score touchdowns, they must try a two-point conversion. Field goals are still OK, except in overtime. The play clock will be reduced from 40 seconds to 35 seconds. The AAF will also go back to the original NFL replay scheme of giving each team two challenges, and that’s it. That means no time-consuming video reviews for turnovers and touchdowns.While onside kicks are out, “onside conversions” are in, if a team is trailing by 17 points or for either team inside of five minutes remaining in the game.So, rather than trying an onside kick, a team must convert a fourth-and-12 from its 28 in order to keep the ball.Pereira said teams like that change, too.“It was an exciting play in these preseason games. You get one play and if you reach the 40, you keep ball. If not D.K. Metcalf Jersey , the ball goes over to the other team. It can be punitive. If you your throw an incomplete pass, the receiving team gets the ball at the 28-yard line. At least it gives teams an opportunity.”In overtime, each team will get the ball once, first-and-goal from the 10. Teams have to score a touchdown and go for two points. Field goals aren’t allowed. The other team then gets a series and can either match the other team or win.Games can end in ties. “We’re not afraid of ties,” Pereira said. “It creates some excitement.”Again, the goal is quicker games.“What’s nice is we’re experimenting with things the NFL has talked about,” Pereira said. “In preseason games these changes proved effective. We had points.“No disrespect to 13-3,” he said, referring to New England’s win against the Los Angeles Rams in the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever, “but we’d much rather see 31-28.”