Alex Morgan’s legacy: The USWNT star’s 13 best moments on and off the court as she announces her retirement

One of the greatest players on the US women’s national team will hang up her shoes and say goodbye on Sunday. Longtime forward Alex Morgan announced her retirement in a farewell video on Thursday and the Wave FC forward will play her final match against North Carolina Courage at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, California. Morgan will leave behind a professional career spanning nearly 15 years where she achieved several championships, titles and personal accolades.

She made her national team debut in 2010 and made 223 appearances, scoring 123 goals, good for fifth all-time. She is a two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champion (2015 and 2019) and has won Olympic gold and bronze medals. She has also performed just as well at club level, with a WSP Championship in 2011, an NWSL Championship in 2013, a UEFA Champions League title in 2017 and an NWSL Shield in 2024.

Her big moments have been felt around the world, both on and off the pitch, and most of them came while wearing her iconic number 13. So let’s take a look at 13 top moments from her career:

13. A boy from California makes a snowy senior debut

Morgan made a memorable senior debut in Salt Lake City, Utah against Mexico on a snow-covered field. It was an off-the-bench performance and she was representing number 21 at the time, but it was the performance that started it all.

12. 2008 U-20 World Cup Champion

The youth team that put Morgan, Sydney Leroux and Alyssa Naeher in the spotlight. Morgan was a key figure for the team, scoring four goals in the run to their second ever U20 World Cup title. Her performances earned her future call-ups to senior level training camps.

11. Couple’s goal to advance to the 2011 World Cup

After making her senior team debut, Morgan quickly became accustomed to the program’s plans as a next-generation player. The senior squad made an extensive qualifying effort after failing to seal their place at the 2011 World Cup through the first Concacaf qualifiers with a third-place finish. They met Italy for a two-leg intercontinental play-off. Morgan provided the only goal in the first leg, ultimately sealing the side’s place in the 2011 tournament.

10. 2011 World Cup debut

If the 2008 U20 World Cup was a taste of the future, the 2011 World Cup was the official unveiling of Morgan as the team’s next star striker. She provided extra impetus from the bench throughout the competition, scoring two goals and providing one assist in her first World Cup at senior level. The national team settled for second place against Japan, but Morgan made history as the first player to ever score and record an assist in a Women’s World Cup final.

9. First club title with Western New York Flash

Morgan’s generation was also the last draft class for the now defunct WPS (Women’s Professional Soccer) league. The predecessor to the NWSL only existed for three seasons, but Morgan’s arrival at WNY Flash was historic. She played in 14 games and scored four goals and the club walked away with the regular season title and championship title.

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8. Helped launch three NWSL clubs

After WPS went bankrupt, many national team players were instrumental in planning the next iteration of a professional women’s football league. As the NWSL prepared to launch, it did so with the help of US Soccer and the commitment of its players. There was an allocation system in place and several clubs were new franchises while others were existing club brands.

Morgan was assigned to Portland Thorns FC during the allocation draft ahead of the 2013 inaugural season – one of the new women’s football franchises to launch the league. As the league expanded, Morgan eventually found herself on other inaugural rosters in NWSL. She helped launch Orlando Pride ahead of the 2016 season, and later San Diego Wave FC ahead of the 2022 season.

7. Winning at club level

She won the 2013 NWSL Championship with the Thorns in their very first season, a season in which she shared team leading goal scorer honors with teammate Christine Sinclair, and provided an assist in the championship final. They won the league’s Golden Boot award in 2022 with San Diego during their inaugural season and won the 2023 NWSL Shield with the Wave – awarded to the team with the most points in the regular season.

6. European stints

The club level also includes short-term loans abroad in Europe. In 2017, Morgan joined Olympique Lyon and scored five goals in eight appearances with the team. Although she suffered a hamstring injury with the squad, and it limited some of her performances, Morgan’s time with the team led to more hardware as Lyon secured the treble by winning the domestic league, the Coupe de France Feminine and UEFA. Women’s Champions League title.

She also spent time in England with Tottenham. Her first and only spell in the WSL came at a time of uncertainty. With leagues affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, playing opportunities in the NWSL looked different in 2020 than during a traditional season. For Morgan, who also returned to playing after giving birth in May 2020, it was a short loan experience, from September to December. Her biggest impact came in the form of fame and influence, getting the franchise to change their substandard training grounds and move to the men’s training grounds.

5. Semi-final of the 2012 Olympic Games against Canada

In what is often hailed as the greatest football match ever played, old rivals Canada and the United States met in the London Olympic semi-final at Old Trafford. The two teams played to a wild 3-3 scoreline in regulation, with a tense period of extra time needed to determine who would advance.

It was perhaps the play that cemented Morgan’s place as the team’s “current” striker rather than its future player. As time expired in the second extra period, Heather O’Reilly threw a ball into the penalty area and Morgan was there, ready to get up and head the ball into the goal as the game clock expired.

4. Defending others in the game

For many, Morgan’s legacy extends beyond the field. She has been vocal about efforts to grow the game and expand opportunities for girls in the game. She belonged to a generation of players who developed the concept of using your personal platform for something bigger. She has often advocated for improving the women’s game, allyship for the LGBTQ community, and women’s equality.

In 2023, when the team held friendlies in Florida and Texas, so was Morgan speak out about the protection of trans youth in sports.

“As we look at these games in Florida and Texas respectively, we will have to continue to step it up and also have internal discussions with the team because we are not ones to shy away from hard conversations or take a stand for what is right ,” Morgan told reporters at the time.

3. Trusted teammate

Perhaps the greatest example of defending others, Alex Morgan was one of a handful of players who made repeated efforts to advocate for teammates who faced varying levels of abuse and misconduct in the league.

In a 2021, report revealing allegations of sexual misconduct by former Portland Thorns teammates Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly to former head coach Paul Riley, Alex Morgan was mentioned as a player who Shim and Farrelly turned around when their concerns were brushed aside by former Thorns executives. The story made national headlines, put the league in the spotlight and led to nearly a year-long misconduct investigations by US Soccer, and a joint team investigation between the NWSL and the NWSL Players Association.

Before the story came to light, Morgan, Shim and Farelly discovered that there were no functioning player protection protocols in the player handbook. Before the 2021 story, there was also no anti-harassment policy. Morgan helped change that when she prompted 240 players to sign a letter to former NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird asking for player protection processes in the league.

2. Tea sip celebration in the semi-final against England

While Morgan has a trophy case full of hardware, her festive pop during the 2019 World Cup will live on into eternity. When the United States faced England in the semifinals, Morgan scored the winning goal in the 31st minute and immediately ran to the corner flag for a ‘tea sipping’ celebration. It was witty and iconic. and ruffles of feathers – and it was the coolest stuff American dreams are made of.

While she received some criticism for it, Morgan defended her celebration by telling the media“I feel like there’s kind of a double standard for women in sports, to feel like we have to be humble in our successes and celebrate, but not too much or in a limited way,” she said at the time. .

The USWNT won the semi-final 2-1 and went on to win the 2019 World Cup with a 2-0 victory against the Netherlands in the final. England then took fourth place.

1. Fight for equal pay

Morgan was one of the faces and names in a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation during the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. After a protracted battle from their first EEOC filing, the group navigated uncharted waters but packed the power of knowledge and history of top performance into the suitcases that helped them in the court of public opinion and through legal hearings that lasted several years.

It was a battle that had been going on for years, with lawsuits forming a near-constant carousel, but finally paid off in February 2022. The national team reached a $24 million settlement with the federation, which included the backlog of World Cup prize money and a commitment that both the women’s and men’s teams would receive equal pay. The two national teams have signed a historic collective bargaining agreement that runs until 2028 and provides for equal compensation across all competitions, World Cups and a revenue sharing mechanism.

The large-scale, very public battle had a ripple effect. While the NWSL was in the midst of ongoing investigations into misconduct in domestic women’s soccer, the NWSL Players Association was also actively negotiating their own first-ever CBA, which was signed and ratified in January 2022.