Carli Lloyd’s playing career ends in Gotham FC’s NWSL playoff loss at Chicago Red Stars
Chicago won the game 1-0, with a goal from Lloyd's U.S. national team colleague Mallory Pugh.
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BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. — Mallory Pugh scored the lone goal and the Chicago Red Stars knocked Gotham FC out of the playoffs with a 1-0 quarterfinal victory Sunday.
It was Carli Lloyd’s final match with Gotham. The 39-year-old forward from Delran announced her retirement from soccer shortly after she won the bronze medal with the U.S. national team at the Tokyo Olympics.
“For me, (it's) bittersweet obviously, I would have liked to have kept going,” Lloyd said afterward. “But overall just really proud of the group and the future is really, really bright for Gotham FC.”
Lloyd choked back tears in a postgame interview, saying that it’s finally hitting her that her career is over.
» READ MORE: Carli Lloyd scored in her last Gotham FC home game in New Jersey
The Red Stars move on to face the top-seeded Portland Thorns in the semifinals next Sunday. Chicago (11-8-5) finished fourth in the league standings, riding a three-game winning streak into the playoffs.
Gotham (8-5-11), which finished fifth in the standings, hadn't been to the playoffs since 2013.
Pugh's goal in the 61st minute went into upper right corner, out of the reach of Gotham goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan
The teams met three times this season, with Gotham winning once and two scoreless draws.
» READ MORE: Carli Lloyd’s last USWNT game also showed the great potential of the next era of players
Washington Spirit 1, North Carolina Courage 0
WASHINGTON — Golden Boot winner Ashley Hatch scored in overtime and the Washington Spirit defeated the North Carolina Courage 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the National Women’s Soccer League playoffs on Sunday night.
The Spirit move on to play OL Reign next Sunday in Tacoma, Washington. The second-seeded Reign had a bye for the quarterfinals.
The third-seeded Spirit (11-7-6) went undefeated in their final six regular season games. Hatch, who won the league’s Golden Boot award with 10 regular-season goals, scored against the Courage in the 113th minute.
The Spirit last went to the playoffs in 2016, when they finished as the league’s runner-up.
The sixth-seeded Courage (9-9-6) wrap up a turbulent season. Coach Paul Riley was fired in late September after two former players came forward with allegations of sexual harassment and coercion, which he denied. NWSL Commissioner Lisa Baird resigned in the wake of the scandal, and both the league and U.S. Soccer launched independent investigations.
Washington had its share of upheaval this season, too, when coach Richie Burke was fired in September for violation of the NWSL’s anti-harassment policy.