‘She believes’: A perfectly unpredictable ending to the Women’s World Cup

Even the Americans themselves couldn’t quite believe what was happening. Mouths were agape and eyes grew big. The 5-2 victory by the U.S. over Japan in the Women’s World Cup final was dumbfounding, stupefying and astounding. But given the utterly confounding tournament, it was a fittingly unpredictable climax. In Sunday’s final, the U.S. needed just 12 minutes to get the three goals they wound up needing to defeat Japan and avenge their penalty shootout loss to the Japanese in the final four years ago and snap a 16-year drought to win a record third World Cup. And then, there was Carli Lloyd, who had fallen so far below her usually lofty levels in the group stage but took just over a quarter of an hour to become the first person to score a hat trick within the 90 minutes of regulation time in a World Cup final.

If you hit it hard enough, and if you hit it in the right place, there aren’t many goalies who can stop it.

Carli Lloyd, U.S. midfielder

The history of soccer in America will not be written without Lloyd’s name. Lloyd scored from close and she scored from far. She also scored a place in U.S. sports lore for a team that came together beautifully to vanquish all comers and now will stand aside the 1999 team as most cherished ever by a still-growing soccer nation. The theme of the team has been “She believes,” and Lloyd made everyone believe within the first five minutes of the match, redirecting a shot from Megan Rapinoe at three minutes and then knocking in a second goal two minutes later.

Sports U.S. women