Lloyd, Carli (1982- )

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    For Carli Lloyd, Creative Tributes Abound as Retirement Approaches

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    DELRAN, N.J. — Chants of “Car-li Loyd! Car-li Loyd! Car-li Loyd!” filled Delran Community Park on Oct. 14, led primarily by the children from Delran F.C., a South Jersey youth soccer club that was Carli Lloyd’s first team.Though some of the cheering fans hadn’t been born when Lloyd scored her famous hat trick at the 2015 World Cup in Canada — all three goals coming within 16 minutes — the magic of seeing her, a hometown hero, seemed exhilarating for everyone at the park.As Lloyd, 39, approaches the end of her brilliant soccer career, which could come as early as Sunday in a National Women’s Soccer League playoff game between her Gotham F.C. and the Chicago Red Stars, the sport and its fans have found particularly personal ways to send her off with gratitude and respect.Only eight days before the gathering in Delran, Gotham F.C. hosted the Washington Spirit at a soccer stadium in Chester, Pa., instead of in its regular home, Red Bull Arena in North Jersey. The Chester stadium is not an N.W.S.L. site, but it was as close to Delran as the team could get. And in Lloyd’s farewell season, playing a tribute game near her hometown outweighed any other consideration.Red Bull Arena would be the site of another tribute game, the regular-season finale last Sunday. During warm-ups at both games, Lloyd’s teammates wore jerseys bearing her name and her No. 10.Carli Lloyd and her Gotham F.C. teammates during warmups before their game in Chester, Pa., on Oct. 6.Players from the Medford Strikers, one of Lloyd’s youth teams in New Jersey, gathered with parents outside the stadium in Chester. Some of the parents were Lloyd’s teammates years ago.Lloyd grew emotional after the tribute game in Chester, which drew many fans from her native South Jersey. On Oct. 26, Lloyd gave a tearful goodbye speech on a field in St. Paul, Minn., where she played her last match as a member of the United States Women’s National Team.“I am signing off,” she said. “You will not see me on the field, but you’d best believe that I will be around helping this game grow.”Lloyd finished with 316 caps, representing each international match she played. Only one other women’s player in the world has earned more — Kristine Lilly of the United States, who retired in 2010 with 354. Lloyd scored 134 goals in global competition, ranking third on the U.S.W.N.T. list behind Abby Wambach (184) and Mia Hamm (158), and she also collected 64 assistsLloyd went to four Olympics and four World Cups, winning twice at each tournament, and she played for a handful of professional club teams, in both the N.W.S.L. and the defunct Women’s Professional Soccer.At Lloyd’s retirement party in Delran, N.J., she chatted with with the mayor, Gary Catrambone, upper right, and it was announced that the soccer field at the park where she grew up playing would be named after her. For Lloyd’s final regular-season home game, fans filled Red Bull Arena. Living up to expectations, she smashed a header into the back of the net in the 53rd minute and received a thunderous ovation from the fans and her teammates. At her postmatch interview, an inscription on her shin pads was plainly visible: “Better Every Day,” which has long been her personal motto.At the Delran celebration, as the fireworks wound down and the final chords of John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” faded out, young players from Delran F.C. sleepily gathered their banners and posters and stumbled home on a school night, exhausted from cheering but knowing they got to see and live in the same town as one of the greatest of all time.Lloyd scored a goal on Oct. 31, in her final regular-season game, a 1-1 tie with Racing Louisville. On Sunday, Gotham will meet the Chicago Red Stars in a playoff game that could be Lloyd’s final match. More

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      N.W.S.L. Players Protest Abuse Scandal as League Returns to Field

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      In their first matches since confronting the accusations that have shaken their league, women’s soccer players stopped play to make a point.In North Carolina, soccer players from both teams sprinted to midfield to be part of a silent protest of the abuse scandal that has shaken their league. In Portland, Ore., the home team’s players took the field in shirts bearing the slogan “No More Silence” and demanded — and received — the suspension of a prominent team executive.And at Carli Lloyd’s homecoming game just outside Philadelphia, the retiring United States national team star set aside the celebrations of her long career to note a moment that, she said, was much bigger than herself.“This is something you cannot ignore,” Lloyd said after her Gotham F.C. team played the Washington Spirit to a scoreless draw in Chester, Pa.Wednesday night marked the first tentative steps back onto the field for the National Women’s Soccer League only days after it brought its entire operation to a halt as it confronted accusations of coaches who abused players, team executives who did not stop it, and a league that failed to protect its most valuable assets: its athletes.The Gotham-Washington game was one of three played in the league on Wednesday, the first night of action since the league canceled its entire schedule over the weekend and announced that its commissioner, Lisa Baird, had resigned.In Cary, N.C., the North Carolina Courage, whose coach was fired last week after he was accused of sexual coercion by at least two former players, beat Racing Louisville, which fired its coach in August “for cause” after a separate case of misconduct. And in Oregon, the Portland Thorns’ players released a list of demands before their game against the Houston Dash that included the immediate suspension of their own team’s general manager.In all three matches, the teams stopped play in the sixth minute and players stood arm in arm at midfield — a symbolic pause, they said, that represented the six years it took for a group of former colleagues who had filed abuse complaints to be heard. The protests brought together national team stars like Lloyd, Lindsey Horan and Crystal Dunn, dozens of lesser known pros who make up the league’s rank and file and, in Portland at least, even the match officials.For Lloyd, who acknowledged she has been adept at blocking out the crowds, the noises, the off-the-field distractions, this was a night to focus on the collective over the individual.“This is a huge wake-up call,” she said.Her statement and other brief comments by players around the league made direct references to Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim, the two N.W.S.L. players whose searing accusations of being sexually abused by Paul Riley, who coached the North Carolina Courage to league championships in 2018 and 2019, ignited the recent reckoning in the sport.Many of soccer’s biggest and most outspoken stars, like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, have weighed in over the last week, and pointedly criticized the league, its officials and even their own teams for knowing about complaints and failing to protect the players.But Lloyd has long been much more reticent to speak out on social issues. So hearing her speak so candidly, and on a night arranged to celebrate her personally, underscored the shared sense of anger and solidarity roiling the N.W.S.L.Fans in Chester, Pa., and other cities showed their support for the players through signs and standing ovations.Charles Fox/The Philadelphia Inquirer, via Associated Press“This is a reset,” Lloyd said in her postgame news conference, and an opportunity “to have policies in place to vet ownership” and coaches. And after “one of the worst weeks this league has ever seen,” she added, “I’m really proud of everyone, even on the Spirit, coming out playing despite what’s been going on.”Before the game, the Gotham players and staff left a handwritten note in the locker room of the Washington Spirit. The note read, “To our friends at the Spirit. Off the field we support you. On the field let’s play. Sending our love to you.”The anger of frustration of players, though, was evident on an emotional night. During a Zoom news conference with reporters after the game, one of Lloyd’s Gotham teammates, Imani Dorsey, pounded the podium when she said: “We are grinding every single day. We just get the wind knocked out of us every single week. It’s heartbreaking. It’s devastating. We’re trying our best every day and it doesn’t feel like the league is doing that.”When asked what she thought about fans who have said they would boycott N.W.S.L. games, Dorsey said: “Any fan that I would say is feeling failed, or don’t have faith in the league, I’d say: Put your faith in the players association and the players. We want this league to be better.”Yet the tumult shows no signs of abating.On Tuesday, Washington Spirit’s chief executive, Steve Baldwin, announced that he would step down after bowing to pressure from Spirit players who criticized him for presiding over a toxic and abusive workplace under the team’s former coach, Richie Burke, who was fired last week. But the Spirit players dismissed Baldwin’s move as mere posturing, and demanded that he sell his share to one of the team’s co-owners, Y. Michele Kang.In Portland, the Thorns players demanded the immediate suspension of their general manager, Gavin Wilkinson. Wilkinson had presided over the team in 2015, when an internal investigation had substantiated claims of abuse against Riley so serious that the team dismissed him. Within months, Riley was coaching a different team in the league.Late Wednesday, the Thorns announced that Wilkinson had been placed on administrative leave. But players and fans quickly noted that his removal did not affect his similar role with the Thorns’ sister club, the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer.The N.W.S.L. players association, meanwhile, released its own list of demands before Wednesday’s games, including investigations of every club, immediate suspensions for league and team executives accused of failing to protect players, access to previous investigative reports, and a voice in the league’s search for a new commissioner.“We are not bringing the N.W.S.L. down” in demanding action and investigations, Houston Dash defender Katie Naughton said in a brief statement after her team’s game in Portland. “We are rebuilding it into what we know it can and should be.“We believe in our bones that we can do this.” More

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      Carli Lloyd Says She Will Retire From USWNT, and Soccer

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      Lloyd, one of her sport’s most decorated players, said she would finish her club season and then play four farewell matches with the United States.Carli Lloyd, a former world player of the year who was one of the United States women’s national team’s career leaders in goals, games and honors, announced her retirement from soccer at age 39 on Monday.Lloyd will finish the season with her National Women’s Soccer League team, Gotham F.C., and play in four exhibition games for the U.S. team in September and October before calling it a career.Lloyd played in four World Cups, winning in 2015 and 2019, and winning the golden ball as best player in 2015. She also played in four Olympics, winning gold medals in 2008 and 2012 and a bronze this summer in Tokyo.The 2015 World Cup may have been her zenith. She had a hat trick in the final, a 5-2 victory against Japan, with her third goal coming on an audacious chip from the midfield line.Lloyd scored 128 goals for the U.S. team, ranking her fourth behind Abby Wambach, Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly, all retired. Her 312 international appearances rank her second behind Lilly.She had two goals in the bronze medal game at the Olympics earlier this month, her ninth and 10th Olympics goals, the most by an American player. She has also played for five different N.W.S.L. franchises.“Through all the goals, the trophies, the medals and the championships won, what I am most proud of is that I’ve been able to stay unapologetically me,” Lloyd said in a statement.Lloyd grew up in South Jersey and played at Rutgers. She made her national team debut at 23 and was seldom out of the team since.Other members of the women’s soccer team are weighing retirement. Midfielder Megan Rapinoe and defender Becky Sauerbrunn, who are both 36 and like Lloyd longtime fixtures of the United States team, both said in Japan that they would consider their soccer futures after the Games.Unlike some national teams in other sports, the women’s team operates in multiyear cycles rather than on a year-to-year basis, meaning players like Lloyd, Rapinoe and Sauerbrunn — and any others considering stepping away for any reason — faced the decision of most likely committing to the team through the 2023 Women’s World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics.For a few, that might be a bit too far. Rapinoe said she would discuss retirement with her partner, the basketball star Sue Bird, who is considering stepping away from her sport after winning her fifth gold medal at age 40. Sauerbrunn said she would go home and talk to the people closest to her before making a call about continuing her career, “to see if I still have it.”Lloyd, though, had done little to hide the fact that she was leaning toward walking away. One of the most driven and dedicated players in the team’s history, she talked freely — and with rare candor — about what might come next.After the Americans lost to Canada in the semifinals, she lingered on the field long after her teammates, seemingly unwilling to leave, and she spent the drive to the stadium for the bronze medal game staring out the window, she said, and reminiscing about the long arc of her career.Lloyd after the United States lost to Canada in the Olympic semifinal this month.Chang W. Lee/The New York Times“Obviously I’m at the tail end of my career,” she said after the United States won the bronze. “Physically I feel really good, but at some point you have to hang up the boots and live life. And I know my husband is eagerly waiting for me to switch off because it’s been 17 years of just grinding away.”She declined, then, to be more specific. She was more eager, she admitted, than she had ever been to get home from a tournament, to step back and clear her head. “First I’m going to take two or three days and sit by my pool and not move,” she said of her retirement decision. “Maybe four.”In the end, she needed only a little more than a week to make it official.“It’s always been in the back of mind at some point,” Lloyd said in her final public comments in Japan. “But I’ve always wanted to be the one to dictate that.” More

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      USWNT Falls to Canada, Ending Frustrating Olympic Trip

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      A second-half penalty kick sends Canada to the gold medal game, and leaves the U.S. seeking the bronze, and answers.KASHIMA, Japan — The referee’s whistle had barely finished chirping when the Canadian players sprinted to the middle of the field and unleashed an explosion of exaltation that echoed around an otherwise silent stadium. More

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      Carli Lloyd and Julie Ertz Named to U.S. Olympic Soccer Team

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      Lloyd and the injured Julie Ertz and Tobin Heath had been among the few question marks for the scaled-down roster for the Tokyo Games. All three made the team.Carli Lloyd will play in her fourth Olympic Games at age 39 after she was one of 18 players named Wednesday to the United States women’s soccer team for the Tokyo Games.Lloyd, who will turn 39 a week before the Games open, is one of 11 players who return from the team that represented the United States at the 2016 Rio Games. She is also one of two — joining Tobin Heath — who will play in her fourth Olympics.The team announced by the U.S. coach, Vlatko Andonovski, included few surprises. Mainstays like Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Crystal Dunn, Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis also made the team. So did Julie Ertz, the midfielder who is recovering from a knee injury but was seen as a lock to make the team if she was fit.Ertz’s inclusion — especially on a smaller roster where each place is vital in a condensed tournament — suggests that she is healthy enough to contribute, despite not having played in months.Heath, too, had been an injury concern. She has not played for the United States in 2021, but Andonovski had said recently that she was being reintroduced to training, a sign that her recovery, too, would make her available for the Games.Lloyd’s inclusion was, perhaps, not much of a question after all. She has been a fixture on the roster for more than a decade and her leadership, her drive to start and her ability to bring world-class talent off the bench, made her an obvious choice in the end.“I don’t judge the players by their age,” Andonovski said. “They are either good, perform well and can help us win, or they can’t. In terms of Carli, she’s done everything that she needs to do to earn herself a spot on the team. Now, the fact that she is 39, I think it’s remarkable, it’s incredible and just speaks a lot about Carli and her determination and her mentality. And that’s something that is always welcome on this team.”The full U.S. roster:Goalkeepers: Adrianna Franch, Alyssa NaeherDefenders: Abby Dahlkemper, Tierna Davidson, Crystal Dunn, Kelley O’Hara, Becky Sauerbrunn, Emily SonnettMidfielders: Julie Ertz, Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle, Kristie Mewis, Samantha MewisForwards: Tobin Heath, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Christen Press, Megan RapinoeSeventeen members of the 18-player Olympic roster also were on the team that won the World Cup in France in 2019. Sonnett, Davidson and Kristie Mewis — all first-time Olympians — were most likely the last names on the list, but their versatility and ability to play multiple positions could make them valuable additions.Olympic roster rules allow for changes before and during the tournament, so Andonovski also named four alternates who will train with the team before it departs and then accompany it to Japan: goalkeeper Jane Campbell, defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Catarina Macario and forward Lynn Williams. Those are the only four players being considered as replacements, Andonovski said.The U.S. team will play two send-off matches against Mexico on July 1 and 5 in East Hartford, Conn.The United States will open the Olympic tournament against Sweden on July 21 — two days before the opening ceremony — and then finish the group stage against New Zealand (July 24) and Australia (July 27). More