Carli Lloyd's career built on determination, consistency

It was a question lobbed from a starstruck teacher standing along the side of the gymnasium, a soft cross that Carli Lloyd could finish with a flourish.

"What's been your favorite moment of your career?" Lloyd was asked during a visit to Hillside Elementary School in Mount Laurel last month as part of the U.S. women's national soccer team's "She Believes" initiative.

There was an obvious answer: China in 2008.

There was a more telling answer: England in 2012.

Lloyd's choice was to focus on the crisis of her career, a shocking seat on the bench before the 2012 Olympics - and her defiant and triumphant reaction to it - rather than her first great international success. It underscored the true nature of one of the most accomplished soccer players to emerge from the Philadelphia region.

Lloyd, who will turn 33 in July, might have magazine-cover looks and the poised, polished presence of a savvy, seasoned professional. She might have burst onto the international scene when she became U.S. soccer's golden girl in Beijing on Aug. 22, 2008 - scoring a "golden goal" in overtime for a 1-0 win over favored Brazil in the gold medal game of the Summer Olympics.

But at her core, the former Delran High School and Rutgers University star is a gritty Jersey girl - flinty and feisty and forever fueled by competitive challenges.

"It explains who she is," Lloyd's trainer, Mount Laurel-based James Galanis, said of her decision to rank 2012 - when she returned from that benching to score both U.S. goals in the gold medal game - above 2008 as the highlight of her career. "It explains her character. It explains her resilience. It explains how she views things, how she responds to difficult situations.

"She loves challenges. When others fold, she picks up the pace."

Lloyd has emerged as an unquestioned leader of a U.S. side that will begin play Monday as one of the favorites in the Women's World Cup in Canada.

But that single shining moment in 2008 aside, she hasn't achieved her status through brilliant, breathtaking play as much as consistency, dependability, and steady improvement.

Lloyd regards herself as a "warrior" on the field, a tough, tenacious player who has taken no shortcuts in her rise to the top of the sport.

She is renowned for her work ethic, her conditioning, her near-fanatical determination to push herself to reach her potential.

Lloyd has 63 goals in 195 international appearances. She was the national team's most productive player in 2014, leading the squad in goals (15), assists (eight), games (23), and minutes (2,043).

And if increased recognition has begun to come her way with her appearance on the regional cover this week of Sports Illustrated, Lloyd has seized the spotlight on her own terms: through smart, sturdy play and with a work ethic that has commanded respect.

"I'm not a Tobin Heath, beating people with snakes [fancy moves] out on the field," Lloyd said in reference to one of her more talented teammates. "I love watching that, but for me, I'm more homing in on being the complete midfielder, being able to tackle, being able to serve it long ball, short passes, win the aerial battles.

"I like to label myself as kind of a warrior out there."

U.S. coach Jill Ellis regards Lloyd, who wears the iconic No. 10 jersey, as one of the leaders of a team that is looking to win the World Cup for the first time since 1999.

"Carli has done so well in the big moments for this team," Ellis said, "in the Olympic Games, in world championships, so it's nice to see she is getting the recognition for what she has achieved and what she has brought to this team.

"With Abby [Wambach] and Christie [Rampone] and Hope [Solo] and herself being some of the [key] players on the team, she has had opportunities to wear the captain's armband, and I think that has been great for Carli."

Midfielder Morgan Brian, who at 22 is the youngest player on the U.S. team, raves about Lloyd's leadership.

"When I first came into the team, Carli was a great mentor, and obviously she brings so much to the table in terms of soccer ability," Brian said. "In that regard, she leads the team in the way she plays and the mentality she brings every single day."

Lloyd said she sometimes is "amazed" to think how far she has come. When she spoke to those third and fourth graders in Mount Laurel, she recalled being their age and struggling with whispers that she "wasn't being girlie enough."

She was a high school phenom in the late 1990s and a four-time all-Big East player at Rutgers in the early 2000s. And it was nearly seven years ago when she scored that goal in China.

But in typical fashion, when Lloyd looks back she embraces the "growing pains" that have marked her journey. Nothing came easy, she said, but she would not have it any other way.

"It's crazy to see where I started to where I am now," Lloyd said. "My talent took me as far as it could, but I wasn't international-ready when I first came on the scene. I had to go through a lot of growing pains.

"I had to go through a lot. I had to mature. I had to become a better thinker on the field. I had to be fit.

"And now I'm finding myself in a role where I am a leader, I am a veteran. It's my job to go out there each and every game and show people what I can do and help my team win."

Galanis, who runs the International Soccer Academy in Mount Laurel, has become the guru of Lloyd's game, raising her fitness level, skills, and understanding of the mental aspects of the highest levels of competition.

"She's an amazing student," Galanis said. "Because of that, I have been able to teach her how a championship athlete thinks, how they thrive under pressure.

"She studied Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Diego Maradona just to get a better understanding of their mental traits."

Lloyd said her golden goal in China in 2008 was like a bolt of lightning - a blinding flash that revealed her to the soccer world.

For her, it wasn't a defining moment as much as added motivation to work even harder.

"2008 was one of those moments where I didn't think I could be a big part of the national team," Lloyd said. "I was still trying to believe and instill some self-belief in myself."

But 2012 was different. Lloyd figured she was an established player when then-U.S. coach Pia Sundhage told her about two weeks before the start of the London Olympics that she would start the tournament on the bench.

"I thought my [international] career was probably over," Lloyd said. "It was pretty unreal how everything panned out."

Lloyd was on the bench for all of 15 minutes of the first game of the Olympics. That's when midfielder Shannon Boxx aggravated a hamstring injury.

Lloyd entered the game with the United States trailing France by 2-0, the team's gold medal dreams already in deep trouble. She scored two goals and led a rally for a 4-2 victory.

And two weeks later, she scored both goals in a 2-1 win over Japan with the gold medal on the line. She is the only player in history - male or female - to score a goal in back-to-back Olympic finals.

"I didn't think I would ever step on the field in the Olympics, and to step out there after 15 minutes in the first game and play the whole rest of the tournament and come out with a [gold] medal and score a few goals in the final, that's so far my best," Lloyd said.

Galanis said Lloyd circles 2012 in red ink because she was down and she battled back. She took a stunning coach's decision and an opportunity created by a teammate's injury and leveraged them to jack her career to another level.

It was an edgy, Jersey girl kind of thing to do.

And Galanis said Lloyd, who will be 38 before the 2020 Olympics, has the same attitude with regard to speculation that this cycle of international competition - the current World Cup and the 2016 Olympics - will likely mark the end of her career.

"She's as fit as ever, as mentally tough as ever, as skilled as ever," Galanis said. "She's going to prove them wrong again."

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Since making her debut on July 10, 2005, midfielder Carli Lloyd has been a mainstay for the U.S. women's national team. Here are some highlights of her international career.

Named to three World Cup rosters (2007, 2011, 2015).

Two-time Olympic gold medalist (2008, 2012).

Scored the game-winning goal in overtime in the 2008 Olympic gold medal game (1-0 over Brazil) and scored both U.S. goals in the 2012 Olympic gold medal game (2-1 over Japan).

Has 61 career goals, most for a U.S. player playing exclusively in the midfield.

Named MVP of the 2014 CONCACAF women's championship, helping the United States qualify for the World Cup.

Named MVP of the 2007 Algarve Cup.

Source: U.S. Soccer

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Marc Narducci contributed to this article.