Feature image via Ali Krieger’s Instagram

Breaking news: Love continues to not be a lie! Today it was proven by soccer legends Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris who announced their engagement in People magazine, and let me tell you what, I cried. I sure did. Krieger and Harris have quietly been together so long and have shared so much of themselves with their fans as they’ve helped lead the USWNT to global dominance and popularize women’s professional sports around the country this last decade. But it turns out they’ve still got more to give, including the sweetest, soppiest quotes in their engagement article.

“We became really close friends, and we just hung out, we clicked, and we had so much in common,” Harris, told People. “We always sat next to each other on the bus and on flights, and we kind of just talked about our dreams and our hopes and what we wanted to do one day when we grew up. Because at the time, we were kids.”

Okay, but how did they fall in love? Krieger says, “Since being with Ash, I really feel like I’ve blossomed into the woman that I want to be, and she’s helped me become the woman I am.” Harris says, “It was her big, beautiful brown eyes… She has these unbelievable tiger eyes. I just felt like every time she was talking, I wasn’t even paying attention to what she was saying.”

Harris proposed on a picnic on the beach last fall, after their last Orlando Pride game of the season. There was a sunset and a surprise ring and some crying.

YOU GUYS.

It’s easy to joke that every woman who plays professional soccer and basketball is gay, and certainly there are plenty of us populating those sports these days, but the world — and especially the sports world, which remains rife with homophobia — was a very different place when it became apparent Krieger and Harris were together-together. Because it’s just been known for so long, it’s weird to realize that this is the first time they’ve actually announced that they’re a couple. It fills a heart right up to see them publicly, proudly share their engagement in a mainstream magazine for famous people. And to see U.S. Soccer being so chill and happy about it!

Congratulations, you two superstars! Long live love!