United States women’s national team forward Alex Morgan’s incredible career will end abruptly on Sunday, when she plays her final match for San Diego Wave FC after announcing her retirement (and pregnancy) to the world on Thursday.
Morgan’s career will go down among the most legendary in a long lineage of USWNT stars. She scored 123 international goals, which ranks fifth in U.S. history. She won two World Cups, earned Olympic gold and bronze medals, and won professional championships in multiple leagues in addition to a Champions League title in Europe.
Despite that, her legacy off the field as an ally to other players and advocate for equality is just as important.
Boiling down her career to only a few moments is a fool’s errand. But here are 13 moments — in honor of the number she wore for a generation — on the field that defined her decade and a half playing at the highest level.
13. 2010 — first international goal
Let’s start at the beginning of her senior career: Morgan’s first international goal came in only her third cap, just over six months after her USWNT debut in the famous “snow angels” game in Utah.
Her first goal, on Oct. 6, 2010, was a late equalizer against China to secure a 1-1 draw in a friendly. The timing of the goal, and the combination with Abby Wambach (who assisted it) foreshadowed what was to come. Morgan had already scored the winning goal in the 2008 U-20 World Cup final, which led people to tab her for success at the senior level. This was the first proof point for that.
12. 2013 — NWSL title
Morgan was originally allocated to the Portland Thorns FC, placing the game’s most popular player in what would quickly become one of the best women’s soccer markets in the world. The Thorns’ season was far from perfect, and Morgan endured a minor knee injury late in the campaign, but she returned in time to play in the final with a large knee brace on her left leg, and assisted Christine Sinclair’s stoppage-time insurance goal to clinch the inaugural NWSL Championship.
Morgan’s time on the field in Portland wasn’t entirely glorious, but this moment was another professional title early in her career on the same field she won the first — the WPS Championship with Western New York Flash in 2011 — in Rochester, New York.
11. 2024 — Gold Cup return
Yes, Morgan’s 2024 will be defined by the heartbreak of being cut from the Olympics followed by an abrupt retirement, but the narrative looked a lot different only a few months before that. Morgan’s last hurrah with the USWNT served as a microcosm of her relentless competitiveness. Over the past two years, she has responded to numerous challenges to her place on the national team.
Morgan had not scored a goal for the USWNT in nearly a year, including a 2023 World Cup that went horribly for almost every U.S. player, knocked out in the round of 16. The U.S. was in a time of transition while awaiting the arrival of new head coach Emma Hayes, and Morgan was dropped ahead of the Concacaf W Gold Cup, a sign that the end of a glittering international career was near.
But Mia Fishel tore her ACL the day before the opening match, and Morgan packed up her bag to drive a few hours and rejoin the team. She came off the bench in the opener against Dominican Republic and buried a late penalty for her first goal in 363 days, re-establishing herself as the team’s No. 9 at that tournament.
10. May 1, 2011 — First pro goal
Morgan was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 WPS Draft, the star college player who was brought in to play alongside legends Marta, Christine Sinclair and Caroline Seger.
Morgan scored her first professional goal on May 1, 2011, only three games into her career with the Flash (the video of this appears to be lost to the internet.)
Morgan helped the Flash win the 2011 WPS title, the last trophy ever lifted in the fledgling league. Among the video that still exists from that season is an audacious goal she scored in Boston.
9. 2017 — Loan to Lyon
Lost in the shuffle of Morgan’s domestic and international career is her status as a Champions League winner.
Morgan joined Lyon in January 2017 and spent half a season there, getting her first taste of European club soccer. Her stint with Lyon was brief, and she was subbed out of the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain early due to a hamstring injury, but she still added the European crown to her list of honors.
Equally important, Morgan made the move to Lyon to improve and mature her game in a less comfortable setting.
“My motivation is pretty simple,” she said in a Players’ Tribune story at the time. “I hope that this change will help push my game to another level. I hope that training with these incredible athletes each day, and learning a unique style of play, is exactly what I need, and that it will help me find that next gear.”
She returned to the NWSL to have one of her best stretches of play to date, helping the Orlando Pride — the franchise that effectively made acquiring Morgan from Portland a condition of its 2015 NWSL launch — make the playoffs for the first time. The jaunt to Europe helped Morgan add nuance to her game, which was beneficial in the years that followed.
8. April 5, 2019 — USWNT goal No. 100
Morgan’s 100th international tally (watch here) came against Australia in an important friendly ahead of the 2019 World Cup. She became just the seventh U.S. woman to reach the 100-goal mark.
It’s an arbitrary number to some degree, sure, but it is a good benchmark for the truly elite of the program. By this point, Morgan was already in that conversation. Statistically, this further affirmed that.
4:33
Alex Morgan explains retirement decision in emotional social media video
Alex Morgan explains her decision to retire and reveals she’s pregnant and expecting her second child in an emotional video posted on social media.
7. 2020-21 — Returning from maternity leave to win bronze
Morgan gave birth to her first child, daughter Charlie, in May 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. By November, Morgan made her debut with Tottenham Hotspur in England on a brief stint aimed at getting her back to match fit.
The pandemic delayed the Olympics to summer 2021, giving Morgan a shot at another medal. She returned to the national team a few weeks after that debut with Tottenham, and she worked her way back into the lineup to help the USWNT win a bronze medal at the Tokyo Games.
6. 2015 — Fighting back from injury to win World Cup
The 2015 World Cup didn’t exactly go to plan for Morgan due to a knee injury in the lead-up to the tournament, but she managed to be fit enough to start by the end of it, and she scored once, in a round of 16 victory over Colombia that was not as comfortable as it should have been.
This was not a breakout World Cup for Morgan, nor a title that she served as the protagonist for, but it was the first of two World Cup trophies with her playing a central role.
5. 2022 — Winning the NWSL Golden Boot
A valid criticism of Morgan’s game had been that she hadn’t put together a truly memorable club season as a professional. That changed emphatically in 2022, and allows Morgan to retire without much “yeah, but” about her club career.
Morgan scored 15 goals in 17 games for the San Diego Wave to win the NWSL Golden Boot and lift the Wave to the playoffs, a first for an NWSL expansion team. Among her standout performances was a four-goal beating of NJ/NY Gotham FC early in the season. She became only the third player to score four goals in an NWSL game.
Her league form commanded a recall to the USWNT for World Cup and Olympic qualifying in 2022, and the 2023 World Cup, just after it looked like the team might be moving on from her.
4. 2010 — World Cup playoff goal
The 2011 World Cup was the catalyst of the USWNT’s current popularity, but the No. 1 ranked team in the world nearly didn’t qualify for the event. After a shocking upset loss to Mexico in qualifying, the U.S. had to play a two-leg playoff against Italy for the last of 16 spots in the tournament.
Morgan had only debuted for the U.S. the month prior, but she was already clutch. She scored deep into second-half stoppage time to give the Americans a crucial 1-0 aggregate lead ahead of the home leg the following week. The U.S. beat Italy, 1-0 again outside of Chicago, and the Americans advanced.
Morgan’s goal in Padua, Italy, was scored in relative obscurity, well before the days of ubiquitous streaming. It is, however, one of many crucial tallies in the USWNT’s recent history. Without 2011, the team’s growth doesn’t follow. And without Morgan’s goal in Italy, there might not have been a 2011 World Cup for the USWNT.
3. 2011 — World Cup final performance
This was the start of the wider world truly paying attention to Morgan. She came off the bench in a scoreless World Cup final to net the first goal (watch here) of the match against Japan after breaking free of Saki Kumagai, who was emerging as one of the world’s top defenders. Morgan jumped up from the ground to let out a scream after scoring.
A wild ending ensued, with the U.S. and Japan trading goals to finish 2-2 after 120 minutes before Japan prevailed in penalty kicks.
Everyone remembers the tea-sipping celebration because it was a badass moment of taunting in a World Cup semifinal. Morgan’s headed goal (watch here) served as the game-winner — on her 30th birthday, and in Lyon, where she had played on loan. The goal was Morgan’s sixth of the tournament after another historic feat: she scored five goals in the USWNT’s 13-0 victory over Thailand, tying the single-game record for a player at a World Cup. Her efforts were largely overshadowed by Megan Rapinoe’s heroics, as she won the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball for best player, but Morgan was integral to a second straight World Cup title for player and country. Morgan won the silver boot, finishing tied with Rapinoe on goals (six) and assists (three) but having played more minutes. “Ohhh, it’s in! Alex Morgan has done it!” Broadcaster Arlo White’s call met the epic moment of what was arguably her greatest match. Morgan met the moment with the game-winning goal in the 123rd minute to cement her stardom at Old Trafford, Manchester. The tally was the final blow of a 4-3 win with rival Canada in a bonkers match that would lead to a third straight Olympic gold medal for the Americans. The match and the goal are unforgettable lore in USWNT history. That year, Morgan tallied 28 goals and 21 assists, joining Mia Hamm (1998) as the only player to tally 20 or more of each in a single calendar year. This year — and this goal, in this game — marked the official arrival of Morgan as a bona fide star.2. 2019 — Silver Boot at the World Cup
1. 2012 — Olympic semifinal game winner