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When she retired in 2021, Lloyd did so as the ultimate big-game player, having made history with a Women’s World Cup final hat-trick and scored match-winning goals in every Olympic medal match she’d been involved in.

Back in 2008, however, the jury was out and Lloyd herself was going through “a really tough and challenging time”. She had been part of a US team humbled 4-0 by Brazil at the previous year’s Women’s World Cup, and the absence of talismanic striker Abby Wambach was dampening hopes of a better outcome in the Beijing rematch with Marta and Co.

However, in the sixth minute of extra time, Lloyd burst through from midfield and lashed home a left-foot shot to earn redemption for herself, and gold for her country. “I found that sixth gear,” she would later say. “What makes me special is just finding an opportunity and seizing that moment.”

Four years later, Lloyd would cement her status in the same fixture with a match-winning double as USA beat Japan 2-1 at Wembley to avenge their Women’s World Cup final loss of the previous year. “A goal in Beijing, and now two today. At my third Olympics I’m planning on scoring a hat-trick!” she declared afterwards.

While Lloyd didn’t quite manage that, another brace in the bronze-medal match in Tokyo saw her bow out with more goals in this tournament than any other US player.

Post-retirement and now aged 41, Lloyd wrote that her “heart has come alive” and explained how, for the first time, she feels able to open up and allow herself to be vulnerable.

When I retired in 2021 at age 39, I’d spent 34 years of my life playing soccer, 17 of them professionally. Having a baby was on our mind, and I thought putting it off for a little bit longer to enjoy life wouldn’t pose an issue. For the first time, soccer wasn’t my priority. I could actually choose what I wanted to do and spend time with Brian, my family, and my friends without soccer consuming my mind and body. (In retrospect, I wish I had been more educated about pregnancy and how to prepare for it, and that I looked years ago into the options I had for freezing my eggs.)

While Lloyd has been retired from professional soccer for over two years, her competitive nature and desire to improve have not diminished. In 2023, she was featured on the inaugural season of Fox’s “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” in which 16 recruits were thrust into rigorous training exercises meant to mimic those of the U.S. Special Forces. Lloyd won the challenge, beating out athletes like former NBA star Dwight Howard and former NFL wide receiver Danny Amendola.

While training for golf isn’t exactly the same as training for the special forces, it still comes with its challenges, she said.

"I don't walk back on anything I said," Lloyd said. "I speak from experience, being part of the team, I played with a lot of those players, played under Vlatko [Andonovski], was still very much a part of that cycle. I unfortunately saw the trajectory of where the team was heading. Unfortunately it was not a good performance, and what I said was exactly how I felt and came from the heart."

Lloyd added that USWNT wasn't fit enough at the recent World Cup and compared the team's efforts to those of England, which reached the final for the first time in its history.

"We have all the resources poured in, we have the talent pool, we have the support, we have the experience, and so there's all this narrative of 'the world has caught up,' but in my opinion the team wasn't fit enough, the team didn't show that mentality that is needed to win like you're seeing with England," Lloyd said.

“This wasn’t anything that was scripted,” Lloyd told The Athletic Tuesday morning over the phone from Australia. “This was a reaction to what I was seeing, what I was feeling, what came from my heart. I poured my heart and soul into this team for 17 years. I came into (the USWNT) not understanding how hard you have to work and learned how hard from the players that had come before me who instilled that mentality and DNA within the team. If I was going to stay on the main team, I had to work hard every single day. It’s probably one of the most unhealthy environments someone could place themselves in but one of the most rewarding as well, and I would do it over again in a heartbeat.

“It used to be that everybody feared the U.S. and the U.S. was going in confident to these tournaments, but I think when you win, it’s easy to get comfortable. I think this is a humble moment for the program, the players, the coaching staff, and it’s a wake-up call for the entire program because it’s easy to turn a blind eye when the senior team is winning,” Lloyd said on FOX Sports.