Meghan Klingenberg buoyantly walked out of the locker room and greeted the media with a bright smile on a recent Tuesday afternoon.

Her bubbly and fun-loving personality shone through in that moment, but those who spend more time around Klingenberg also know that she is one of the most intense and tenacious competitors around. That side of her personality is the reason why she is no longer allowed to play board games with her family.

But it is also a major reason why Mark Parsons made it a priority to acquire Klingenberg when he took over as the Portland Thorns head coach in the fall of 2015.

It's a move that has paid dividends.

Since arriving in Portland, Klingenberg, 29, has been a key piece of one of the stingiest backlines in the National Women's Soccer League and a dynamic leader on and off the field. This season, the diminutive defender has made her presence felt in the attack as well. She leads the club with six assists and was integral in helping the Thorns clinch a home playoff game for the second year in a row.

"She's a fireball," Parsons said. "Getting a player like Kling, who is going to fight, who is going to demand a lot out of her teammates, who is always going to train at her best - we needed a personality like that."

COMPETITIVE BY NATURE

It was Klingenberg's competitive nature that drew her to soccer.

As a young child, she spent every Sunday out in the backyard at her grandmother's house in Pittsburgh trying to beat her cousins in some sort of sport. She was four years old when they started playing soccer. Her cousins were a few years older, but that didn't stop Klingenberg from wanting to prove that she could keep up with the older kids.

"I wanted to play because I wanted to be able to kick my family's butt," Klingenberg said. "It just grew organically from that."

Klingenberg didn't immediately excel on the soccer field, but that only pushed her to work harder. She spent so much time with a ball that her parents decided to build a padded room in their basement so she would stop breaking light fixtures.

When Klingenberg was nine, her mother, Kristen, took her on a road trip to North Carolina and surprised her with tickets to a University of North Carolina soccer game. To this day, Klingenberg remembers watching how much tenacity and skill the Tar Heels displayed as they demolished their opponent that night.

She recalled that game years later when she was being recruited to play college soccer. Though she caught the eye of numerous top schools, Klingenberg chose North Carolina's elite program.

She wanted to push herself against the best players possible.

"I use her to this day as an example for my kids on the roster because the thing I loved about Kling was how coachable she was," North Carolina women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance said. "She came in, this proud little competitor, and just buckled down and started grinding for us. Every year she just got better and better."

THE WORLD'S BEST LEFT BACK

In August 2012, Klingenberg sat in the stands at the historic Wembley Stadium in London and watched with mixed emotions as the U.S. Women's National Team captured its fourth Olympic gold medal.

She had clawed her way into the national team mix in 2011 after a standout college career and excellent performances at the national team's youth level. But despite her past success, the tiny left back was named as an alternate for the 2012 Olympic team.

During the tournament, she attended extra practices and gym sessions while also participating in full training with the players on the active roster. She and the other alternates were there to help whenever the group needed players to stand in as a wall for free kicks or impersonate their upcoming opponent. But on game days, she had to observe her team at a distance.

It was the hardest thing she ever had to do, and Klingenberg vowed that she would never allow herself to be in that position again.

"I think whenever I've failed or I don't have people that believe in me, it has always turned into motivation," Klingenberg said "I think that if you put in the work, the rewards will come. Maybe they won't come exactly when you want them to, but they will. I just feel like there's nothing that can stop me."

Over the next three years, Klingenberg focused on improving every aspect of her game. She joined Swedish club Tyreso FF, where she had the opportunity to compete alongside Brazilian star Marta and other top players. There, she learned to play to her strengths and became an even more savvy attacking left back.

Meghan Klingenberg competing for the U.S. Women's National Team (Photo: Tony Gutierrez/AP)

"She's like a firecracker," Thorns midfielder Tobin Heath said. "She just brings a lot of energy, a lot of spunk to the field. If you watch her play, that's how she is in life too."

Klingenberg not only made the World Cup roster in 2015, she also stood out as one of the best players on the field.

She started in all seven games, helping to spark the attack from the left flank and serving as a mainstay on the USA's stingy backline that allowed just three goals in the tournament to lead the U.S. to its first FIFA World Cup title since 1999. The 5-foot-2 Klingenberg came up with her biggest defensive play of the World Cup when she leapt and headed a ball off the line against Sweden. Following the tournament, she was named to the FIFPro Women's World XI.

"I think the culmination for her extraordinary success was the 2015 world championship because in the eyes of a lot of people that know about the game, she ended up becoming the world's best left back," Dorrance said.

THE WINDING PATH TO PORTLAND

Klingenberg was on her way to the White House to celebrate the 2015 World Cup victory when the cluster of trades began.

First, the Seattle Reign acquired Klingenberg from the Houston Dash without having any plans to add her to their roster. Days later, they left her unprotected in the NWSL Expansion Draft where she was picked up by the Orlando Pride. The Pride immediately traded her to the Thorns as part of a blockbuster move that sent Alex Morgan to Orlando.

It was a taxing week for Klingenberg, but when Parsons called to describe the role he believed she could play in helping the Thorns reclaim the NWSL championship title, she knew she had landed in the right place.

"I don't care how I got here, they're not getting rid of me," Klingenberg said.

Last season, Klingenberg made 15 solid starts for the Thorns despite dealing with an undiagnosed back injury. In the offseason, she had surgery to remove bone spurs in her spine and was forced to confront a grueling recovery process.

But with the injury behind her, Klingenberg feels like she has finally been able to impose her presence on the game with the Thorns.

"She's a really versatile defender that can attack, that can deliver with both feet, that is smart, that can break pressure, that can solve problems," Parsons said. "No matter how we need to play, she's got the ability and the mentality to do that."

Despite an already accomplished career, Klingenberg has never stopped fighting. There is still so much more for her to prove.

Last year, she was on the field when the Thorns were upset on their home turf by the then-Western New York Flash in the semifinals of the NWSL playoffs, missing the opportunity to compete for a championship title. And this year, despite her standout season in the NWSL, she has been left off the U.S. Women's National Team roster for recent camps. She is intent on continuing to shine on the field so the national team can't overlook her.

But for the moment, she is singularly focused on winning an NWSL title.

The Thorns are set to host a home semifinal playoff game against the Orlando Pride Saturday, and Klingenberg is ready to help her team redeem themselves after last year's unforeseen defeat. The intense competitor burning inside her is unwilling to settle for anything less than hoisting a championship trophy.

"It would be so gratifying to win this trophy at the end of the year because it's something that has been a bit elusive," Klingenberg said. "I feel like that's one thing that's in grasp right now, so I'm reaching up for it."

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg