USWNT’s Lynn Williams on making 2023 World Cup team: ‘Holy s–t’

First came the call. Then came the crying. The good kind.

Gotham FC’s Lynn Williams is heading to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup with the USWNT.

After being one of the last players cut four years ago — and missing almost all of the last NWSL season — it was a nerve-wracking climb back to make this roster, which was unveiled Wednesday.

And when she finally did, the dam burst.

“I was going to be throwing out the first pitch at the Yankee game and I needed to practice. So I said to get my mind off this let’s go get a baseball and start practicing,” Williams told The Post. “I was just getting ready to go throw when Vlatko (Andonovski, U.S. coach) called me. My first thought was ‘Thank God.’ I’ve been stressing about this all year, all day. But at the same time, I just felt relief.

“Then I said ‘well, this was a better conversation than the last one.’ And he laughed and I was laughing. So it was just relief, and disbelief. Then when we got off the call I cried, just because all of the emotions were so pent up for so long that it’s just like a nice release to be like holy s–t, I did it. It’s surreal.”

Williams has 15 goals and 11 assists in 52 appearances for the national team, and has been even more dominant domestically, the second-leading scorer all-time in NWSL.

But despite winning bronze in the Tokyo Olympics, COVID-19 had both opened up that roster for her to squeeze in and robbed her of playing in front of family and friends.

This Women’s World Cup — July 20 to Aug. 20 in Australia and New Zealand — will be different.

“It means everything,” Williams told the Post. “The (2019) call I had with Vlatko wasn’t the call I wanted; I’d just missed the cut of being one of the 18, so I didn’t want to ever have to feel that feeling again of ‘I was almost there but I just didn’t make it.’

“So this time when we go and to have my family in the stands and know all the sacrifices I’ve made being away from them the past 10 years playing, it’ll mean everything…I don’t think I can put into words how much it’s going to mean to see them there. Hopefully I can control my emotions, but it means the world to me.”

This seemed unlikely as after tearing her hamstring last March, Williams missed the rest of the season with Kansas City.

“It felt like a very huge mountain to climb,” Williams said. “But I told myself just try.”

Gotham — the NWSL’s worst team last year — traded for Williams, 30, on draft night, and has been rewarded.

Williams is tied for third in the NWSL with six goals, including four winners, and even had Gotham atop the standings for two weeks.

Now she has a new three-year deal (inked Tuesday atop the Empire State Building) and renewed appreciation of how much soccer means to her.

She is joined on the World Cup squad by Gotham teammates Kristie Mewis and Kelley O’Hara.

“Every time I’m away from the game, it makes me realize how much I just really love and enjoy playing soccer,” Williams said. “When you’re in it so long and you’re in the thick of it – and you’re stressed about making rosters, about starting positions – you can lose that.

“Last year, even though I was devastated not to be playing, it was a moment for me to take a step back and say why do you play this game? Is it to make these World Cup rosters? Or do you just love playing at the core of it? And I always come back to the same thing: I started playing because I just loved running around with my friends in the sun. At the core, that’s why I play. I just really wanted to play again; so when I got those opportunities to play again, I tried to remember that.”