U.S. celebrates Wambach’s final game but falls 1-0 to China

With the lure of Bourbon Street and the ever-present strains of blues and jazz in the Big Easy, Wambach came to the right place to call it a career, even if she had to see her World Cup-winning team suffer a rare loss. Her USWNT won two Olympic Gold Medals in addition to the 2015 World Cup. Wambach said her most emotional night came after her second-to-last game Sunday in Phoenix, a 2-0 win over China. She also played around the world with Team USA plus a stint with the Western New York Flash in Rochester. The game certainly had a celebratory tone, but it was about more than just the team. But Press, who had subbed in for Wambach, shot it right at Lina.

Abby leaves soccer as a player today, but I suspect this isn’t the last time we feel her influence.

Wambach’s teammates allowed her to walk off into the locker room by herself.

“The way that he has changed and brought in these foreign guys, it’s just not something that I believe in”, Wambach said on The Bill Simmons Podcast.

That is why this city loves Wambach and why a few thousand people packed the Riverside Convention Center to celebrate her homecoming. But Carli Lloyd was in a funk, and neither Alex Morgan nor Horan as her sub were quite on the beat.

The Chinese women got the ball in US territory intermittently, but their attacks invariably petered out before the box and American goalie Hope Solo was never seriously challenged. More than 40 percent of Abby’s record-breaking 184 goals were scored with her head. “I think it’s a little fitting that this is the result”, Wambach said in a pitch-side interview.

Wambach says that her body just won’t let her play like a champion anymore and that running and playing in the game of soccer is harder than it used to be. Wambach is the fourth member of the World Cup team to retire in the past year, joining Lauren Holiday, Shannon Boxx, and Lori Chalupney.

Boughton coached Wambach at Mercy High School and has watched the one-time NY state player of the year turn into a legend.

The U.S. did not answer Shuang’s strike, and thus China ended an unbeaten streak for the Americans that dated back to 2004. And Abby appears ready to use her boisterous voice in new ways: as an advocate for gender equality in the sport. When you are in it, you don’t want to fight too much against it because you want to be thankful for what you are getting.

Wambach might have done better better to, say, criticize Klinsmann for making digs at MLS, or for not adequately cultivating youth soccer culture in the country. I love Jermaine [Jones]…and they’re good teammates, I like having them on the team.