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Alex Morgan’s final match on Sunday was a showcase of the legacy she leaves behind after a storied 14-year career in which her achievements on the pitch were matched by her relentless advocacy for women’s sport.
The day was a tribute-laden spectacle across the NWSL and on site at Snapdragon Stadium, where she started for the San Diego Wave in their regular season matchup against the North Carolina Courage. The praise was just the first part of a farewell befitting a player of Morgan’s stature, who lived up to her promise as American soccer’s most hyped youth player and parlayed her on-field success into women’s soccer – and the NWSL in particular – to give an impetus. – forward.
Morgan was joined on Sunday not only by her teammates, but also by her four-year-old daughter Charlie, who has become a constant companion in the latter stages of her career as the two-time World Cup winner became an advocate for mothers in sport. The 35-year-old also played her last match while pregnant with her second child.
Here are the sights and sounds of Morgan’s final match, which ended 4-1 in favor of the Courage.
A family affair
Morgan arrived at Snapdragon Stadium in familiar fashion, hand in hand with her daughter Charlie. The World Cup winner wore a green three-piece suit, a ribbon in her hair with the print of a football and a football bag, sold by Kate Spade New York. Charlie wore the Wave’s 2024 home kit with her mother’s name and number, which came in handy as she walked onto the pitch with Morgan for the pre-match celebrations.
Kudos on arrival
The rest of the league joined in with tributes with videos from some of the league’s best players, including former national team colleagues such as Trinity Rodman and Sophia Smith, the latter of whom said: “We wouldn’t be here without you. “
Morgan’s teammates at the Wave, meanwhile, showed up at Snapdragon Stadium wearing t-shirts that read “SAN D13GOAT,” referencing the player’s iconic number 13 and her status as the club’s greatest of all time. now sold to the public. Fellow Wave forward Maria Sanchez, meanwhile, wore a custom T-shirt featuring a selfie she took with Morgan while rocking a brace as a child, a photo they recreated this year after Sanchez was traded to San Diego. A handful also wore the pink pre-wrap headband that Morgan has worn iconically throughout her career.
The Wave also honored Morgan shortly before kick-off by welcoming the player’s loved ones to the pitch and presenting her with a club jersey with the number 63, in honor of her 63 appearances for the club.
13 minutes before number 13
Morgan played just 13 minutes in her final match, a nod to the number 13 she wore for most of her career. It may have been a short final, but it was an eventful one with two goals and one missed penalty.
The Courage started playing spoiler in the fourth minute when Haley Hopkins scored on a header, forcing the Wave to play from behind. The hosts had a great chance to equalize just six minutes later when a handball saw them awarded a penalty that could have produced a fairytale send-off for Morgan. She stepped up for what could have been her last goal as a professional, but Courage goalkeeper Casey Murphy made the save.
The Wave finally found the equalizer, fittingly in the 13th minute when Kennedy Wesley scored a header. Wesley’s goal allowed Morgan to celebrate a goal for the last time as a professional before coming out immediately after the goal.
Morgan then walked away to a series of hugs, loud cheers from the crowd and tears from a handful of her teammates. The crowd quickly began chanting her name as Morgan walked to the sideline, walked up to Amirah Ali and then received a few more hugs from the bench before taking her seat.
A final farewell
The Wave celebrated Morgan’s career one last time at the end of their 4-1 defeat, leading her onto the pitch as her daughter Charlie ran over to present the World Cup winner with a large bouquet of flowers. Before Morgan and those in attendance at Snapdragon Stadium watched a video commemorating her career, the player addressed the crowd in a short speech. She thanked the 95 loved ones on site for her final match, as well as her legions of fans. “This last moment shared on the court is something I will cherish forever, so thank you,” she said. “From the bottom of my heart: thank you.”
Making history
A crowd of 26,516 people filled Snapdragon Stadium for Morgan’s final match, many of whom quickly jumped into action to celebrate the star. The Wave sold more than 11,000 tickets in the 24 hours after Morgan announced her retirement, while some of the crowds in the stadium were non-locals. Some signs seen on the broadcast indicated that fans had traveled from North Carolina and Alaska to watch the player’s final game. .
It’s a far cry from Morgan’s first game at the club level in 2011 as a rookie for the Western New York Flash in WPS, the NWSL’s now defunct predecessor. Only 2,164 people filled Sahlen’s Stadium in Rochester, NY to see a team that includes Marta and Christine Sinclair, thankfully an unfamiliar face to Morgan in her final years as a professional. The national team now regularly plays in front of large crowds, while the Wave are averaging around 20,000 fans per game this season, one of the strongest markets in the ever-growing NWSL. It felt fitting that the league also made some of its own history on Sunday: The NWSL surpassed 1.5 million fans in attendance for the first time during the regular season and is on track to reach the two million mark by the end of the season .
It wasn’t the only game-changing moment on Sunday, either. Morgan’s final match was simulcast on CBS Sports Network and Paramount+, ESPN2, Amazon Prime Video and NWSL+, marking the first time multiple media companies in the US would co-broadcast a women’s sporting event. Again, it reflects the progress women’s sport has made during Morgan’s career. She joked during her pre-match press conference on Friday that she found out she was drafted into the Flash by the USWNT press officer because the event was not televised and social media coverage was sparse.
However, the simulcast speaks to Morgan’s unrivaled status as the face of women’s football as the game began to chart exponential growth. She rarely took that privilege lightly as she raised standards in the sport, something she vowed to continue even after her retirement.