Carli Lloyd's hometown of Delran deserves a stop on U.S. victory tour
Yes, there will be a Victory Tour. The U.S. women, the World Cup champions, will stop in 10 cities later this summer, basking in the screams of the faithful and all the new converts, as it should be.
Yes, there will be a Victory Tour. The U.S. women, the World Cup champions, will stop in 10 cities later this summer, basking in the screams of the faithful and all the new converts, as it should be.
Just make one of the stops Delran High.
Seriously, U.S. Soccer should take one date out of the mix, not worry about maximizing profit that night, and use the game for another purpose - to thank Carli Lloyd, to give her a truly memorable gift.
Maybe this country would still be World Cup champion without Lloyd, just as maybe the national team could have won the 2008 Olympics without Lloyd's 19-yard screamer in overtime, the only goal that night in Beijing. Or her two goals - the only two goals - in the 2012 London Olympic final.
In this World Cup, maybe the U.S. didn't need Lloyd's game-winners in the quarterfinals or semifinals. Maybe they could have scraped into a penalty-kick shootout in each case and come out victorious. Of course, they didn't need to find out about alternate scenarios. They had Lloyd.
While the Delran High graduate is the star of her sport now, leave aside her marketing potential. Stick to the facts on the field. Lloyd obviously pulled off the miraculous Sunday night in Vancouver, putting the game into the Americans' pockets with those two immediate lightning strikes, then adding a goal for the ages from a step short of halfway down the field. That will be the goal they show forever, except maybe in Japan.
After covering a fair amount of women's soccer in the '90s, in addition to the fabled '99 World Cup, I have always considered Michelle Akers the greatest American women's soccer player. Her dominance was breathtaking. It's easy to forget that the U.S. also won the first-ever women's World Cup in China in 1991 and that Akers scored both the goals in the title game.
A couple of years later, Akers showed up with the national team for a game in Bucks County, at the United German-Hungarian Club. There were more than 3,000 people there and maybe 1,000 were girls wearing youth soccer club jackets, and most of them were all over Akers. She signed for over 20 minutes afterward.
She was the greatest then, and the reason I considered her still the greatest ever is she transitioned at the end of her career, in her early 30s, to a defensive midfield role where she took no prisoners. It's fair to wonder if the women would have won that '99 World Cup without Akers in that role, which proved during this year's World Cup to be a difficult one to fill.
Kristine Lilly and Mia Hamm from that era were completely legitimate contenders for greatest of all time, and let's argue that Abby Wambach eventually surpassed them both with her own special offensive dominance, which rewrote the record books. It's completely fair to argue for Wambach as best ever, except Akers was playing kick-butt defensive midfield at the same age Wambach is now. Let's look at careers in full.
So here's my list: 1. Lloyd. 2. Akers. 3. Wambach. 4. Lilly. 5. Hamm. (Defensive greats Carla Overbeck and Christie Rampone are my honorable mentions).
It's not easy to put Lloyd on top, for all the reasons stated above about Akers. Except this offensive brilliance we've witnessed from Lloyd in the biggest games even transcends her sport, and transcendent moments are what the legends pull off. She's in that club now, still doing it days short of her 33d birthday.
Lloyd's other great accomplishments of this World Cup are part of the foundation of her new status. A penalty kick against Germany when Germany's own iconic star had just missed from the same spot. Her highlight of an assist for the second goal that game, the clincher. A 51st-minute header in the quarterfinals against China when the United States, already dominating, really needed a goal. (It didn't get another). A penalty kick in the second round against Colombia.
Because Lloyd was never promoted as the star of her team, it's fair to theorize that maybe her status as a cog helped fuel her to greater heights. When her former coach pointed out that Lloyd was a challenge to coach because you had to believe in her or else she faltered - well, that sounded as much of an indictment of the coach as of the player.
Even in this World Cup, some questioned early on whether Lloyd even belonged on the field since she was playing in a deeper midfield role with more defensive responsibilities and didn't always look great doing it. A couple of suspensions forced the hand of U.S. coach Jill Ellis, moving Lloyd up to a more attacking role.
Her longtime personal coach James Galanis talked about how Lloyd didn't cause any drama this World Cup, but he also remembered telling her when her position was switched, "they've given you that role. Now go out there and make sure they can't take you out of that role."
Also give Ellis legitimate credit for not letting her own ego get in the way at all, for not trying to force Wambach back on the field for all 90 minutes, and without a true defensive midfielder out there. Everything was taken care of in the end. But the biggest hand obviously goes to the one who kept putting the ball in the net. That's the way it works in soccer.
Now, give Lloyd a chance to show up at a place where everyone in the place is screaming just for her. It would be a win-win. The cameras would love it, plus it's a return to the modern roots of the sport, when Akers showed up and the place went crazy, or Mia Hamm showed up with her teammates at Upper Dublin High in 1997 after Hamm had ascended to best in the world and 4,826 people were there all screaming her name, desperate for her signature.
Give Lloyd exactly that experience, in her little hometown. She kind of earned it.