After over 200 appearances at the box with the U.S. girls’s nationwide football staff, Megan Rapinoe performed her final game Sunday.
Rapinoe, a former USWNT co-captain, donned the captain’s armband one remaining time on Sunday and helped lead her staff to a 2-0 victory in opposition to South Africa at Chicago’s Soldier Field, finishing her world football profession on a prime be aware.
“I know that I am a liked player, and I know that I mean a lot to the game,” Rapinoe stated, addressing the gang after the game, in line with the Associated Press. “But to have this night come and to actually feel it and see it — from my teammates, from our staff and certainly from the fans, who have been such a huge part of our success on and off the field, really — it was very special.”
On Sunday, when Rapinoe exited the game within the 54th minute, she hugged her teammates as the gang at Soldier Field gave her a status ovation.
Megan Rapinoe celebrates her staff’s 2d purpose scored by way of USA’s defender #14 Emily Sonnett (out of body) right through the ladies’s world pleasant soccer fit between america and South Africa at Soldier Field in Chicago on September 24, 2023.
Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP by means of Getty Images
After the game, Rapinoe’s teammates spoke about what she has supposed to them in my view and to the game.
“It’s really hard for me because I’m losing, just, an idol,” midfielder Lindsey Horan stated of Rapinoe, in line with the AP. “It’s hard. That’s what you’ve looked up to. It’s another reason why you fall in love with the game, those kinds of players that you watch on TV do those things. And you come in and now you’re training with them everyday? It’s freakin’ wild.”
“She radiates acceptance and love,” added Midge Purce, ahead for the USWNT.
Rapinoe, 38, announced in July that she would retire from skilled football at the tip of this season.
During her history-making profession, Rapinoe scored over 60 objectives and remodeled 70 assists in USWNT video games. She additionally received two World Cups, gold and bronze Olympic Medals, and the FIFA Women’s World Cup Golden Ball and Golden Boot.
Off the sector, Rapinoe helped lead the fight for gender equity, a combat that culminated in a landmark deal that now sees the U.S. males’s and ladies’s nationwide groups receiving the similar pay and being equipped the similar operating stipulations.
Megan Rapinoe is splashed with water after the game in opposition to South Africa in her remaining nationwide staff look at Soldier Field in Chicago on September 24, 2023.
Jon Durr/USA TODAY Sports by means of Reuters
Rapinoe and the remainder of the ladies’s staff fell in need of profitable a 3rd World Cup previous this summer season with the staff’s heartbreaking loss to Sweden early within the event.
Following that loss, Rapinoe mirrored at the recreation she loves and the teammates she competed with.
“This game is so beautiful, even in its cruelest moments,” Rapinoe wrote on Instagram at the time. “This group was so very special, and I am immensely proud of every single one of us. This team is in special hands as I walk away, just like it always was, and always will be. Because that is what this team is all about.”
She ended her post with a be aware of gratitude, writing, “It has been my honor to play for our country, with so many incredible woman, for so many years,” she stated. “Thank you, a million times over. ❤️”
Rapinoe has 3 extra video games to play with Seattle’s OL Reign during the finish of the National Women’s Soccer League season.
She is scheduled to play her final house game in Seattle on Oct. 6, and her final common season NWSL game on Oct. 15, again in Chicago in opposition to the Chicago Red Stars.
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