Note: This story includes reporting about suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with feelings of depression or suicidal thoughts, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline offers free, round-the-clock support, information and resources for help. Call or text the lifeline at 988, or see the 988lifeline.org website, where chat is available.

On the eve of the biggest tournament of their lives, Naomi Girma and Sophia Smith are thinking about a teammate who won’t be at the World Cup, or watching back home.

The first-time World Cup players from Stanford are dedicating their efforts in the tournament, which kicks off early Thursday morning in Australia and New Zealand, to former Stanford goalie Katie Meyer, who died by suicide in March 2019.

Girma penned an emotional tribute to Meyer this week in The Players Tribune that highlighted the positive spirit Meyer shared with her teammates and friends, and introduced a partnership with soccer charity Common Goal to launch a Mental Health initiative.

“The truest friend I ever had. The most unapologetic, positive, caring person in the world,” Girma wrote, describing Meyer. “The first person to be open and talk about her feelings. The first person you’d turn to when you needed to talk about yours. And the last person you’d think would take her own life.”

Girma recalled how Meyer, after Girma tore her ACL, tried to sneak into her physical rehabilitation session during the COVID lockdown. When she was turned away, she found another way to support Girma: Identifying Girma’s workout room from outside the facility, she pressed her face against the one-way window so she could see in and cheer on her teammate.

“All I see is Katie’s entire face smushed up against the glass and she’s banging on the window,” Girma wrote. “This went on for 10 minutes. I couldn’t stop laughing. The trainer couldn’t stop laughing. It was ridiculous. It was hilarious. It was perfect.

“It was Katie.”

That eccentric personality was on full display in 2019 when Meyer, as a freshman, made a clutch save in the penalty kick shootout of the College Cup and mimed zipping her lips and throwing away a key. Stanford won that title game, bonding Meyer, Girma, Smith and the Cardinal team in history.

Meyer’s parents, shortly after their daughter’s death, created their own initiative called Katie’s Save, which highlights mental health issues and advocates for universities to allow students to designate adult advocates who are alerted when a student faces discipline or other difficult circumstances. Meyer was facing disciplinary action from Stanford when she died just weeks before graduation.

After Girma’s essay drew significant interest across the soccer world Tuesday afternoon, Smith was asked Wednesday in Auckland, New Zealand, where the U.S. opens group play against Vietnam at 6 p.m. PT (1 p.m. Saturday locally).

“Anytime I talk about Katie, it’s obviously emotional, and then just with everything coming out today, it kind of brings all those feelings back to the surface,” Smith told reporters. “But I feel like I’m in a place where I can talk about it and talk about Katie in a really positive light, and it brings me more happiness.

“But obviously, yeah, anytime it’s all over social media, it’s tough to see, and it kind of just reminds you. But I think what we put out and The Players Tribune by Naomi, it was really cool and really good to read, and everything that we do is now for Katie, so it means a lot. But yeah, obviously, it’s a tough thing to talk about.”

Both Girma and Smith are expected to start for the U.S. throughout the World Cup. Girma, the 23-year-old San Jose native who plays for San Diego Wave FC, is stepping into a World Cup defensive back pairing that won’t feature Becky Sauerbrunn for the first time since 2011. Smith, the Portland Thorns’ 22-year-old striker, will rotate up top with Alex Morgan and fellow first-timer Trinity Rodman.

Fox Sports, which is broadcasting the World Cup, will dedicate a small portion of its coverage to spotlighting mental health. Girma also wrote that the initiative will send mental health professionals to youth sports leagues across the country after the World Cup.

“We don’t want this to end simply at awareness,” Girma wrote. “We want to make sure that young people have the tools to cope with depression, anxiety, stress, and the very bad days, when it feels like the weight of the world is on their shoulders, and it can never get better.”