SOCCER LOVERS BOOK REVIEW: Carli Lloyd’s When Nobody Was Watching: My Hard-Fought Journey to the Top of the Soccer World
If you are a real soccer player – then this is the book for you to read.
The women on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team have been busy off field writing memoirs on the rocky, long road to the top — however no other professional soccer player has ever scored a hat trick in the first sixteen minutes of a FIFA World Cup Final.
RELATED SOCCER NEWS: ABBY WAMBACH’s FORWARD
The new book by Carli Lloyd — with Wayne Coffey — is an open and refreshing memoir.
Hard to imagine the woman who scored a hat trick in the World Cup was once told she was not on the level of a national team player.
Just the Facts: Would the USA have won the Women’s World Cup without New Jersey native Carli Lloyd? We will never know, and, luckily, we wont have to. Who could forget the excitement of her unbeatable hat trick?
Co-captain of the U.S. Soccer Women’s National Soccer Team, Carli Lloyd is the reigning FIFA World Player of the Year — also known as the power house midfielder who earned the gold-medal winning goals for her team twice in the Olympics (both the 2008 and 2012). A serious player who is the veteran of 3 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments, Lloyd was awarded the FIFA Golden Ball and the Silver Boot in 2015.
In her memoirs, Carli Lloyd shares with the reader her quiet yet strong temperament — not wanting to party all the time and even wondering why others would want to, her sorrow over her estrangement from her family and not having them by her side as well as her desire to encourage a fellow midfielder teammate, even if she was “theoretically competing for playing time.”
From the preface to the epilogue, this book is filled with passion and the solid wisdom of a winner.
Carli Lloyd’s When Nobody Was Watching: My Hard-Fought Journey to the Top of the Soccer World is a very personal and private account of her hard work to rise to the top of her profession. The reader discovers her challenges with confidence — and her response to being told that she didn’t put out enough effort. The reader is also treated to Lloyd’s candid reflections of playing at Wembley Stadium and her private talks with Jill Ellis, head coach of the U.S. Soccer Women’s National Team.
The build up to the team’s victory in 2015 — when her team won its first FIFA championship in sixteen years and Carli Lloyd’s brilliant performance — is sweeter after understanding the journey.
Thank goodness Carli never quit the sport. For every player who ever struggled with confidence, this is a great read.
Just to discover that Carli, such an amazing and world renowned player, was ever struggling, got cut and felt lost until she found the right trainer — is inspiring and uplifting. Definitely a GREAT READ.
Carli Lloyd is a 5’7″ Center Midfielder who says her biggest influence was her trainer James Galanis – owner of Universal Soccer Academy.
Other reviews:
“If a player trains when nobody is watching, she might be able to do superhuman things when the entire world is watching. Like scoring a hat trick in the first sixteen minutes of a World Cup final, an eventual 5–2 victory over Japan. Or topping off that hat trick with an astonishing fifty-yard strike from midfield, the greatest goal in U.S. soccer history, a shot so audacious that it’s surprising to learn that Lloyd had actually practiced it for years with [James] Galanis on an empty field in New Jersey, far from any crowds.” – Grant Wahl, Sports Illustrated
Next Soccer Lovers Book Review: Hope – My Life in Football by Hope Powell
