Rachel Marie Buehler (born 26 August 1985, in Del Mar, California) is an American soccer defender currently playing for the United States women's national soccer team.Buehler attended Stanford University, where she was named by the NCAA Honors Committee as a recipient of the NCAA Top VIII Award, and completed her senior year in 2007, majoring in human biology/pre-medicine. A three-year captain for the Cardinal, Buehler was an All-Pac-10 Conference First-Team selection, an NSCAA First-Team All-American Scholar Athlete, and was chosen as the ESPN Academic All-American of the Year. As a redshirt junior in 2006, she was one of two players in the conference to be selected in the All-Pac-10 First Team and the Pac-10 All-Academic First Team.
On September 16, 2008 Buehler was one of three members of the 2008 Beijing Gold Medal team allocated to the brand new Santa Clara, California club FC Gold Pride, along with Nicole Barnhart and Leslie Osborne. FC Gold Pride, coached by former San Jose Clash midfielder Albertin Montoya, was the seventh and final club named in 2008 to compete in the first season of Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) the following year.
Buehler has played on several U.S. national youth teams, including U-16 and U-17, and was a member of the first place 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship in Canada and the third place team at the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship in Thailand. She joined the National Team training camp in July 2006 and debuted for the full team in March 2008 at the Algarve Cup in Portugal. Buehler was named to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Women's Soccer Team on June 23, 2008. She appeared in two matches, chipping in with one assist. She was also chosen for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup squad and she scored on the USA's opening game against North Korea. On July 10 in the Quarterfinals Buehler received a controversial red card for pulling on Brazilian striker Marta which resulted in a Brazilian penalty kick.
