It has been quite the career for U.S. women’s soccer player Carli Lloyd, and she is without a doubt one of the greatest players ever. The highly decorated Lloyd has played in four World Cups with the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, winning two of them, has played in three Olympics, medaling twice, and she’s an elite goal scorer, having scored 124 goals while representing the red white and blue, and on April 10th she reached yet another milestone by appearing in her 300th international game in what turned out to be a 1-1 draw against Sweden. Lloyd joins Kristine Lilly (354) and Christie Pearce (311) as the only U.S. women’s soccer players with 300 or more games played. Lloyd’s longevity is unprecedented and we could see her play well into her 40s.
Lloyd’s journey to the top was anything but normal. She played collegiately at Rutgers University, appearing in 83 games for the Scarlet Knights and set school records for goals scored (50), First-Team All-Big East Conference Honors (four straight), and the first player in Rutgers history to win the Big East Rookie of the Year award. Lloyd has gone on to play for several domestic teams and is currently a member of the NJ/NY Gotham FC in the NWSL.
Before joining the senior national team, Lloyd was a dominant fixture in the U.S. Under-21 squad from 2002-2005. During that time, the U.S. won four straight Nordic Cup titles.
By the time Lloyd joined the U.S. National Soccer team, she was already a rising star. Her first major tournament was the 2007 World Cup in China, with the U.S. finishing third. In the next World Cup in 2011, Lloyd and the U.S. lost in the final against Japan, with Germany being the host nation. The U.S., however, got their revenge in Canada by beating Japan 5-2 to take home the 2015 World Cup Championship. Lloyd scored a hat trick in the first 16 minutes of the championship game, which included a goal scored all the way from the mid-field line. It was the most exciting moment of the match and the greatest goal I’ve ever witnessed. Lloyd and the U.S. repeated as Champions in the 2019 World Cup against the Netherlands, with France as the host nation. It was also the last World Cup with Jill Ellis as Head Coach. The next World Cup will be dual-hosted by Australia and New Zealand in 2023.
Despite some of her doubters, Carli Lloyd will still be featured prominently as a mainstay for the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team. Lloyd will travel with the U.S. Team to Tokyo to compete in the Summer Olympics, as she and the rest of the U.S. team is hoping to avenge their 2016 5th place finish and reassert their dominance of being the best in the world. It will be the biggest tournament for Head Coach Vlatko Andonovski since taking over in 2019 as the replacement for the retiring Jill Ellis, and Vlatko, unlike Ellis, isn’t holding Lloyd back. He trusts her ability to still be an elite player.
The Summer Olympics will begin on July 23rd, and Lloyd will be going for her 3rd Gold Medal as a member of the U.S. Soccer Team.
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