Carli Lloyd: A New Hero For So Many Reasons
US Women’s soccer star Carli Lloyd proved why she was captain on the field during the US-Japan FIFA final July 5. It wasn’t just the hat trick she scored earlier in the match, though that was incredible in and of itself. That alone earned her the bragging rights of being the first woman and only the second player to achieve that in a World Cup match. She has been a complex player for sports writers to take on through this World Cup tournament, largely because she is so full of contradictions. At times brilliant, at times artless and somewhat sloppy, Carli Lloyd is a midfielder who can cause audiences to lose their minds during games for both good and bad reasons.
While her play during the final was indeed remarkable – come on, who is going to forget that hat trick during the opening 15 minutes anytime soon? – it was her incredibly selfless gesture that brought the crowd in the Vancouver stadium and in homes around the world to their feet. At the 79-minute mark of the game, Carli Lloyd, captain of the US Women’s Soccer team, took off the captain’s armband that had been nestled securely around her arm throughout the tournament and wrapped it around veteran Abby Wambach’s.
Lloyd gives the armband to Wambach. Feels. http://t.co/W6WIdLDawh https://t.co/HtnjVStSMN
— SB Nation Soccer (@SBNationSoccer) July 6, 2015
Wambach had protested at the gesture, but she says Lloyd had insisted. It marked an incredible opening to what would likely be Wambach’s final appearance at a World Cup final. Wambach then led the team to the ultimate 5-2 final and sprinted to her wife for a celebratory kiss. It was a moment that many won’t soon forget – one moment of many.
Carli Lloyd’s gesture to Wambach was one reason why she can be considered a hero. She does not need that captain’s armband to remind her what her job is out on the field. She is an attacking midfielder, and she’s a darn good one. She knows, though, after over 200 games with her team, exactly what’s needed and when to push herself and others. Her influence, from coach Jill Ellis down to her teammates, has truly been felt. For instance, Morgan Brian, the team’s youngest player, proved to everyone that she could more than hold her own at midfield, and that allowed Carli Lloyd to surge forward and do what she does best. Lloyd’s inspiration hasn’t been limited to the US bench, either; she’s also influenced other young stars such as Yoreli Rincon of Colombia, whom she has trained with.
Not that Lloyd‘s play has been tremendous throughout her career, or even throughout this World Cup. Carli Lloyd knew that there were moments throughout the tournament where her play had been less than inspired, and that both writers and coaches everywhere were watching her for what was to come next. She had her moments, to be sure, but the final matchup between the US and Japan allowed Carli Lloyd to burst once again into the supremely skilled, practiced midfielder that her coaches knew best. When she’s on the field, she only wants to focus on soccer, and it is this extreme focus on the sport and on teammates like Abby Wambach that has forged her into a new national hero.
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Sport)
