Lloyd adds Goal of the Tournament to her haul - FIFA WOMEN'S WORLD CUP
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Carli Lloyd thought she had taken everything home with her when she packed her bags at the end of the FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015™. Her luggage certainly weighed more than on her arrival, with the addition of a winner's medal, the adidas Golden Ball for the player of the tournament, the adidas Silver Boot as the second-top scorer and four Live Your Goals Player of the Match awards – one for every step of USA's triumphant run through the knockout stages.
However, it turns out that the American midfielder's collection of mementoes was not quite complete. Following the grand finale, voting was opened for the Goal of the Tournament accolade, recognising the finest strike of the competition. The fans were able to have their say for a week, ending on 13 July 2015 at 10:00 (CET), and who else but Carli Lloyd got the nod.
It must be said that Lloyd's chip from the centre circle was a remarkable effort indeed, all the more so when you consider that it came in the Final against the reigning world champions, Japan. Even the poor Japanese goalkeeper, Ayumi Kaihori, must have admired the beauty of the strike as it sailed over her head in her country's 5-2 defeat, and this admiration is shared by the thousands of FIFA.com users who voted for this goal out of the 12 shortlisted by our editorial team.
Lloyd's pearler pipped another long-range piledriver, Daniela Montoya's equaliser for Colombia in their opening game against Mexico, which ended 1-1. Japan's Mizuho Sakaguchi came in third for her curling left-footed finish into the corner of the net following a trademark free-flowing passing move from the Nadeshiko during their 2-1 Round-of-16 win over the Netherlands.
Thank you to all of the FIFA.com users who participated in the vote. We invite you to pick your favourite goal following every FIFA tournament, so in four years' time it will be up to you to choose Carli Lloyd's successor after the next Women's World Cup, France 2019.