Carli Lloyd didn’t waste any time kicking off her retirement tour with a bang.
The United States women’s national team star, in the first of four friendly matches this fall, nearly set a program record in a dominant win over Paraguay on Thursday night.
Lloyd scored a ridiculous five goals — four in the first half — in Team USA's 9-0 victory over Paraguay at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland. That ties the USWNT single-game scoring record.
“She’s an absolute legend, just being on the field, she’s a threat, no matter who we play, when we play, where we play," USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski said, via The Associated Press. “Her mentality is something that’s unseen. She’s just hungry for scoring goals, just hungry to get better, and whether we play for a medal or we play Paraguay, it makes no difference. She wants to score goals.”
Alex Morgan reached the five-goal mark against Thailand in the 2019 World Cup. No player in the history of the team has ever scored six in a match.
Lloyd got going right away, too, scoring a goal off a corner kick less than three minutes into the match.
She cleaned up a second goal just two minutes later.
Lloyd got her hat trick in the 34th minute, the ninth of her career which snapped a tie with Mia Hamm for the most in USWNT history. She then found the net once more in the first half minutes later.
Thanks to Lloyd, and a pair of goals from Andi Sullivan, the USWNT went to the locker room with a massive six-goal lead.
Lloyd ended her night with one final goal in the 60th minute, expertly bouncing a header off a corner kick in for her fifth of the game.
Lloyd has 133 goals in her international career, the fourth-most behind just Hamm, Abby Wambach and Christine Sinclair (who scored 187 times in her career).
Lloyd, 39, announced last month that she will retire after the NWSL season and a four-game friendly tour with the USWNT this fall. The team has three matches left on that tour, starting with another against Paraguay next week before a pair against South Korea in October.
“I wish I could do it forever, but all good things eventually come to an end and I definitely am for sure retiring,” Lloyd said, via The Associated Press. “I’m not going to come back out of retirement but you know I’m going to be the biggest cheerleader for this team and really excited to see them continue to keep crushing it."
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