Carli Lloyd

What is it with Delran and soccer and Rutgers and the World Cup? First, there was Peter Vermes, a 1984 Delran High School graduate who went on to play soccer at Rutgers and then for the U.S. men's national team at the 1990 World Cup. Now, there is Carli Lloyd, a 2004 Delran graduate who went on to play soccer at Rutgers and is a star for the U.S. women's national team that will play Sunday against Japan in the 2011 championship game....

Carli Lloyd is almost a contradiction on the soccer field. After all, how can someone with such a soft, deft touch on the ball unleash such a powerful shot? And how can someone who is a proven scorer say she prefers to pass the ball? There is, however, one thing about Lloyd that is hard to contradict: She is among the most complete players in South Jersey, and perhaps the most complete. Lloyd, a 5-foot-5 junior midfielder for Delran, is a master distributor. She also can score, and this year, that should happen more frequently on a young but talented Bears team.

THIS IS A DIFFERENT Carli Lloyd. One gold-medal-clinching goal against Brazil at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing can alter things. "One goal can change your career," said Lloyd, a Delran, N.J., native and Rutgers graduate. "It was one of the biggest moments of my career, but it was also just the beginning. " Three years removed from the "goal of a lifetime," Lloyd is now a key member of the USA team that begins play at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany next Tuesday.

The pass got to her foot, and Carli Lloyd had one thought: Keep it low. There was no time for the big picture yesterday: a chance to win Olympic gold, to take the most improbable of all the big titles in the U.S. women's soccer team's storied history. Could this girl from Delran who used to have trouble running more than 15 minutes at a time - could Lloyd nail the game-winner? "Never in my wildest dreams . . . ," Lloyd said later, hands in her pockets, gold medal hanging from her neck.

The loudest cheer of the night came for midfielder Carli Lloyd, who was introduced to the Lincoln Financial Field crowd not as a South Jersey resident but as the player who scored the gold medal-winning goal for the U.S. women's soccer team in the Beijing Olympics. It's likely, though, that the raised decibel level for the Delran High product was a combination: A welcome home as well as a congratulations. Last night, on the first stop of a 10-game Achieve Your Gold Tour, Lloyd and her U.S. teammates eventually overwhelmed a scrappy Ireland team, 2-0. "It was awesome - it was a great atmosphere," Lloyd said.

Yesterday was a wet one for Delran girls' soccer coach Rudi Klobach. And it had nothing to do with rain. "He said [Wednesday], 'If you guys beat Moorestown, I'm going in the pond,' " forward Erica "Boo" Schubert said. Klobach kept his promise. After Delran handed the Quakers their first loss of the season, 2-0, yesterday in a Burlington County League Liberty Division game, Klobach took a dip in the small pond near the field. "I feel so good," Klobach said after the plunge.

Her knees were bloodied, her body battered, and if anybody stood heroic in defeat it was Carli Lloyd, Delran's dazzling midfielder. Lloyd put on the type of show that justified her selection to try out for the U.S. under-18 national soccer team, but her brilliance wasn't enough to finish the season in championship fashion. Mendham, a veteran of recent state-tournament wars, overcame a 1-0 deficit to defeat Delran, 2-1 in double overtime in yesterday's state Group 2 championship at the College of New Jersey.

Rutgers junior Carli Lloyd, a graduate of Delran High, scored a goal and an assist as the United States under-21 women's national soccer team defeated China, 2-0, on Sunday in Jiangsu, China. Lloyd is a two-time South Jersey player of the year. Lloyd scored the United States' first goal, connecting in the 18th minute. Two minutes later, she assisted on the second U.S. goal. The U.S. squad, with strong play from Lloyd in the midfield, is having a successful run during its 10-day training session in China.

Three members of the Independence - defender Heather Mitts, forward Amy Rodriguez and midfielder Lori Lindsey - were named yesterday to the 19-player U.S. women's national team roster for the Algarve Cup in Portugal. In addition, two other players with area roots were named to the roster - midfielder and Olympic hero Carli Lloyd, a two-time Inquirer South Jersey player of the year from Delran, and goalie Jill Loyden, formerly of Villanova and Vineland High. This year's Algarve Cup will run from Feb. 24 through March 3, and the U.S. team will depart for Europe on Feb. 18. The U.S. team has reached the Algarve Cup final in seven consecutive years, but lost in last year's championship to Sweden on penalty kicks.

Local soccer standouts Kristin Luckinbill (Paoli) and Carli Lloyd (Delran, N.J.) were called up to the 37-player roster of the U.S. Women's National Team, yesterday, in continued preparation for this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing. Luckinbill, 29, returns as one of the team's four goalkeepers following a gold medal-winning campaign in the 2004 Summer Games. The Dartmouth All-America has 14 caps (games played) with the full squad and posted a 0.72 goals against average in the 2004 Games.

Two weeks after the United States women's soccer team lost a heartbreaker to Japan in the World Cup final last July, midfielder Carli Lloyd was making her way to Leslie C. Quick Jr. Stadium at Widener University in Chester. Her Atlanta Beat team was facing the Independence in a Women's Professional Soccer game, and Lloyd was one of the national team members being honored in a pregame ceremony. Because of a league rule regarding yellow-card accumulations over consecutive games, Lloyd had to watch the game from the press box, and as she and a few friends maneuvered through the enthusiastic and sold-out crowd, nobody stopped to talk to her. Later the same day, a waiter ran to get a soccer ball from the trunk of his car, gushing to the Rutgers alum what her autograph would mean to his daughter.

Navy is headed to the Big East, giving up more than 130 years of football independence to join a conference that is in the middle of a massive overhaul. The Big East announced Tuesday that the U.S. Naval Academy has accepted an invitation to join the league for football only, starting in 2015. The conference has now added six new members in the last seven weeks after losing three members and having another school renege on a future commitment in the fall. Texas Christian was slated to join the Big East next season, but backed out when it was invited to the Big 12, leaving the Big East one team short of its desired 12, leaving the door open for Temple as a possibility.

Carli Lloyd remembers looking at the clock on the Jumbotron above the field Sunday in Frankfurt, Germany. "I told myself, 'We've got 10 more minutes . . . we've got 10 minutes to win this thing. " Ten minutes later, of course, the U.S. women's soccer team was not celebrating its first World Cup title in a dozen years. It had failed to hold a one-goal lead, so it was time for a penalty-kick shootout against Japan. The players knew the drill, and had won a quarterfinal thriller over Brazil in a shootout after a last-gasp goal.

The look on Carli Lloyd's face said it all: disbelief; heartbreak; fatigue. Back home, Lloyd's friends and family were feeling the exact same things while watching. "The game is cruel," said James Galanis, Lloyd's longtime trainer, friend, and head coach of the Atlanta Beat. "You can dominate possession. You can dominate the stats, and then you make a couple of split-second errors, and you let the opponent in. " "They are a great team, and they really deserved to win, but I guess that is the way the ball bounces," said Patti Wilson, Lloyd's aunt.

FRANKFURT, Germany - The bumpy, windy road got the Americans right where they wanted to go all along. Eight months after having to win a playoff just to get to Germany, the Americans face Japan in the Women's World Cup final on Sunday. A win would be the ultimate finish to their improbable journey, making the United States the first three-time champions and delighting a country of newfound fans. "I believe all the way we'll find a way," Carli Lloyd said Saturday after the team's last training session.

What is it with Delran and soccer and Rutgers and the World Cup? First, there was Peter Vermes, a 1984 Delran High School graduate who went on to play soccer at Rutgers and then for the U.S. men's national team at the 1990 World Cup. Now, there is Carli Lloyd, a 2004 Delran graduate who went on to play soccer at Rutgers and is a star for the U.S. women's national team that will play Sunday against Japan in the 2011 championship game....

Nick Sakiewicz was so nervous before the end of Sunday's game that he couldn't sit down. Maddy Evans was so excited when it was finally over that she celebrated by doing laps in her living room. The U.S. Women's World Cup soccer team captivated millions of fans with its dramatic, 5-3 quarterfinal win over Brazil in Germany on Sunday. So what will fans do Wednesday when the women - nine of whom have connections to Philadelphia - play France in the semifinals at noon? "A number of us will be glued to the TV watching every minute," said Sakiewicz, the chief executive officer and operating partner of the Union, the Major League Soccer men's team that is based in Chester.

Fans cheered at major-league baseball stadiums when the result of the game was announced on Sunday. Famous actors and singers and football stars tweeted and blogged in gushes about their new heroes. And soccer fans from the Philadelphia region cheered right along with the rest of the nation. The U.S. women's World Cup team captured the attention of America by toppling mighty Brazil in a quarterfinal penalty shootout, and nine members of the team have connections to the Philadelphia region.

The United States backed up its No. 1 ranking Saturday, advancing to the Women's World Cup quarterfinals with a convincing, 3-0 victory over Colombia on goals from Heather O'Reilly, Megan Rapinoe, and Carli Lloyd in Sinsheim, Germany. The two-time World Cup champions will meet Sweden, which earlier beat North Korea, 1-0, on Wednesday in Wolfsburg to determine the Group C winner. "I'm just really proud of this team," O'Reilly said. "I think we did some great stuff today. " In a first week which has seen plenty of good goals, O'Reilly's was one to remember for its sheer force, which left goalkeeper Sandra Sepulveda helpless as the ball flew past her. It brought the sellout crowd of 25,475, including many Americans from nearby military facilities, to its feet.