{"id":345969,"date":"2023-11-12T07:47:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-12T08:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=345969"},"modified":"2023-11-12T11:01:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-12T11:01:23","slug":"gutted-usa-football-legends-career-ends-in-agony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=345969","title":{"rendered":"'Gutted': USA football legend's career ends in agony"},"content":{"rendered":"

Either Megan Rapinoe<\/a> of the OL Reign or Ali Krieger of Gotham FC was going to walk off the pitch and into retirement with the National Women\u2019s Soccer League trophy.<\/p>\n

Krieger got the trophy. Rapinoe got a heartbreaking end to her brilliant career as she limped off the field for the last time with an apparent torn right Achilles tendon suffered in the first few minutes.<\/p>\n

World Cup winner Esther Gonz\u00e1lez scored the go-ahead goal on a header in first-half stoppage time and Gotham FC survived a wild final minute to beat OL Reign 2-1 in a NWSL championship match that was in its first few minutes when Rapinoe hobbled off the pitch for good.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Marsh's moving tribute to late grandfather\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Champion jockey Hugh Bowman in frightening fall\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Australia's new insane record after Marsh's winning ton\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t always get to have the perfect ending,\u201d said Rapinoe, who was in good spirits afterward and wearing a moon boot on her right foot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI've had so many perfect endings, even just thinking back to 2019, that was the most perfect whole script you could ever write personally and as a team, just what it meant.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"On balance, I don't think anything that negative about it."<\/p>\n

At the 2019 World Cup in France, Rapinoe scored six goals, including a penalty in the final against the Netherlands. Her victory pose at the championship game became one of the most memorable images of the dominant US<\/a> run.<\/p>\n

Rapinoe announced before the FIFA Women's World Cup<\/a> in Australia that she was stepping away from the game after a career that included two World Cup titles, an Olympic gold medal and an Olympic bronze.<\/p>\n

The non-contact injury to Rapinoe on Sunday took some of the wind out of the crowd at San Diego State's Snapdragon Stadium.<\/p>\n

She broke toward Maitane Lopez of Gotham, who was dribbling outside the penalty area, and suddenly went down in the third minute. After staying on the ground for a few minutes, Rapinoe needed help from two trainers for the long walk along one end line and then down the sideline to the Reign\u2019s bench.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Krieger ran over and hugged her former teammate from the U.S. Women\u2019s National Team.<\/p>\n

Rapinoe said it felt like someone kicked her and she felt \u201ca huge pop\u201d in her Achilles. She waved off a stretcher and then realized just what a long walk it was back to the bench.<\/p>\n

Krieger said she was \u201cgutted\u201d for Rapinoe.<\/p>\n

"It's devastating to see one of the best players in the world have to step out because of injury in the first five minutes of the game," she said.<\/p>\n

"To have such a buildup to this moment, to have her of anyone, that was devastating, because it does change the game. You want to play against the best players.<\/p>\n

\"Messi<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really upset for her … I said, \u2018Just wrap it up and I\u2019ll see you back out here in a couple minutes'. Then when I saw the sub come on obviously it was a different story. Immediately you have to switch back on to your team and my job. You have to kind of shut that out."<\/p>\n

Rapinoe didn't think her injury was caused by the field that was still pockmarked from a San Diego State gridiron game a week earlier. The Reign beat the San Diego Wave on a torn-up field on Sunday night to advance.<\/p>\n

With the score tied at 1-all in first-half stoppage time, Gonz\u00e1lez, who helped Spain win the Women's World Cup, slipped between two defenders and headed a perfect corner kick by Midge Purce into the corner of the net out of the reach of Reign goalie Claudia Dickey.<\/p>\n

Purce also fed Lynn Williams in front of the net for the opening goal in the 24th minute.<\/p>\n

The Reign tied it in the 29th minute when Lavelle dribbled in and beat Haught.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Either Megan Rapinoe of the OL Reign or Ali Krieger of Gotham FC was going to walk off the pitch and into retirement with the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":345971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345969"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=345969"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345975,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345969\/revisions\/345975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/345971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=345969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=345969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=345969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}