Jamaican Women's World Cup player Cheyna Matthews tears up when she recalls one of her three little boys saying: "Why are you always gone so long?"
But some players at the tournament in Australia and New Zealand have found a solution to suffering similar anxieties about being apart from their young children for weeks — they have brought them along.
Midfielder Melanie Leupolz has her infant son and a nanny with her during the tournament, which will last one month if Germany fulfills expectations back home by reaching the final in Sydney on Aug. 20.