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Alex Morgan’s last sport on Sunday was a showcase of the legacy she leaves behind after a storied 14-year profession, one during which her on-field accomplishments had been matched by her relentless advocacy for women’s sports.
The day was a spectacle laden with tributes throughout the NWSL and on web site at Snapdragon Stadium, the place she started for the San Diego Wave of their common season conflict in opposition to the North Carolina Braveness. The reward was simply the primary a part of a sendoff worthy of a participant of Morgan’s stature, who lived as much as her promise as American soccer’s most hyped youth prospect and leveraged her on-field success by pushing girls’s soccer — and the NWSL specifically — ahead.
Morgan was partnered not simply by her teammates on Sunday but additionally by her four-year-old daughter Charlie, who has turn into a relentless companion within the latter phases of her profession because the two-time World Cup winner grew to become an advocate for moms in sport. The 35-year-old also played her final game while pregnant with her second child.
Listed below are the sights and sounds from Morgan’s last match.
A household matter
Morgan arrived at Snapdragon Stadium in a well-recognized vogue, holding fingers together with her daughter Charlie. The World Cup winner rocked a inexperienced three-piece go well with, a ribbon in her hair with the print of a soccer ball and a soccer ball bag, offered by Kate Spade New York. Charlie wore the Wave’s 2024 dwelling equipment together with her mom’s identify and quantity, which served her properly as she walked onto the pitch with Morgan for the pre-game festivities.
Tributes on arrival
The remainder of the league joined in with tributes with movies coming in from a number of the league’s prime gamers, together with former nationwide workforce colleagues like Trinity Rodman and Sophia Smith, the latter of whom mentioned, “We would not be right here with out you.”
Morgan’s teammates on the Wave, in the meantime, turned up at Snapdragon Stadium with t-shirts studying “SAN D13GOAT,” referencing the participant’s iconic No. 13 and her standing as the best of all time, which the membership is now selling to the public. Fellow Wave ahead Maria Sanchez, in the meantime, sported a customized t-shirt with a selfie she took with Morgan when she was a toddler rocking braces, an image they recreated this 12 months after Sanchez was traded to San Diego. A handful additionally sported the pink pre-wrap headband Morgan has iconically worn her complete profession.
The Wave additionally honored Morgan shortly earlier than kickoff by welcoming the participant’s family members onto the sector and offering her with a membership jersey that sports activities the quantity 63, in honor of her 63 matches for the membership.
13 minutes for No. 13
Morgan performed simply 13 minutes in her last sport, a nod to the No. 13 she wore for almost all of her profession. It could have been a brief finale, but it surely was an eventful one with two objectives happening and one missed penalty.
The Braveness started to play spoiler within the fourth minute when Haley Hopkins scored off a header and compelled the Wave to play from behind. The hosts had an awesome probability at an equalizer simply six minutes later, when a handball meant they conceded a penalty that might have provided a fairytale sendoff for Morgan. She stepped up for what may have been her last aim as knowledgeable however Braveness goalkeeper Casey Murphy made the save.
The Wave lastly discovered their equalizer, aptly within the thirteenth minute when Kennedy Wesley scored a header. Wesley’s aim allowed Morgan to have fun a aim for one last time as knowledgeable earlier than coming off straight after the aim.
Morgan then walked off to a sequence of hugs, massive cheers from the gang and tears from a handful of her teammates. The gang shortly started to chant her identify as Morgan walked in direction of the touchline, coming off for Amirah Ali after which receiving one other batch of hugs from the bench earlier than taking her seat.
Making historical past
A crowd of 26,516 stuffed Snapdragon Stadium for Morgan’s last sport, lots of whom acted shortly to have fun the star. The Wave offered greater than 11,000 tickets within the 24 hours after Morgan introduced her retirement, whereas a few of these on the stadium weren’t locals — some indicators noticed on the printed indicated that followers traveled from North Carolina and Alaska to see the participant’s final sport.
It’s a far cry from Morgan’s first sport on the membership stage in 2011 as a rookie for the Western New York Flash in WPS, the NWSL’s now-defunct predecessor. Just 2,164 filled Sahlen’s Stadium in Rochester, N.Y. to see a workforce that included Marta and Christine Sinclair, fortunately an unfamiliar sight for Morgan in her last years as knowledgeable. The nationwide workforce usually performs in entrance of huge crowds now, whereas the Wave common round 20,000 followers a sport this season, one of many strongest markets within the constantly-growing NWSL. It felt applicable that the league made a few of its personal historical past on Sunday, too — the NWSL surpassed 1.5 million followers in attendance for the primary time throughout the common season and is on tempo to hit the 2 million mark by season’s finish.
It was not the one groundbreaking second on Sunday, both. Morgan’s last sport was simulcast on CBS Sports activities Community and Paramount+, ESPN2, Amazon Prime Video and NWSL+, which marked the primary time a number of media firms within the U.S. would collectively air a girls’s sporting occasion. Once more, it displays the progress girls’s sports activities have made throughout Morgan’s profession. She quipped throughout her pre-game press convention on Friday that she found out she was drafted to the Flash from the USWNT’s press officer as a result of the occasion was not televised and social media protection was scarce.
The simulcast, although, speaks to Morgan’s unmatched standing because the face of ladies’s soccer as the sport began to chart exponential progress. She hardly ever took that privilege flippantly as she raised requirements throughout the game, one thing she vowed to proceed in retirement.
