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The soccer supremo has also started working with expert trainer, Chris Halladay. “He introduced me to a new type of training that is a neurological-based physics approach, to help with sports performance and movements,” says Lloyd. “Since I started training with Chris back in November 2020, I’ve never moved better. I’m more explosive than I have ever been, and stronger than I was before my injury. It’s played a huge factor in my game at the age of 38.”

As a player, she understands that staying on top means constantly pushing herself. “I have always tried to continue to break barriers with my fitness to become the best that I can be,” says Lloyd. “As I have gotten older, I have valued this even more so I can be as efficient as possible. I’ve found that throughout my career, bodyweight exercises, plyometrics, and soccer specific-fitness has helped me feel my best and contribute to the career longevity I have had.”

From early on, she said, Lloyd's unrivaled commitment to her craft was apparent. It's no wonder, then, that the prolific forward is still bolstering the USWNT's dynamic offense, two World Cup victories, two Olympic gold medals, and 16 years later.

"I've seen her from the beginning grow into this professional player," Wambach said. "When she turns her professionalism on, she has never looked back. That is why she is still a player. That is why she is still playing soccer for 300 caps."

If Lloyd plays in that game, she’ll join former teammates Kristine Lilly and Christie Rampone (née Pearce) as the third player to appear in 300 international games. But the real milestone achievement will come afterward, when she receives calls and messages of congratulations from relatives she wasn’t talking to just a few months ago.

Cut from the Under-21 team in 2003, Lloyd has spent the rest of her career outworking, out-training, out-intensifying everyone. Which is no small thing on a team that has won the last two World Cups and boasts so much talent that those left off coach Vlatko Andonovski’s roster for the Tokyo Olympics could probably contend for a medal, too.

“She’s coming off a knee scope and playing 90 minutes. I think that’s incredible,” Andonovski said. “It was just a good example for some of the younger players in terms of what it takes to be on the next level.”

loyd last played in the 2020 SheBelieves Cup. She did not play for her National Women’s Soccer League team, Sky Blue, in last summer’s Challenge Cup tournament or the league’s fall series. She also missed the national team’s final camp of 2020 and a match against the Netherlands.

“She’s coming off a knee scope and playing 90 minutes. I think that’s incredible,” coach Vlatko Andonovski said. “She did a great job, assisted on two goals, helped us win the ball back, played for 90 minutes in high tempo. I think it was just a good example for some of the younger players in terms of what it takes to be on the next level.”

Along with developing techniques such as juggling, dribbling, turns, foot skills and mental habits on and off the field, each athlete received a CL10-themed T-shirt, drawstring bag and an autographed photo of Lloyd, who is from Delran, Burlington County, and played at Rutgers University.

Lloyd called the parents over to thank them for bringing their kids. She told them to encourage the boys and girls to keep working on the drills and that it was nice to have some normalcy during this unique year.

CL10 has had camps across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and one in California since about 2008.

Lizette Slimm and her husband, Bill, traveled from Nazarareth, Pennsylvania, to bring their daughter Lily, 12, to the camp.

“My daughter is completely inspired by Carli Lloyd,” said Lizette, who noted her daughter was giving her thumbs-up from the field to indicate she was enjoying herself. “We wanted to give her this opportunity. … She is super excited to be here, and so are we.”

Five years ago today in Vancouver she scaled heights of achievement unparalleled in the sport. Within 15 minutes, 5 seconds of the World Cup Final, Lloyd had scored a hat-trick which not only destroyed her Japanese opponents and secured the United States their third world title but secured her immortality in the history of the game's greatest showpiece.