US Women’s National Team and Gotham FC defender Kelli O’Hara has announced her intention to retire from soccer after the 2024 NFL season. O’Hara has been a strong player for more than a decade and has played in four World Cup finals (winning two of them). 2015 and 2019) and three Olympics with the national team, as well as adding a WPS Championship and two NWSL Championships to her professional career.
She announced the decision in a video created for Just Women’s Sports as part of the Kelley on the Street series.
O’Hara has played limited minutes for Gotham so far this season and has struggled with ankle and knee injuries. “Being hurt and coming back, being hurt and coming back and continuing to do it is a lot,” she told Claire Watkins in an interview. Interview with JWS.
O’Hara’s international debut for the USWNT came in March 2010, and while she was named to the 2011 World Cup team, her breakthrough with the USWNT came during the team’s gold medal run at 2012 London Olympics, where she played every minute at outside linebacker. . She previously won the MAC Hermann Trophy as a forward at Stanford in 2009 (she scored 26 goals and added 13 assists), but it was a move to outside player that cemented her place on the national team for years to come.
(It’s worth noting that the 2012 Olympics were also the source of some of the most old-school content for the USWNT with O’Hara – in which she said: “Captured“After sweeping the lawn of a Scottish castle and pretending to ride on sticks.)
O’Hara’s last game for the national team came in the round of 16 against Sweden as the team were kicked out of the World Cup last summer. Due to injury concerns, there were doubts as to whether O’Hara would be included in the final 23-man squad. When she got a call from former coach Vlatko Andonovski, the emotions were palpable.
She played more than 10,000 minutes for the national team, participated in 160 matches, scored three goals and provided 21 assists. One of her most famous goals in the USWNT was the goal she scored Against Germany in the 2015 World Cup semi-final. It was also her first international goal.
O’Hara’s club career was also successful, starting her rookie season in the WPS with FC Gold Pride and winning the championship in 2010. When FC Gold Pride failed, O’ Hara to sign with the Boston Breakers. She wanted to play for the Atlanta Beat, her WPS team, but the league closed. O’Hara has been with the NWSL since its inception, starting her NWSL career with Sky Blue FC before playing with the inaugural Utah Royals FC and then moving to the Washington Spirit , where she won her first NWSL championship in 2021. In January 2023, she was signed by Gotham, who won last year’s finals.
“It was an honor to represent my country and wear the USA Soccer logo,” O’Hara said in a USWNT press release Thursday. “As I close this chapter of my life, I am grateful for everything I could achieve, but more importantly, for the people I could achieve.
Currently, neither USA Soccer nor Gotham have announced plans to honor O’Hara before she retires at the end of the 2024 season, although USA Soccer could choose to use the July game at Red Bull Arena to put it out of. -at.
2024-05-02 22:54:34
#Twotime #USWNT #World #Cup #champion #Kelli #OHara #retires #NWSL #season
