It’s Tuesday night, Feb. 14. Some 10-year-old girls are being driven 40 miles from their homes to practice on an indoor soccer field at Vetta Sports in St. Charles.

But there are no complaints.

The girls are members of FC Heat, a club in Union, Mo. They’ve won a contest to train with Becky Sauerbrunn. “She’s their hero,” explained one of their moms, Stacey Donnelly.

Sauerbrunn, a St. Louis native and a member of the best women’s soccer team in the world, is in town to promote injury prevention among kids as a spokesperson for Signature Sports Medicine. She talks to the girls about proper warmups, a physician follows up to reinforce Sauerbrunn’s message, and Sauerbrunn leads the girls through training that stresses ball skills.

About two hours later, the girls pile back in the limo-van rented for them and their families by their coaches. The girls are tired, but excited about being this close to a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team. “It was one of the best times I’ve ever had,” says Stacey’s daughter, Sadie, who sent in the winning entry.

* * *

Although she lives near Washington, D.C., a carryover from her college days at the University of Virginia, Sauerbrunn comes home whenever she can. Partly, that’s to promote her relationship with Signature Sports Medicine. But mostly, it’s because she hasn’t forgotten her roots.

“I’m just really proud of being from St. Louis,” she said over the phone the day after her Valentine’s date with Sadie and her teammates. “I just feel like any success I’ve had in my life is because I grew up here and because of my family and all my coaches and teammates. I just feel I owe St. Louis so much.”

These days, though, there’s not much opportunity to spend time in her hometown. The U.S. women qualified for next summer’s Olympics in an overpowering performance over five games in Vancouver in late January. They played before a sellout crowd in Dallas in a friendly against New Zealand on Feb. 11. In late February, they head to Portugal for the Algarve Cup, an annual event that draws many of the top women’s national teams in the world.

Then, it’s off to Japan for two “friendlies” that will be anything but. The first, against the host team April 1, is a rematch of the 2011 World Cup final. Two days later, the Americans will be tested by Brazil, which lost to the USA on penalty kicks in the World Cup.

There will be a lot of training and, no doubt, more exhibition games, building up to the Olympics in London. There, the U.S. women will try to win their third consecutive gold medal, and fourth overall. In fact, the only time they have not won the gold medal in the five times it has been awarded in women’s soccer was in 2000, when an overtime goal by Norway beat the Americans in the final.

America’s soccer women were their usual dominating selves in qualifying for the 2012 Olympics, winning their five matches by an aggregate 38-0.  The U.S. defenders — one of which is Sauerbrunn — smothered their opponents. It would seem the U.S. women are overwhelming favorites at the 2012 Games.

Sauerbrunn disagrees. “If I would ask the girls on the team, I don’t think anyone would say, ‘Oh, we’re like the top team,’” Sauerbrunn said. “If that were so, we would have won the World Cup last year. We lost to Japan (in the final). We lost to Sweden (in the group stage). So we feel that we have a lot to prove.”

There was a hiccup against New Zealand on Feb. 11. Alex Morgan’s two goals in the final five minutes overcame a defensive error that led to a goal for the otherwise punchless New Zealand offense. Coincidentally or not, Sauerbrunn did not play in the match. In the six matches played so far by the USWNT in 2012, she has played every minute in three of them, and not at all in the others.

“Pia (Sundhage, USWNT head coach) has a philosophy right now that if you train hard and you train well, then when the games come you could be rewarded with more playing time,” Sauerbrunn said.  “So, I was thrilled that I got to play, especially in the (Olympic qualifying) final against Canada.”

Even though Sauerbrunn was on the World Cup team and started in the semifinal against France, she is not assuming she will be on the Olympic roster. Olympic teams carry 18 players, two less than teams in the 2011 World Cup. “It’s not a given (being on the roster),” she said. “I have a few months or so before the roster is determined, but I’m really hopeful. The coaches and the leaders on the team say to me to just keep playing hard and I’ll fit in. I might not be a starter but be someone on the bench who contributes.”

* * *

Sauerbrunn has always been a starter on other teams. The three-time All-American earned the nickname “iron woman” for never seeming to miss a match in Women’s Professional Soccer. After playing for the troubled magicJack team in Florida last season — WPS terminated the franchise afterward — Sauerbrunn signed with Sky Blue in New Jersey. Then, on Jan. 30, the day after the U.S. women defeated Canada, the 3-year-old WPS announced it had canceled the 2012 season.

“We knew we were having problems with the owner of magicJack and the other team owners were refusing to work with him, but I didn’t think it would end like that,” Sauerbrunn said. “I was in the airport the day after beating Canada in Vancouver on my way home. Someone said, ‘WPS ended.’ I think everyone on the (U.S.) team was shocked.”

That first stunner was followed quickly by another. Ella Masar, a magicJack player, posted a long online account detailing alleged mistreatment of her and other players by magicJack’s owner, Dan Borislow. Asked about the magicJack situation, Sauerbrunn said:

“I’m good friends with Ella. I talked with her about it (the online story). She had a bad experience at magicJack and I do think she was taken advantage of. I think we could have handled things a lot better on that team. We wanted there to be a league so we were willing to put up with things that most people would not put up with. We just wanted to keep the dream alive. We lost sight of important things.”

In the wake of the WPS announcement, a few WPS teams have joined a new Elite League organized for 2012 by the Women’s Premier Soccer League. Other WPS players are moving into the W-League, such as USWNT goalkeeper Hope Solo, who joined the Seattle Sounders. Sky Blue has no plans beyond a trip to train and play in Japan in March, so Sauerbrunn might hook up with the DC United Women in the W-League or another team in the Washington, D.C., area, next summer.

“The people that I talked to think that there will be a 2013 WPS season,” Sauerbrunn said. “There were a lot of teams that were interested in joining the league on the West Coast, maybe even in Texas. I’m just hoping that we get a better business model and find some people who are willing to spend money on women’s soccer. Hopefully if we do well at the Olympics, it will generate sponsorship. I just really hope that in 2013 the WPS can come back and be better than ever.”

For right now, though, Sauerbrunn is winding down. “Mentally and emotionally, it’s good to get away from soccer and kind of live life, read books and that kind of thing so I’m re-energized when we return to training,” she said.

And then it’s back to dealing with the future of women’s professional soccer, figuring out where to play this summer, and trying to make the final roster for the Olympics.

* * *

Other soccer-related issues weigh on Sauerbrunn’s mind, especially where the sport is going at the kids’ level.

“Everywhere in this country, not just in St. Louis, we’re kind of losing sight of the game,” she said. “It’s not just about winning. We’re being caught up in, ‘We’re going to win at all costs,’ and soccer is the cost. We’re not playing soccer, really. We’re shooting the ball and we’re being aggressive and athleticism is winning out.

“The game is changing and different countries, especially over in Europe, are playing soccer in such an advanced way that if we hope to compete as a country, we need to start at a younger level and teach soccer and passing and controlling the ball and things like that.”

On Feb. 10, the U.S. Soccer Federation offered its solution to player development by expanding the season for its Development Academy to 10 months from September to June. That copies the model in the world’s top soccer nations, and is enthusiastically supported by Jurgen Klinsmann, the U.S. Men’s National Team head coach and a former player at the highest level of the game. He was a member of the German 1990 World Cup champions.

While the expanded Academy season may be great for youth player development, teenagers in the Academy can’t play high school soccer. Sauerbrunn did not offer an opinion of the Academy-vs.-high school soccer controversy, saying she wasn’t up yet on all the details of new Academy plan.

But she’s quick to voice her enthusiasm for being around the kids. “Anytime I get to work with the girls or the boys in St. Louis and just meet them and see how excited they are, it helps me too,” she said. “I hope I’m helping them with soccer because they are helping me to remember that is what it’s all about. It’s a game that should be shared with everybody.”

The 10-year-old members of the FC Heat in Union, Mo., would heartily agree.