Product Code Database
Shannon Leigh Boxx Spearman (; born June 29, 1977) is an American retired soccer player and former member of the United States women's national soccer team, playing the defensive midfielder position. She last played club soccer for the Chicago Red Stars in the American National Women's Soccer League. She won gold medals with the United States at the 2004 Athens Olympics, 2008 Beijing Olympics, and 2012 London Olympics. She has also finished third place or better with the US at the 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 FIFA Women's World Cups. She was a finalist for the 2005 FIFA World Player of the Year award, and won an NCAA Women's Soccer Championship with Notre Dame in 1995. Shannon Boxx announced her retirement from international and club soccer after winning the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. She played her last game on October 21, 2015, when the USWNT tied with Brazil as part of their victory tour.
Boxx is the younger sister of Gillian Boxx, who won a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics with the United States softball team.
Boxx was diagnosed with lupus in 2007 when she was 30 years old, and went public with her diagnosis shortly before the 2012 London Olympics at which she won gold with the United States team.
In 2020, Boxx joined the ownership group of Angel City FC of the National Women's Soccer League.
In 2022, Boxx was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
| Notre Dame 1995 | 25/21 | 7 | 10 | 24 | 21–2–2 |
| Notre Dame 1996 | 26/25 | 12 | 16 | 40 | 24–2–0 |
| Notre Dame 1997 | 25/25 | 13 | 17 | 43 | 23–1–1 |
| Notre Dame 1998 | 25/25 | 7 | 14 | 28 | 21–3–1 |
In the 2001 season, Boxx started all 21 matches for the Spirit, missing 20 minutes of the entire season, and was named to the All-WUSA team. However, her playing time was reduced the following season, and in September 2002, she was sent to the New York Power, in a six-player trade that gave San Diego the first overall pick in the 2003 draft, used to select Aly Wagner.
With New York, Boxx returned to form, starting all 21 games, scoring once and assisting a career-high eight times, and was named to the 2003 All-WUSA squad. Former women's national team coach and league commissioner Tony DiCicco called Boxx "the best in our league at (defensive midfield) – physical, strong, technical".
| San Diego Spirit 2001 | 21/21 | 1870 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 7–7–7 |
| San Diego Spirit 2002 | 20/15 | 1349 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 5–11–5 |
| New York Power 2003 | 21/21 | 1868 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 7–9–5 |
In 2010, she was signed to the Saint Louis Athletica during the Los Angeles Sol dispersal draft.
Later in the season after Saint Louis Athletica folded, she was traded to the FC Gold Pride. Boxx helped the team win the WPS regular season title and championship. She started in 19 of the 20 games she played in, while scoring one goal and providing five assists. She was a WPS All-Star Game starter and received the fifth overall votes.
For the 2011 WPS season, Boxx signed with magicJack and played 833 minutes in 10 games starting in them all. She helped the club make a run to the playoffs in the second half of the season and win the quarterfinal match against the Boston Breakers.
Boxx scored a goal in each of the two pre-World Cup friendlies, against Costa Rica and Mexico, and in the opening match of the World Cup against Sweden, Boxx became the first American woman to score three goals in her first three matches with the national team.
Boxx started five matches at the Women's World Cup, scoring again against Canada in the third place match. She was voted the player of the match against Canada by the FIFA Technical Study Group, who said Boxx "seized control of the game, spurred on her team-mates and finally scored the decisive goal in USA's victory".
Boxx started 31 of 32 national team matches she played in 2004, including all six matches at the 2004 Olympics, where she scored a goal, assisted on another and helped the team win a gold medal. She scored eight goals over the course of the year, including a hat trick against Trinidad and Tobago in an Olympic qualifying match. Boxx came in seventh in the voting for the 2004 FIFA World Player of the Year award.
In 2005, Boxx started all nine matches US national team matches, playing all but 23 minutes of all matches played. She was a finalist for the 2005 FIFA World Player of the Year, coming in third behind Birgit Prinz and Marta.
Boxx missed most of 2006, first for surgery to repair torn cartilage in her right hip, and then for torn medial collateral ligaments she suffered on her first day back in training with the national team. She returned in 2007 after an eight-month layoff, and was named to the United States' squad for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup. Boxx helped the team reach the semifinal match against Brazil, but she was sent off after receiving two yellow cards, and the United States went on to lose 4–0. Boxx played every minute of all five U.S. games in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
In 2011, she played in all but one of the World Cup games, earning defensive team honors for her efforts throughout the tournament. During the World Cup final against Japan, which went to overtime penalty shoot-out, Boxx was one of the Americans elected to take one of the penalty kicks, and had her shot saved by Japan's goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori.
| 2003 | 9/9 | 762 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 7–1–1 |
| 2004 | 32/31 | 2714 | 8 | 5 | 21 | 26–2–4 |
| 2005 | 9/9 | 733 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8–0–1 |
| 2006 | 9/9 | 793 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6–0–3 |
| 2007 | 10/8 | 623 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10–0–0 |
| 2008 | 33/33 | 2747 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 34–1–1 |
| 2009 | 8/7 | 614 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 7–0–1 |
| 2010 | 18/18 | 1399 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 7–1–1 |
| 2011 | 17/17 | 1344 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 13–3–4 |
| 2012 | 27/23 | 1836 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 27–1–3 |
| 1 | 2003-09-01 | Carson | Start | 1.1 | 53 | Julie Foudy | Exhibition game | |||
| 2 | 2003-09-07 | San Jose | 1.1 | 10 | Julie Foudy | Exhibition game | ||||
| 3 | 2003-09-21 | Washington | Start | 1.1 | 78 | Mia Hamm | ||||
| 4 | 2003-10-11 | Carson | Start | 1.1 | 51 | Mia Hamm | ||||
| 5 | 2004-01-30 | Shenzhen | Start | 1.1 | 13 | Kristine Lilly | Four Nations Tournament | |||
| 6 | 2004-02-25 | San Jose | Start | 3.1 | 22 | Abby Wambach | Olympic qualification | |||
| 7 | 3.2 | 37 | Mia Hamm | |||||||
| 8 | 3.3 | 81 | Aly Wagner | |||||||
| 9 | 2004-03-03 | San Jose | 1.1 | 51 | Shannon MacMillan | Olympic qualification: semifinal | ||||
| 10 | 2004-07-21 | Blaine | 1.1 | 56 | Mia Hamm | Exhibition game | ||||
| 11 | 2004-08-11 | Heraklion | Start | 1.1 | 14 | Mia Hamm | ||||
| 12 | 2004-12-08 | Carson | Start | 1.1 | 44 | unassisted | Exhibition game | |||
| 13 | 2005-07-23 | Carson | 1.1 | 69 | Abby Wambach | Exhibition game | ||||
| 14 | 2006-01-18 | Guangzhou | Start | 1.1 | 77 | Kristine Lilly | Four Nations Tournament | |||
| 15 | 2007-07-28 | San Jose | 1.1 | 17 | Stephanie Lopez | Exhibition game | ||||
| 16 | 2007-08-25 | Carson | 1.1 | 30 | Kristine Lilly | Exhibition game | ||||
| 17 | 2007-09-22 | Tianjin | 1.1 | 57 | Cat Whitehill | |||||
| 18 | 2008-01-20 | Guangzhou | Start | 1.1 | 77 | Becky Sauerbrunn | Four Nations Tournament | |||
| 19 | 2009-03-11 | Faro | Start | 1.1 | 90 | Megan Rapinoe | ||||
| 20 | 2009-05-25 | Toronto | Start | 1.1 | 2 | Heather Mitts | Exhibition game | |||
| 21 | 2010-03-28 | San Diego | Start; (c) | 1.1 | 43 | unassisted | Exhibition game | |||
| 22 | 2011-03-07 | Quarteira | 1.1 | 8 | Carli Lloyd | |||||
| 23 | 2012-04-03 | Chiba | Start | 1.1 | 23 | Lauren Holiday | Kirin Challenge Cup | |||
| 24 | 2012-09-16 | Carson | 1.1 | 63 | penalty | Exhibition game | ||||
| 25 | 2012-09-19 | Commerce | 1.1 | 63 | Megan Rapinoe | Exhibition game | ||||
| 26 | 2013-02-09 | Jacksonville | 1.1 | 52 | Christen Press | Exhibition game | ||||
| 27 | 2013-03-06 | Albufeira | Start | 1.1 | 62 | Christie Rampone |
|
|
