Sports
‘I was just so, so honored to be out there’: Remembering Ripken’s record-setting streak
At 2:45 a.m. on Sept. 7, 1995, Orioles nonstop shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. headed through the tunnel from the Camden Yards clubhouse to the parking lot. He high-fived two stadium cleanup workers, then hopped into the back of a Lincoln Town Car, leaving Oriole Park as the greatest Iron Man in major league history. Three policemen on motorcycles escorted him out of the lot, roaring past a cluster of screaming fans and one older gentleman holding a sign that read:
Thirty years ago, Ripken did precisely that, reinvigorating a game severely damaged by a work stoppage that cancelled the 1994 World Series. That stirring night in Baltimore was among the most powerful, inspirational and important nights in the game’s history, an unforgettable night that left men — including Ripken — women and children in tears. It was more than a baseball story: It was a story of discipline, commitment, loyalty, perseverance, toughness and greatness, attributes that also defined the amazing Lou Gehrig, whose record of 2,130 consecutive games played had stood for 56 years.
“That whole night was surreal, those moments were so glossy and good, it was like you were watching yourself, it felt like an out-of-body experience,” Ripken said this week, days ahead of the game’s 30th anniversary. “Thirty years later, it’s really interesting that — maybe it’s because I’m 65 — I’ve always been someone who didn’t see the value in looking back, living in the past, like going to your high school reunion. Focus on now. Move forward. Looking back, I learned it’s not so much the events, it’s the experiences you go through, and the people you go through them with.”
Ripken’s unfathomable record, the most unbreakable in baseball, is even more impressive given the way the game is played today, where healthy scratches are common and players are rested just to try to keep them off the injured list. Since Ripken’s streak ended voluntarily — “It was time to change the subject,” Ripken said at the time — at 2,632 in 1998, the longest consecutive game streak was 1,152 by shortstop Miguel Tejada from 2000 to 2007.
The longest active streak, through Wednesday, is 761 by Braves first baseman Matt Olson. He would have to play every game for the next 11½ seasons to equal Ripken’s record, which would require him to play every day at age 43.
Ripken’s 1995 season, in which he broke Gehrig’s record, began with a road series in Kansas City. The night before Opening Day, many of the Orioles went to a party at the home of former Orioles pitcher Rick Sutcliffe, who had a house in the area. Sutcliffe had a basketball hoop in the yard. Ripken, the most competitive man on the planet, took part in several 2-on-2 games, dunking several times. Ripken craved playing the game — any game — playing it properly and, of course, winning.
The ’95 season included a stop in every road city to talk about The Streak, something that initially made Ripken tremendously uncomfortable. He eventually realized, though, that in the aftermath of the strike, the game needed something to feel good about. That season, Ripken made it his mission to sign as many autographs for the fans as possible. There were nights in which he signed for 90 minutes after games.
“I remember the strike and the cancellation of the World Series, I remember the lockout in spring training that shortened that [1995] season, I remember the feeling of the ugly side of baseball, and the fans always get hurt by that,” Ripken said. “Coming into spring training, the first thing you think of is, ‘How do you repair that?’ How do you say you’re sorry?’ Many times, it is through the autograph. That’s how I communicated with it. The idea of staying afterwards to sign, that turned out to be a really cool thing. Maybe it’s because I’m an introvert. All of a sudden, you get a chance to talk to people. That became a thing.”
The march to 2,131 was a seasonlong thing, but momentum gathered in earnest on Sunday, Sept. 3, during a game against the Seattle Mariners at Camden Yards. When the number draped on the side of the warehouse beyond the right field wall at Oriole Park changed from 2,127 and 2,128 after the game became official in the fifth inning, every Mariners player stood on the top step of the visiting dugout and joined the sellout crowd cheering for Ripken. The next night, against the then-California Angels, Ripken had three hits, and he had two more the night after that, including a home run each night. It was the first time in more than four years that he had homered in three straight games.
“I was in the on-deck circle when that banner came down in the fifth inning,” said Angels second baseman Rex Hudler after the game No. 2,129 on Monday. “I almost started to weep. I had to grab myself and say, ‘Hud, not now, man. The next two days are for crying.’ I can’t imagine playing a week straight let alone 13 years straight.”
Thirty years later, Ripken said, “The reaction of Rex [a former teammate] was really good. He always joked that he was drafted before me. I sent him over an [autographed bat] that said that. That was the coolest.”
Angels infielder Rene Gonzales said that night, “I was here [as an Oriole] when he had the consecutive innings streak (8,243, which ended in 1987). I knew he’d get this record. This was nothing for him. He’s an alien.”
The next night, when the number of the warehouse changed from 2,129 to 2,130 — matching the record set by Gehrig — the fans cut loose with an ovation that stopped play for 5 minutes, 20 seconds. Ripken waved his cap to the crowd, looked at his sobbing family, and patted his heart to signify how hard it was pounding.
“There were several moments,” Ripken said after the game, “that I had to hold back tears.”
After 2,130, there was a 30-minute postgame ceremony on the field. Among others, actor Tom Selleck, then-San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson and local legend quarterback Johnny Unitas presented gifts to Ripken and his wife, Kelly. The most moving presentation was made by Pirates pitcher Jim Gott, who, as a rookie, was the starting pitcher for the Blue Jays against the Orioles on May 30, 1982 — the day Ripken’s streak began. Gott had given up one hit in six innings for his first major league victory that day, and he had kept the game ball. But when he walked onto the field that Tuesday night, he gave the ball to Ripken, who was floored by the gesture.
“You don’t have to do this,”‘ Ripken said.
“I want to,” Gott said.
Three hours after the game, Ripken undressed at his locker, two attendants tagging and bagging every piece of clothing he peeled off, preparing them for delivery to trophy cases at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and elsewhere. “I’m keeping this,” Ripken said, flipping his protective cup into his locker.
He left the clubhouse at 1:48 a.m. It was then that he started to feel overwhelmed by the experience, he said, and he barely slept the night before 2,131. “I was sweating so much, the sheets and comforter were soaking wet,” Ripken said. He said he thought he might have a virus but decided that it was just a case of “nerves.”
At 8:05 on the morning of 2,131, Ripken took his 5-year-old daughter, Rachel, to her first day of kindergarten, then he took a nap. The drama mounted when he arrived at the ballpark to learn that among those in attendance that night would be President Clinton and Vice President Gore, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Aaron, Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson.
Orioles journeyman infielder Jeff Huson, who was platooning at third base with Jeff Manto, was thrilled about starting that night. Huson had been tracking the Angels’ rotation for three weeks trying to figure out if a right-hander might be starting against Baltimore on Sept. 6.
“I thought I had no chance because the Angels had four left-handers in their rotation,” he said. “Then I saw that Shawn Boskie [a right-hander] came off the disabled list. Then I saw on ‘SportsCenter’ last Friday night that he would be starting on Sept. 6. I jumped up in the air and said, “Yes!”
In the stands behind the plate was Cal’s younger brother, Billy, a former Oriole who spent the 1995 season with the Cleveland Indians’ Triple-A team in Buffalo. Billy was given permission to leave his team even though it meant missing Buffalo’s opening postseason game. After sitting in the family’s private box high above the field, Billy moved to the front row of seats for the historic occasion because, he said, “I wanted to sit down near the field. Tonight, I was more in amazement.”
The score was 1-1 when Cal came to bat in the fourth inning. Billy called to him and shook his brother’s hand. Ripken crushed a 3-0 pitch from Boskie deep into the left-field seats, prompting the iconic call from ESPN’s Chris Berman: “Oh my goodness, he did it again!”
“I will never forget that,” Billy said. “I shook his hand before he hit that homer.”
No one who was at the game, or even watched it on TV, will ever forget what happened a short time later, following the top of the fifth, when the game became official. At 9:20 p.m., play was stopped. The song “Day One” poured through the P.A, black and orange balloons were released, and everyone in the Orioles bullpen raced in to stand at the dugout with Ripken and the rest of the team as the number on the warehouse turned from 2,130 to 2,131. The cheer that went up was perhaps the loudest in the history of Baltimore sports. A fan raised his sign to the sky:
“Today, I Consider Myself The Luckiest Man On The Face Of The Earth.”
With several Orioles players wielding their video cameras, Ripken emerged from the dugout, took off his cap and waved to the fans. Then he walked over to the front row of seats behind the plate and hugged his wife, Kelly and children, Rachel and her 2-year-old brother, Ryan. He took off his jersey and cap and presented them to his kids.
“That’s when I lost it,” Huson said. “Every father knew what that meant.”
There were four more curtain calls before Bobby Bonilla pulled Ripken out of the dugout and made him circle the field along the warning track. As he ran along the track, Ripken slapped hands with fans who were leaning over the railing. When he got to center field, he jumped, balancing on his stomach at the top of the fence, and high-fived a few fans who leaped from their seats in the bleachers. Along the way, he waved and pointed at fans he recognized. When he got to the third-base coaching box, he was intercepted by umpires Larry Barnett and Al Clark, both of whom shook his hand. Then he ran to the top step of the visitors dugout where all the Angels players were standing and clapping. He hugged hitting coach Rod Carew.
“It was awesome. In the end, the players are all in this together,” Ripken said. “And I really love Rod Carew.”
Angels catcher Jorge Fabregas, who was behind the plate, went over to shake Ripken’s hand.
“I was just so, so honored to be out there,” Fabregas said.
Play was stopped for 22 minutes. If there has been a more joyful, emotional 22 minutes in baseball, no one could remember it.
“I kept coming out of the dugout, and it was like, ‘We won’t get this game started until you take a lap around the ballpark,”’ Ripken said. “The funny part was, Bobby Bo with his big baritone voice, his size, he was an intimidating influence. He pushed me out [of the dugout]. It was something that I really didn’t want to do, but I reluctantly went out there and it turned out to be one of the best human moments on the field.
“What surprised me, when you play, you focus on what is happening around you in the dugout and on the field, but you really don’t look in the stands too often. All of a sudden I was recognizing people who had been there for a while. People I knew by name. It just made it super personal. This wonderful celebration of the whole stadium.”
After the fifth inning, after the 22-minute tour, my writer friend Bob Elliott came to me with tears in his eyes.
“OK,” he said, “I get it.”
The Orioles won the game 4-2 — Ripken added a single in the eighth inning to his earlier home run — and speeches followed.
“I’ve never witnessed anything like that,” said Cal Ripken Sr., his beloved father. “He had a tremendous burden, and he handled it so well. I just marveled at how he was able to do everything that he did [during the fifth-inning celebration] and could still go out and do what he did in the game.”
Ripken wrote his own speech, and miraculously got through it without crying. Most people that night did not.
Surely there will be tears from Ripken and many others Saturday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards when the 30-year anniversary of 2,131 is celebrated. Ripken hasn’t changed much after all these years: He is still wildly competitive about everything, relentlessly prepared, adamant about doing things properly and always winning, no matter the task. Predictably, he took no credit for The Streak bringing baseball back from the strike of 1994, but 30 years has given him added perspective. When asked what he remembered most about that amazing night in 1995, he chuckled.
“My daughter called me the other day and said, ‘Happy Anniversary! You and I have that anniversary in common,'” Ripken said. “I momentarily forgot that her first day of school was the day of 2,131. It was pretty cool taking her to her first day of school on the same day. The whole night was pretty cool.”
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There is one question NFL fans are going to want to know when it comes to the New York Giants at the start of this season. When is Jaxson Dart going to get the reins?
The Giants selected the former Ole Miss standout in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. But it appeared he was going to have to wait a bit longer to get a chance at starting for the boys in blue. Super Bowl champion Russell Wilson will start Sunday against the Washington Commanders.
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New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart (6) warms up before the game against the New England Patriots at MetLife Stadium. (Mark Smith/Imagn Images)
But as the NFL Network reported that Dart could see some time in different situations against the Commanders, one-time NFL MVP Matt Ryan said the Giants might be better off seeing how quickly Dart can pick things up while on the field.
“I think he definitely plays. I think if you’re Brian Daboll and you’re Joe Schoen, right, the path to success moving forward is Jaxson Dart,” Ryan said on the CBS pregame show. “The future of this organization is Jaxson Dart. I think the sooner you find out what you have, the sooner you let him grow, the better off you’re gonna be.”
JAGUARS’ TRAVIS HUNTER DISCUSSES TRANSITION FROM HEISMAN TROPHY WINNER TO DUAL-THREAT NFL ROOKIE
New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson (3) scans the field at the line against the New York Jets during the first half at MetLife Stadium. (Rich Barnes/Imagn Images)
The Giants prepared a package of plays for the rookie quarterback, according to the NFL Network. Those certain plays are usually held for players who can either become game changers with their feet or with their hands – especially in the case of Taysom Hill a few years ago.
Dart seemingly inspired the Giants’ fan base with his performance in the preseason. However, he suggested he was eager to learn under the wings of Wilson.
“Russ has completely earned (the starting) role, and he’s played amazing, played elite,” Dart said at the end of preseason. “So, for me, I just want to be the best teammate, and I just want this team to win. Whatever my role is for that to happen, I’m going to do that to the best of my ability.”
New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart (6) is shown during the first quarter, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Kevin R. Wexler-NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
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Dart will be the backup for Wilson for Sunday’s game.
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Whom should you start? Whom should you sit? To help you set your fantasy football lineups and avoid starting an offensive player who won’t be in the lineup, we’ll post fantasy-relevant updates and analysis here as NFL teams release their official inactives lists.
Official Sunday inactives should begin coming in approximately 90 minutes before the scheduled kickoff times: around 11:30 a.m. ET for the early games and 2:30 p.m. ET for the late-afternoon games.
Refresh often for the latest information.
Don’t forget to check these out: Mike Clay’s Playbook | Week 1 Buzz
Week 1 Rankings | Expert chat (Noon-1 p.m. ET)
What we’re watching for early
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Darnell Mooney, WR, ATL (shoulder): He’s questionable despite limited practices this week. Probably will be a game-time call. Casey Washington would likely be called upon to step up if he sits.
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Tyler Goodson, RB, IND (elbow): DJ Giddens would spell Jonathan Taylor if Goodson doesn’t suit up.
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Malik Nabers, WR, NYG (back): He was not listed on the team’s injury report and he’ll almost certainly start. Just be aware that there’s a chance that his “little tightness” could flare up during the game.
Ruled out prior to Sunday
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Isaiah Likely, TE, BAL (foot): Starter Mark Andrews will still get the majority of TE looks, with Charlie Kolar getting the scraps.
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Tyler Bass, K, BUF (hip/groin): He has been placed on IR. Matt Prater will handle Buffalo’s kicking duties.
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Quinshon Judkins, RB, CLE: He signed with the team only on Saturday after off-the-field legal issues had delayed the process. Expect Dylan Sampson and Jerome Ford to split backfield work in Week 1.
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Christian Kirk, WR, HOU (hamstring): Kirk might be out of action for a few weeks. Braxton Berrios (hamstring) is also out for Week 1, so rookies Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel should both be tasked with a larger-than-expected workload right out of the gate.
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Jaylen Wright, RB, MIA (knee): De’Von Achane will be backed up by rookie Ollie Gordon II and Jeff Wilson Jr., who was elevated to fill in for Wright.
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Darren Waller, TE, MIA (hip): The veteran is not yet ready to shake off his retirement cobwebs. Julian Hill and Tanner Conner will share whatever TE targets there are to be had.
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Chase Young, LB, NO (calf): This certainly could benefit any Cardinals in your starting lineup.
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Jake Bobo, WR, SEA (concussion): This frees up rookie Tory Horton for work as the team’s No. 3 WR.
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Chris Godwin Jr., WR, TB (ankle): Not expected back until at least Week 5.
What we’re watching for late
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Marvin Mims Jr., WR, DEN (thigh): He was removed from the injury report and is expected to be the team’ No. 2 WR option behind Courtland Sutton.
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Jayden Reed , WR, GB (foot): He was limited in practice this week, but given that it’s Week 1, he’s likely to give it a try. Dontayvion Wicks and Savion Williams are both questionable, so rookie Matthew Golden might be in line for a big debut.
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Christian McCaffrey, RB, SF (calf): Given his injury history and a missed practice on Friday, it’s understandable why fantasy managers might be wary here. That said, McCaffrey says he’s feeling great. Isaac Guerendo (shoulder) and Jordan James (finger) also enter the season banged up, so Brian Robinson Jr. would be the late-window pivot if there’s a need for one.
Alex Morgan will be honored and have her jersey retired when the San Diego Wave host the Houston Dash on Sunday, Sept. 7 at 8:30 p.m. ET, live on ESPN and ESPN+. Ahead of the ceremony, ESPN is republishing this list of her greatest career moments, which was originally published on Sept. 7, 2024. The original article is below.
U.S. women’s national team forward Alex Morgan’s incredible career will end Sunday when she plays her final match for San Diego Wave FC after announcing her retirement (and pregnancy) to the world Thursday.
Morgan’s career will go down among the most legendary in a long lineage of USWNT stars. She scored 123 international goals, which ranks fifth in U.S. history. She won two World Cups, earned Olympic gold and bronze medals and won professional championships in multiple leagues in addition to a Champions League title in Europe.
Despite that, her legacy off the field as an ally to players and advocate for equality is just as important.
Boiling down her career to only a few moments is a fool’s errand. But here are 13 moments — in honor of the number she wore for a generation — that defined her decade and a half playing at the highest level.
13. First international goal, 2010
Let’s start at the beginning of her senior career: Morgan’s first international goal came in only her third cap, just over six months after her USWNT debut in the famous “snow angels” game in Utah.
Her first goal, on Oct. 6, 2010, was a late equalizer against China to secure a 1-1 draw in a friendly. The timing of the goal, and the combination with Abby Wambach (who assisted) foreshadowed what was to come. Morgan had already scored the winning goal in the 2008 U-20 World Cup final, which led people to tab her for success at the senior level. This was the first proof point for that.
12. NWSL title, 2013
Morgan was originally allocated to the Portland Thorns FC, placing the game’s most popular player in what would quickly become one of the best women’s soccer markets in the world. The Thorns’ season was far from perfect, and Morgan endured a minor knee injury late in the campaign, but she returned in time to play in the final with a large knee brace on her left leg, and she assisted Christine Sinclair‘s stoppage-time insurance goal to clinch the inaugural NWSL championship.
Morgan’s time on the field in Portland wasn’t entirely glorious, but this moment was another professional title early in her career on the same field she won the first — the WPS championship with Western New York Flash in 2011 — in Rochester, New York.
11. Gold Cup return, 2024
Yes, Morgan’s 2024 will be defined by the heartbreak of being cut from the Olympics followed by an abrupt retirement, but the narrative looked a lot different only a few months before that. Morgan’s last hurrah with the USWNT served as a microcosm of her relentless competitiveness. Over the past two years, she has responded to numerous challenges to her place on the national team.
Morgan had not scored a goal for the USWNT in nearly a year, including a 2023 World Cup that went horribly for almost every U.S. player, knocked out in the round of 16. The U.S. was in a time of transition while awaiting the arrival of new coach Emma Hayes, and Morgan was dropped ahead of the Concacaf W Gold Cup, a sign that the end of a glittering international career was near.
But Mia Fishel tore her ACL the day before the opening match, and Morgan packed her bag to drive a few hours and rejoin the team. She came off the bench in the opener against Dominican Republic and buried a late penalty for her first goal in 363 days, reestablishing herself as the team’s No. 9 at that tournament.
10. First pro goal, 2011
Morgan was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 WPS draft, the star college player who was brought in to play alongside legends Marta, Christine Sinclair and Caroline Seger.
Morgan scored her first professional goal on May 1, 2011, only three games into her career with the Flash (the video of this appears to be lost to the internet.)
Morgan helped the Flash win the 2011 WPS title, the last trophy ever lifted in the fledgling league. Among the video that still exists from that season is an audacious goal she scored in Boston.
9. Loan to Lyon, 2017
Lost in the shuffle of Morgan’s domestic and international career is her status as a Champions League winner.
Morgan joined Lyon in January 2017 and spent half a season there, getting her first taste of European club soccer. Her stint with Lyon was brief, and she was subbed out of the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain early because of a hamstring injury, but she still added the European crown to her list of honors.
Equally important, Morgan made the move to Lyon to improve and mature her game in a less comfortable setting.
“My motivation is pretty simple,” she said in a Players’ Tribune story at the time. “I hope that this change will help push my game to another level. I hope that training with these incredible athletes each day, and learning a unique style of play, is exactly what I need, and that it will help me find that next gear.”
She returned to the NWSL to have one of her best stretches of play to date, helping the Orlando Pride — the franchise that effectively made acquiring Morgan from Portland a condition of its 2015 NWSL launch — make the playoffs for the first time. The jaunt to Europe helped Morgan add nuance to her game, which was beneficial in the years that followed.
8. USWNT goal No. 100, 2019
Morgan’s 100th international tally (watch here) came against Australia in an important friendly ahead of the 2019 World Cup. She became just the seventh U.S. woman to reach the 100-goal mark.
It’s an arbitrary number to some degree, sure, but it is a good benchmark for the truly elite of the program. By this point, Morgan was already in that conversation. Statistically, this further affirmed that.
7. Returning from maternity leave to win bronze, 2021
Morgan gave birth to her first child, daughter Charlie, in May 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. By November, Morgan made her debut with Tottenham Hotspur in England on a brief stint aimed at getting her back to match fit.
The pandemic delayed the Olympics to summer 2021, giving Morgan a shot at another medal. She returned to the national team a few weeks after that debut with Tottenham, and she worked her way back into the lineup to help the USWNT win a bronze medal at the Tokyo Games.
6. Fighting back from injury to win World Cup, 2015
The 2015 World Cup didn’t exactly go as planned for Morgan because of a knee injury leading up to the tournament. But she managed to be fit enough to start by the end of it, and she scored once, in a round of 16 victory over Colombia that was not as comfortable as it should have been.
This was not a breakout World Cup for Morgan, nor a title that she served as the protagonist for, but it was the first of two World Cup trophies with her playing a central role.
5. Winning the NWSL Golden Boot, 2022
A valid criticism of Morgan’s game had been that she hadn’t put together a truly memorable club season as a professional. That changed emphatically in 2022, and allows Morgan to retire without much “yeah, but” about her club career.
Morgan scored 15 goals in 17 games for the San Diego Wave to win the NWSL Golden Boot and lift the Wave to the playoffs, a first for an NWSL expansion team. Among her standout performances was a four-goal beating of NJ/NY Gotham FC early in the season. She became only the third player to score four goals in an NWSL game.
Her league form commanded a recall to the USWNT for World Cup and Olympic qualifying in 2022, and the 2023 World Cup, just after it looked like the team might be moving on from her.
4. World Cup playoff goal, 2010
The 2011 World Cup was the catalyst of the USWNT’s current popularity, but the No. 1-ranked team in the world nearly didn’t qualify for the event. After a shocking upset loss to Mexico in qualifying, the U.S. had to play a two-leg playoff against Italy for the last of 16 spots in the tournament.
Morgan had only debuted for the U.S. the month prior, but she was already clutch. She scored deep into second-half stoppage time to give the Americans a crucial 1-0 aggregate lead ahead of the home leg the following week. The U.S. beat Italy 1-0 again outside of Chicago, and the Americans advanced.
Morgan’s goal in Padua, Italy, was scored in relative obscurity, well before the days of ubiquitous streaming. It is, however, one of many crucial tallies in the USWNT’s recent history. Without 2011, the team’s growth doesn’t follow. And without Morgan’s goal in Italy, there might not have been a 2011 World Cup for the USWNT.
3. World Cup final performance, 2011
This was the start of the wider world truly paying attention to Morgan. She came off the bench in a scoreless World Cup final to net the first goal (watch here) of the match against Japan after breaking free of Saki Kumagai, who was emerging as one of the world’s top defenders. Morgan jumped up from the ground to let out a scream after scoring.
A wild ending ensued, with the U.S. and Japan trading goals to finish 2-2 after 120 minutes before Japan prevailed in penalty kicks.
Everyone remembers the tea-sipping celebration because it was a badass moment of taunting in a World Cup semifinal. Morgan’s headed goal (watch here) served as the game winner — on her 30th birthday, and in Lyon, where she had played on loan. The goal was Morgan’s sixth of the tournament after another historic feat: she scored five goals in the USWNT’s 13-0 victory over Thailand, tying the single-game record for a player at a World Cup. Her efforts were largely overshadowed by Megan Rapinoe‘s heroics, as she won the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball for best player, but Morgan was integral to a second straight World Cup title for player and country. Morgan won the silver boot, finishing tied with Rapinoe on goals (six) and assists (three) but having played more minutes. “Ohhh, it’s in! Alex Morgan has done it!” Broadcaster Arlo White’s call met the epic moment of what was arguably her greatest match. Morgan met the moment with the game-winning goal in the 123rd minute to cement her stardom at Old Trafford, Manchester. The tally was the final blow of a 4-3 win with rival Canada in a bonkers match that would lead to a third straight Olympic gold medal for the Americans. The match and the goal are unforgettable lore in USWNT history. That year, Morgan had 28 goals and 21 assists, joining Mia Hamm (1998) as the only player to tally 20 or more of each in a single calendar year. This year — and this goal, in this game — marked the official arrival of Morgan as a bona fide star.
2. Silver Boot at the World Cup, 2019
1. Olympic semifinal game winner, 2012
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