Exclusive: Introducing Women’s Soccer’s Liv Rademaker

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Liv Rademaker to talk about how she came to Virginia, her play, her teammates, head coach Steve Swanson, and even if she had any issues with my coverage of the team. Her responses are lightly edited for readability.

I asked her about how she came to Virginia and if she was enjoying life in America. She said she is loving it. Her mother did a year abroad stateside when she was in school and always wanted Liv to spend some time in the states. Her father especially wanted Liv to go to college and get her degree.

Rademaker: For the past three years I was part of the Ajax Academy, and we have our own high school on the training facilities. You are basically with your team all the time, which is really fun, but it makes your world really small. It has been refreshing to meet so many people outside of soccer here, as well as everyone on the team.

I came on a visit here last year and I realized this fits perfectly for my type of personality and the things I want to achieve in life. I don’t only want a good soccer career; I want to get a good professional career as well. I thought Virginia was going to be such a big opportunity, not only for soccer, but basically the whole experience.

It’s definitely been a good decision.

Liv has been playing for Virginia at left back and I asked her if that was her preferred position, or if she saw herself playing somewhere else as her career progressed.

Rademaker: When I joined Ajax, my first year I came in as a substitute as a striker. But then my second year I played more at right back. The national team had me switching around, but at the Euros, when we played Spain, their right winger was the player of the tournament from the season before. And they wanted me on that side to defend her. But I just like switching around depending on the opponent.

I then asked her if Coach Swanson had told her about the lineage of the left backs that preceded her, Courtney Petersen and Samar Guidry. No one had. She’d heard about Guidry, because she was here just last year, but just in passing. I suggested she get someone to tell her who they were.

I then asked her about she most likes about her play on the pitch and what she feels she needs to work on going forward.

Rademaker: For the things I like? I’ve developed myself. I’ve always been a good defender. If you pass me as a winger, you will definitely face me again when you're still running to the goal. I would just want to keep my defending stable. My goal every game is that the attacker doesn't get past me. Since I’ve been here, I've been working with our assistant coach Sam [Raper] a lot on more anticipating instead of reacting defensively. OK, so I would position myself a little bit late when I came here, and I could make up for it with my speed, but it's better to already be in a good position and then be able to defend from there, especially if we're going to face better opponents.

Since Liv brought up speed, I interjected and asked her who was the fastest on the team. She said Meredith McDermott. I pressed her a little bit: was Meredith really faster than Laney Rouse, and she said yes, but Rouse is faster over the first couple of meters.

I then brought up Virginia’s fast starts this year, from Lia Godfrey’s first-minute goal against Duke, who hadn’t even completed two passes, to Maggie Cagle’s quick goal vs Penn State after a 90-minute rain delay. There were also early second half goals by McDermott, Allie Ross and Addison Halpern. I’ve been framing this as the Battle for Halftime, and Swanson has been killing it all season. Given that Liv had heard halftime talks from coaches as Ajaz and the Dutch national team, what is it that makes Swanson so good?

Rademaker: I think the biggest part is that Steve is super good at reading the room. He knows exactly what to say and it differs from every game. He’s really good at triggering us to stay focused. If we’re up 1 – 0 at halftime, what does it mean? And we were obviously like, it doesn’t mean anything. You have to stay focused. We also have film at halftime on things we can improve. He just knows what to say to bring more calmness to our game.

I then asked Liv what I call the “Paul Scholes Question.” It’s something I have asked everyone I’ve ever interviewed, but Scholes was a member of the great Manchester United teams from the turn of the century, playing alongside David Beckham, Roy Keane and Ryan Giggs. The legend of Paul Scholes at Man Utd was that he never lost any games at practice and that everyone always wanted to be on his team. I asked Liv, “Is there a player on this team that you want to be with on her team because she just gets it better than anyone else?”

Rademaker: Ooh. That’s a good question. [Long pause.] Jill [Flammia.] She brings the right energy at the right moments and it’s our energy that has improved since the beginning of the season. She cheers other people, she’s having fun, if she plays a bad pass, she will recover. I think that makes her win a lot of things during practice.

To answer the question of who was the most competitive player on the team, there was no hesitation; it’s Maggie Cagle, who sets pretty high standards for everyone else. The word Liv used was “inspiring.”

I asked Liv about the number 1 ranking that the Cavaliers currently possess. They are not a thing in Europe and I asked her if she found the American obsession with rankings strange. Her answer was yes, but also:

Rademaker: I thought it was really strange that all the other girls, the first years, were ranked individually before they got to college. That was really strange. I do admit that I don’t really understand the rankings and how they exactly work.

At first, other students in my classes were kind of interested in what we were doing. When were ranked 13th and then 8th early in the season, most didn’t really seem to care. But now that we are ranked number 1, we definitely get more questions, like when do we play, and people want to watch. So that’s made me realize that it is a big thing here.

The conversation veered a bit and she brought up Maya Carter. Carter is an interesting case this year. For the last three seasons, Carter has played as a forward, but this year she’s playing defense, usually coming in when Rademaker sits. It’s been great to see because, frankly, Carter is a better defender.

Rademaker: While we were in pre preseason, like when we were just playing without the coaches and I thought she was a great defender. She did really well. And then during preseason too, and I think like two weeks into preseason, somebody told me that she was a striker before and I didn't believe it because she was so great at making her tackles and defending. How did she learn that playing forward?

I then asked Liv if she had read any of my reporting, and if she had, was there anything she wanted to take issue with.

Rademaker: Well, that’s a funny thing. We couldn’t really watch last season’s games, so my dad would send me all the articles he could find about the team, including yours. I thought it was interesting how in-depth your critiques were on the team, and even during the first games of this season.

It was interesting to read them as an outsider, but as an insider, I don’t think you realize how good of a coach Steve is, and how good the assistants we have are. At the beginning of the season we were struggling with our technical execution, but Steve just kept us working on it. Practice was just insane. He made us defend this wall. (Unbelievably, I didn’t follow up to find out what this defending-the-wall session was.) Sam [Raper] is incredible with details, Eilidh [Thomson] gives us the stats about the games, Ron [Raab] presents us with the game footage during halftimes, and shows us where the spaces are that we can exploit, and Lizzie [Sieracki] has been helping with my positioning.

The coaching staff here is amazing. And it starts with Steve.

And that is as good a place to leave it. Liv has been the most impressive of the quintet of first-years who have gotten playing time and I am looking forward to seeing her helm the left back position in the tradition of Courtney Petersen and Samar Guidry. Especially once she learns who they are.

More Virginia News: