PORTLAND, Ore. – Growing up in Hella, Iceland – a village of fewer than 800 residents – Portland Thorns FC midfielder Dagny Brynjarsdottir spent most of her childhood evenings kicking around a soccer ball or playing basketball with the local boys until well past sundown. She would stay out playing until her mother called her inside for dinner.
So when Brynjarsdottir played soccer with the girls for the first time at 13 years-old, the experience shocked her.
“When I was with boys – even though we were arguing on the field – I just tackled someone pretty hard and he just tackled me back,” she recalls.