USA 5 Japan 2: USA Women’s Soccer Undisputed Champions Of The World
By Giles Malone // July 6, 2015
Carli Lloyd leads usa to victory
Carli Lloyd is the owner of perhaps the greatest goal ever scored in women’s soccer history.
VANCOUVER • BRITISH COLOMBIA – Having dominated Japan in an awesome team display, the USA Women’s soccer team is now the best in the world and it’s dynamic force of nature, Carli Lloyd, is the owner of perhaps the greatest goal ever scored in women’s soccer history.
In this game, Lloyd was so deep in “the zone” with her first half hat-trick (three goals), that Japan never really stood a chance.
It seemed that the soccer-tsunami – Lloyd, was not going to let anything stand in the way of her team’s mission, to lift the FIFA World Cup trophy, after a hiatus of 16 years.
The USA last lifted the World Cup soccer trophy in 1999 and it took an inspired performance from Lloyd and her teammates to so dominate the inscrutable Japanese and win the coveted trophy for a record-breaking third time.
Japan must have thought that it had run into a Lloyd buzz-saw, as after just 6 minutes, it was staring into the abyss of a two-goal deficit, both scored by the dominating USA mid-fielder. An absolute nightmare start for the hapless Japanese ladies.
But is was Lloyd’s third, a 54.5-yard wonder-goal, that this soccer fan will never forget.
At around the 16-minute mark, Lloyd performed the truly amazing. Patrolling the center of the field like a great-white shark with chum in the water, Lloyd intercepted an errant pass, just inside her own half, a full 60 yards from the Japanese goal.
She pushed the ball forward and it looked for an instant, like it would be stolen by an opponent, but Lloyd knew exactly what she was doing.
She deftly and ever so skillfully, finessed the ball, at speed, through the legs of her out-witted foe and then came the truly genius part. Lloyd instinctively knew that because she had so quickly altered play and had taken the ball quickly forward in the middle of the pitch, the Japanese goalkeeper might be quite a long way out of her penalty area and away from protecting her goal.
In a flash and on a full run with the ball, Lloyd took a quick look up, and like the greatest predator on the planet, she struck. Thump! She drove the ball perfectly, on an arc, 54.5 yards, sailing beautifully over the head of the helplessly flailing Japanese goalkeeper and into the open net.
A dream come true for the USA’s best player and arguably the best women’s soccer player on the planet.
Goals like that one are only scored by true soccer royalty – the very best that the game has to offer and it will go down in the annuls of soccer as one of the greatest goals ever.
Congratulations to Carli Lloyd, and the entire U.S. soccer community for winning the 2015 FIFA World Cup. That is an awesome achievement and thank you Carli Lloyd, for delighting us with one of the best goals ever.
