N.J.’s Carli Lloyd begins USWNT retirement tour with record-tying performance

Carli Lloyd, right, scored five goals in the U.S. national team’s 9-0 rout of Paraguay on Thursday.

Carli Lloyd is going out in style.

The Delran, N.J. native and former Rutgers star kicked off her retirement tour with a performance for the ages: five goals in the U.S. national team’s 9-0 rout of Paraguay.

It was Lloyd’s first career five-goal game. She has nine career hat tricks, one fewer than Mia Hamm. The five goals matched the U.S. record for a single game, a milestone most recently reached by Alex Morgan against Thailand during the 2019 World Cup. No player has had six.

“Maybe for a split second,” Lloyd said when asked if performances like that make her want to stick around. “And then I go back to reality. ... That was fun. ... I’m just trying to savor it because I want time to go a little bit slower, because one game is down and I have three left.”

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Following the Tokyo Olympics in August, the 39-year-old Lloyd announced she is ready for retirement and will walk off into the sunset following a series of four international friendlies.

Lloyd scored a pair of goals in the opening five minutes Thursday, and added her third and fourth before halftime as the United States built a 6-0 lead. She added her final goal in the 61st.

Lloyd has 133 international goals in 313 appearances with the national team. She moved in front of Kristine Lilly for third on the career list.

“I wish I could do it forever, but all good things eventually come to an end and I definitely am for sure retiring,” Lloyd said. “I’m not going to come back out of retirement but you know I’m going to be the biggest cheerleader for this team and really excited to see them continue to keep crushing it.”

Lloyd is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (2008 and 2012), two-time World Cup champion (2015 and 2019) and two-time FIFA Player of the Year (2015 and 2016). She helped lead the USWNT to a bronze medal in the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

(NJ Advance Media’s Brian Fonseca and The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com.

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