Delran's Lloyd named 2015 FIFA women's player of year
A Delran High School graduate officially is the best women's soccer player in the world. Carli Lloyd received that honor Monday, winning the 2015 FIFA women's player of the year award.
A Delran High School graduate officially is the best women's soccer player in the world.
Carli Lloyd received that honor Monday, winning the 2015 FIFA women's player of the year award.
After Lloyd's heroics in last summer's World Cup, she was a lock to win it. Nobody had ever scored three goals in a Women's World Cup final. Lloyd did it in 16 minutes against Japan.
Her third goal was the highlight that will stay with Lloyd forever. After juking a Japanese defender, Lloyd put her foot into the ball a step inside midfield. Japan's goalkeeper scrambled back but landed flat on her back and put her hands over her head after the ball nestled into the goal.
That one game probably was enough to give Lloyd this award. But she also had game-winners in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
"We didn't just come here to make the final. We came here to win it," Lloyd said after the semifinal. "No one is going to remember a second-place team."
Fifteen minutes after the semifinal, Lloyd spoke on the phone with her longtime South Jersey-based coach, James Galanis, who told her to put her semifinal heroics in the past.
"Don't worry. I already have," Lloyd said.
About the final, "The first thing she said was, 'I got this,' " Galanis said the next day.
This is the first time Lloyd has received this honor, but it's not her first heroics on a big stage. She scored an overtime gold-medal game-winner at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and scored the only two goals at the 2012 Olympic final.
Lloyd is also to be honored as the athlete of the year by the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association at their Feb. 1 banquet in Cherry Hill.