I love soccer. I’m enjoying soccer the most that I have in two years. I’m just very happy. This organization, this team, this coach, it’s just great here. — Leslie Osborne

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Leslie Osborne's healthy return has helped the Boston Breakers win six of their last seven games.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Aug. 5, 2010) -- Leslie Osborne’s future is a choose-your-own adventure of possibilities and promise. Like the protagonist of a novel yet unwritten, she could wake up one day and find herself a college coach, a television announcer, a mother, a fashion designer who minors in modeling or a model who dabbles in design.

Any or all of it is out there waiting for well-traveled Wisconsinite, who has picked up her mail from Hermosa Beach to Back Bay between road trips around the globe but whose voice still carries the distinctive ring of someone who gets a drink of water from the "bubbler" and can’t escape a fascination with cheese in all its curd glory.

"She's such a quality person," said Boston Breakers teammate Lindsay Tarpley, one of Osborne's closest friends for more than 15 years. "The thing that separates her is she's such a great person and she remains true to who she is. So no matter what the situation is, she knows who she is, she knows what she stands for. And she brings that every day."
 
Perhaps that's why future aside, one look at Osborne’s recent past leaves little doubt why the 27-year-old midfielder is savoring the days as they come in her first season with the Breakers. And in turn, perhaps, why the Breakers, whose own on-field future appeared bleak as recently as a month ago, are now making the most of their moment.
 
To understand Osborne, start with the supposition that she’s quite possibly the nicest person who would ever drop you where you stand, without hesitation, should you come between her and the ball.

Consider a recent game against FC Gold Pride and Shannon Boxx, a player Osborne readily credits as a mentor -- Osborne's own web site, hardly the expected venue for an expression of humility from a pro athlete, even notes that her break with the national team came about in no small part because of the injury that took Boxx out of action and left the team down a holding midfielder.

It’s the sort of deference that extends right up to the point when a ball came between them.
 
Then down went Boxx and away came the Breakers with the ball.
 
"I know she's there, and I trust her 100 percent on the field," Tarpley said. "I know that she's going to fight hard. She's such a tough defender -- she's the type of person that you don't want to go against. And she's always been like that. It's been incredible to see her from a young age and continue to grow and have the same qualities and [also] develop in certain areas but remain true to who she really is."
 
When Boxx was out of action during the early buildup to the 2007 World Cup, that work ethic is a large part of what earned Osborne, cut during roster selection for the 2004 Olympics, a spot on the national team and eventually in the starting lineup for much of the tournament in China. A bright spot in an otherwise disappointing third-place finish for the American side, her performance against current Breakers teammate Kelly Smith in a quarterfinal win against England might have been the team’s best individual performance during its stay.
 
But in May of the following year, with a spot on the 2008 Olympic team within grasp, Osborne tore the ACL in her left knee during a scrimmage. Not only did she need surgery to repair the knee ligament but also to repair damage in her left ankle. Getting cut from the national team during the previous Olympic cycle had renewed her passion for the sport and spurred on the success that followed soon thereafter. In its own way, it sharpened her focus on that which she could control. This time, the surgeries and extensive rehab that followed had their own effect, a reminder of that which she couldn’t control and offering a chance to explore the opportunities for a life after soccer that intrigued her.
 
All of which also served to underscore that the grass can’t be greener than it is on a soccer field.
 
“I think only my close friends and family know how much I went through with my injury,” Osborne said. “I think that people didn’t understand that not only did I have ACL surgery, I had my whole ankle reconstructed. It took me about 10 months of rehab for me to come back from that. So last year, when I suited up for my first professional game for FC Gold Pride, it meant a lot to me. And to get called back in the national team last year meant even more to me. To put on that jersey [against Canada in July 2009], that was amazing to me, to make it back to the national team even one time.”
 
It remains her only appearance with the national team since the knee injury. She believes she's back to 100 percent of what she was before the injury, yet there is also a hint of acceptance that United States coach Pia Sundhage may not have a place for a holding midfielder liker her when it comes to next summer’s World Cup in Germany.
 
“I don’t know if I’ll ever wear the [United States] jersey again,” Osborne said of the kit in which she's earned 61 caps for her country. “But I know going through sitting out an Olympics … and going through the 10 months of rehab and playing soccer again, I just am so thankful that I’m playing professionally again. I think it’s just made me a stronger person.”

It also took her across the country to Boston as a free agent. Playing for FC Gold Pride last season, not far from where she starred in college at Santa Clara, seemed a perfect fit, but she struggled to live up to her own expectations coming back from the injuries and said she never felt as close to coach Albertin Montoya as she had to her previous coaches.
 
Just as had been true of FC Gold Pride a season ago, the Breakers struggled to score out of the gate. They managed just five goals in nine games after a 2-1 win against Washington to open the season and sank to the bottom of the standings. The last three games in that stretch, spanning the month of June, came with Osborne again knocked out of action by her left leg, hospitalized at one point by an infection that set in after an initial injury in May.
 
It’s surely not simple cause-and-effect that Osborne’s return to the lineup alone sparked a resurgence that has seen the Breakers win six of their next seven games, losing only a tough 2-1 decision on July 21 to league-leading FC Gold Pride. Roughly coinciding with that span, the Breakers also added Tarpley, saw rookie Jordan Angeli hit an amazing vein of form, found some good fortune and generally did all the things teams do to turn losses and scoreless draws into goals and wins.
 
But it seems at least an equal stretch to suggest the timing of Osborne’s return was purely coincidental, either.

"When Leslie was hurt for those three games, we lost all three of them," Breakers coach Tony DiCicco said. "We have a bloopers tape on Leslie -- she falls over and heads balls from the ground, she runs into referees, she's on the ground a lot. But she really fills in that part of the field. ... She's a real anchor for us behind our attacking players."

A co-captain, she can be infectious in a much more benign manner than whatever infected the wound that still stands out on her left shin and offers opponents an inviting target to land a retaliatory blow. And again, it must be more than coincidence that in the town that gave the sports world "25 players, 25 cabs" to describe the lack of chemistry on Red Sox teams of old, the Breakers wouldn't follow suit even if the players could afford such commuting luxuries.
 
“Everyone leads a different life here, but this team is extremely close and we hang out all the time,” Osborne said. “Kristine Lilly’s 39 years old, married and has a kid and she’s hanging out with us. She wants to be around us. Weekdays off and we’re together. That doesn’t usually happen. Last year, this team, I heard, when they had a day off, no one saw each other. So the environment we’ve created here is a strong unity and that’s really important. Our season, even the way we’re turning around our season -- we were close even when we were losing.”
 
Between the running paths along the Charles River and the shopping path known as Newbury Street (not to mention Puma headquarters), Boston is proving to be Osborne’s ideal city. She plans to stay even after the season ends, willing to endure a New England winter -- or at least some of it -- as she builds roots. It is, for now at least, her home.
 
“I’m 27 -- I’m not old, but I’m not young anymore,” Osborne said. “I’m a veteran on this team; I’m a co-captain again. I’m a leader on this team. I want to play, definitely, for at least five more years. My body may make it way more than I’m planning on it. Or I may have a major injury. I’m not sure. All I know is I have backup plans. I’m a busy person. I have myself doing academies and clinics. I coached at Santa Clara last year. Broadcasting is something I want to do. I have things that if I can’t ever play soccer again, that I’m ready for.
 
“But my heart -- I love soccer. I’m enjoying soccer the most that I have in two years. I’m just very happy.  This organization, this team, this coach, it’s just great here.”
 
Osborne’s future off the field isn’t just bright; it’s luminous. But as long as there is light enough to play soccer, the here and now is itself a pretty comfortable place.

Graham Hays is an ESPN columnist and a contributor to womensprosoccer.com. He can be reached at moonlighthays@gmail.com . The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Women’s Professional Soccer or  womensprosoccer.com.