Despite announcing her retirement from professional football earlier this year, US forward Carli Lloyd showed no signs of slowing down during her team’s 9-0 thrashing of Paraguay on Thursday night, scoring five goals.
The 39-year-old soccer player scored twice in the first six minutes of the friendly at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, before adding two more goals in the second half.
Andi Sullivan and Lynn Williams, teammates, also contributed to their team’s 6-0 halftime lead over their opponents.
Sullivan scored again just five minutes after the restart, and Lloyd capped off her outstanding performance with a header in the 61st minute.
“That was fun,” Lloyd told ESPN in a post-match interview. “I’m just trying to savor it because I want time to go a little bit slower — because one game is down and I have three left.
“Great game, good to be out there with my teammates, and you know, overall good performance,” she added.
“It’s very emotional,” Lloyd, who announced her retirement plans in August 2021, told ESPN.
Lloyd, widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the women’s game, announced her retirement plans in August 2021 in a statement released by US Soccer.
“It’s weird,” she said when asked about her retirement earlier this week by ESPN.
“When you get to this point, I don’t think anything can ever prepare you for this moment. It’s emotional, you know, I think I’m more mentally tired now than I ever have been.
“I’ve spent my entire career just flipping each chapter and getting ready for the next, and this chapter of playing professional soccer is something that I’ve been so passionate about,” she said.
“My first love is coming to an end, and so it’s very emotional. Every time I step onto the field, every time I finish a game, it just has a greater sense to it. I know I’m nearing the end, but I just want to soak it all up and just savor every moment I can,” she added.
Lloyd has earned success after success during her 16-year career with the USWNT, having made 313 appearances and scoring 133 international goals.
She will play three more friendly matches for the national team in September and October before retiring from the game. She will also finish the rest of the National Women’s Soccer League season with NJ/NY Gotham FC before retiring.
Lloyd has always supported her American teammates in their fight for equal pay.
Lloyd has always supported her American teammates in their fight for equal pay.
The news comes as the United States Women’s National Soccer Team is embroiled in a pay dispute with the United States Soccer Federation.
The United States Women’s National Team Players’ Association (USWNTPA) called the proposal “PR stunts” after the sport’s national governing body offered the women’s and men’s national teams identical contracts this week.
The federation retorted, tweeting, “An offer on paper of identical contracts to the USWNT and USMNT, and to discuss equalizing prize money, is real, authentic and in good faith. A publicity stunt is a 90-minute one-sided movie.”
Members of the United States women’s national soccer team filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against US Soccer in 2019, but it was dismissed by federal judge Gary Klausner a year later on the grounds that the women’s team played more games and earned more money than the men’s team.
Prior to that, key members of the USWNT, including Lloyd, filed a lawsuit against the federation, demanding equal pay.
