Carli Lloyd scored a hat trick in 16 minutes in the Women’s World Cup final on Sunday, blowing the game open for the United States and launching them to a 5-2 win over Japan. Reporter: I was camouflaged wearing my red, white, and blue also. “I’ve dedicated my whole life to this”. The second comes three days later at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga, Tenn.at 6:30.
Advertisement
“That bitter feeling I had that day has stayed with me for the past three years”, she told reporters Saturday.
Rapinoe was the States’ dynamic force for the group stage, and Lloyd took the wheel for the knockout rounds (and did she ever last night?!?). Forward Abby Wambach bear-hugged teary eyed coach Jill Ellis, lifting her off the ground.
“I was just on a mission”, Lloyd said. “It’s the wholehearted truth”, said Wambach, the world’s all-time leading goal-scorer, man or woman.
And now that era has a World Cup title, one that she helped kickstart on the field but found its form with her on the bench.
She’s the face of an era of USA women’s soccer, a symbol of the States’ swagger. “We are the Champions” is more suitable, read the lyrics. “Awesome!”
Of course, after her hat trick in Vancouver, the glare figures to be intense for a while.
“I don’t think it’s entirely sunk in”, Lloyd said.
“But we know we’ve got some highly talented highly educated women here”.
“The set pieces, honestly we practiced those starting yesterday and they came together fantastically”.
This is what happens when we can all play sports. This is football, the game for all.
But the 32-year-old came out of soccer’s big event winning our hearts and the respect of her opponents. With Kaihori battling the sun, she retreated but the ball went over her head and into the net near the left post to make it 4-0 and all but sealing the match.
Lloyd’s hat trick was the fastest in women’s or men’s World Cup history. Lauren Holiday interrupted Lloyd’s brilliant performance with a goal of her own, her first of the competition, thanks to a defensive blunder.
Japan coach Norio Sasaki said he had tried to warn his players of the danger posed by midfielder Lloyd, who was playing up front alongside Alex Morgan, but his shouts were drowned out by the crowd. And she won the Golden Ball award for best player.
Ogimi’s goal was the first Solo had allowed after five straight shutouts. And she is the first player, male or female, to score a gold medal-winning goal in two consecutive Olympics.
The goal was the first the Americans had conceded since their opening game, a span of 540 minutes. And yesterday, we witnessed its spectacular pull in the colors of a great American team.
“It doesn’t feel real”.
Beijing, Shanghai SIPG, and Guangzhou Evergrande sit from first to third in league standings with only single points separating each team.
And that just works for us, right down to a quiet play from Wambach that so typified the States’ run while being atypical to our expectations. And Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) had demanded that USA Soccer investigate controversial goalie Hope Solo and “reconsider” her spot on the team.
The Japanese have been widely praised for their short-passing game but it was an old-fashioned route that brought them, temporarily, back into the game early in the second half. Yellow cards: J -Sawa, 82nd, Iwabuchi, 85th.
Advertisement
CONCACAF doesn’t give free passes, so the USA will play in a qualifying tournament. Tobin Heath boomed in the fifth goal off a poor clearance of a corner kick.
