Matt Christopher - On the Field with...Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, and Mallory Pugh

Let me just bomb this from the mid stripe. What the heck

That was the thought that crossed Carli Lloyds mind a split second before she launched the most famous kick in the history of womens soccer. As the ball sailed half the length of the field, more than fifty thousand fans leaped to their feet in Vancouvers BC Place Stadium. Millions more watching at home held their breath.

On the field, Carli and the rest of Team USA followed the ball with their eyes, their bodies, and their hearts. It felt like an eternity watching the ball soar through the air, Carli recalled. I saw the keeper [Japans Ayumi Kaihori] backing up, and I was like, No! And then I saw her reaching back, and I was like, No! I saw it brush her fingertips.

Everyone agonized with her. And then

Off the post and in! a television announcer screamed.

This is absolutely world-class, a second announcer enthused.

Back home, friends and fans jumped for joy, hugged, and shouted with amazement. The deafening roar inside the stadium grew even louder as Carli raced across the field, arms raised in celebration and a mile-wide grin on her face, to fling herself into the crushing embrace of her teammates.

That amazing goal all but sealed the victory for the United States Womens National Team (USWNT) over Japan in the 2015 Womens World Cup finals. Unbelievably, it wasnt Carlis first goal of the game. It wasnt even her second. That long bomb was her third. Even more astounding, she scored the hat trick in just sixteen minutes! No player, male or female, had ever racked up that many goals in so short a period in any World Cup final game.

It was the greatest individual performance in a World Cup final ever, one sports journalist reported the next day. End of discussion.

Lloyd made that third goal look almost effortless. But those who have followed her career know that the road to that moment was anything but smooth. Rewind her timeline twelve years, and youll see a very different Carli Lloyd. Not the powerful athlete who unleashed a blast that catapulted her into soccer history, but a tearful twenty-one-year-old on the brink of leaving the sport forever.

Dial back even further, though, and youll find a young girl who couldnt wait to lace up her cleats and hit the field.

Carli Lloyd was born on July 16, 1982, the oldest of three children in the Lloyd family. Her parents, Stephen and Pamela, worked hard to provide a good home in Delran, New Jersey, a small town about twenty minutes outside Philadelphia, for Carli, Stephen Junior, and Ashley. From a very early age, Carli was an athletic tomboy who preferred mowing the lawn to playing dress-up and baseball cards to Barbie dolls. You [would] never find a ribbon or a bow on me, she said of her childhood self.

Carli started playing soccer when she was five years old. Her father helped coach her team, the Delran Dynamite. Her other coach, Karen Thorton, got the most out of players with her positivity and sense of fun. Together, the two coaches encouraged Carli and her teammates to enjoy the sport, not live and breathe it.

That came later for Carli.

Even at that young age, Carli stood out as a star with natural talent. She absorbed coaching the way a sponge absorbs water. If the Dynamite fell behind, she did whatever she could to get them back in the game. Sometimes, that meant taking charge of the ballwhich is exactly what she did during one game when she was eleven.

The Dynamite was down a goal when Carli collected the ball from her keeper. Knowing they needed to score, she took off, dribbling around one defender, finding a gap between two others, and charging down the length of the field until she was within scoring range of the opponents goal. Thenpow! She unleashed a kick. The ball rocketed past the keeper andswish!billowed the strings of the net.

Whether the game ended in a win, loss, or tie, Carli doesnt recall. Three things did stick with her, however. One, she had just made a really big play; two, she liked making big plays; and three, she might not have made that big play if she hadnt put in extra practice on her own.

Whenever she had free time at home, day or night, Carli took a ball to the street outside her house. There, she practiced her footwork and ball control with her favorite partner: a particular stretch of Black Baron Drives curb. The curb was long, but it was no more than a few inches high. Kick the ball too high, and shed have to chase it into a neighbors yard. Hit it too hard, and the rebound might be too tough to control. Find that sweet spot, though, and she could play against the curb for hours.

And she didby her own estimate, she bounced her ball against that curb for close to two thousand passes a day, every day, for nearly ten years!

Carli also spent hours playing pickup games with whoever happened to be playing at the neighborhood soccer field. Being her own boss on the field gave her new insights into how the game could be played. With the freedom to think for herself, she learned to read the field, anticipate how the action might unfold, and improvise creative ways to make the most of passing, scoring, and other offensive opportunities.

By the time she was twelve, Carlis skill level had outgrown what the town league could offer. So as much as she loved playing for the Dynamite, she decided to try out for a more competitive team, the South Jersey Select.

The Select was one of the areas top-tier squads. The tryouts drew crowds of girls from across the region. All were vying for just a handful of spots. Carli worked hard to impress the evaluators with her ball-handling ability and overall athleticism. But she feared what she showed them wasnt enough.

It wasnt. She got cut.

Not seeing her name on the roster was a colossal, crush-my-world setback, Carli said. Her interest in soccer had grown leaps and bounds since shed first started playing. She was even beginning to daydream about a career playing her favorite sport. Being told she wasnt good enough was a devastating blow.