Alex Morgan’s final game on Sunday was a testament to the legacy she left behind during her illustrious 14-year career, not least her on-field achievements but also her tireless advocacy for women’s sport.
The day was awash with praise across the NWSL and at Snapdragon Stadium, where she started for the San Diego Wave in a regular-season game against the North Carolina Courage. The accolades were just the first part of a send-off befitting Morgan’s stature. She has lived up to her promise as one of the most exciting prospects in American soccer, and she has used her success on the pitch to advance women’s soccer—and the NWSL in particular.
Morgan was partnered on Sunday not only by her teammates but also by her four-year-old daughter Charlie, who has become a constant companion in the latter stages of her career as the two-time World Cup winner has become an advocate for mothers in sport. The 35-year-old played her last match while pregnant with her second child.
Here are Morgan’s final game scenes and sounds, which ended in a 4-1 win for the Courage.
Family problems
Morgan arrived at Snapdragon Stadium in her usual fashion, holding hands with her daughter Charlie. The World Cup winner wore a green three-piece suit, a soccer-print ribbon, and a soccer bag from Kate Spade New York on her head. Charlie wore the Wave’s 2024 home jersey with her mother’s name and number on it, which was a huge help as she walked onto the field with Morgan for the pre-game festivities.
Compliments upon arrival
The rest of the league joined in on the tributes, with some of the league’s best players sending in videos, including former national teammates Trinity Rodman and Sophia Smith, who said, “We wouldn’t be here without you.”
Meanwhile, Morgan’s teammates on the Wave showed up at Snapdragon Stadium wearing “SAN D13GOAT” T-shirts, a nod to the player’s iconic No. 13 and his status as the greatest player of all time, which the club is now selling to the public. Fellow Wave forward Maria Sanchez, meanwhile, wore a custom T-shirt featuring a selfie she took with Morgan as a child, with braces, which she reprised this year after Sanchez was traded to San Diego. Some also wore the iconic pink wrap headband that Morgan wore throughout her career.
The Wave also honoured Morgan by inviting her loved ones to the pitch just before kick-off and giving her a club jersey with the number 63 on it to commemorate the 63 games she played for the club.
Number 13 is 13 minutes
Morgan played just 13 minutes in the final game, a nod to the number 13 she wore for most of her career. It may have been a short finale, but it was an exciting one, with two goals scored and a penalty missed.
The Courage started as spoilers in the fourth minute when Haley Hopkins headed in the goal, forcing the Wave to play from behind. The home team had a great chance to equalize just six minutes later, when a handball resulted in a penalty that would have given Morgan a fairytale farewell. She scored what would have been her last goal as a professional, but Courage goalkeeper Casey Murphy saved.
The Wave finally found an equaliser, fittingly enough, with Kennedy Wesley heading in the 13th minute. Wesley’s goal allowed Morgan to celebrate one last time as a professional before he was sent off immediately after.
Morgan walked out to a series of hugs, loud cheers from the crowd and tears from some of her teammates. The crowd quickly began chanting her name as she walked down the touchline, with Amira Ali coming out to give her another hug from the bench and taking her seat.
Last Farewell
The Wave celebrated Morgan’s career one last time after the 4-1 loss, escorting her to the pitch as daughter Charlie ran to present the World Cup winner with a large bouquet of flowers. Before Morgan and the crowd at Snapdragon Stadium watched a video celebrating her career, the player spoke to the crowd in a short speech. She thanked the 95 loved ones and countless fans who came to the stadium for her final game. “I will cherish this last moment together on the pitch forever, thank you,” she said. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Make history
A crowd of 26,516 filled Snapdragon Stadium for Morgan’s final game, and many were quick to celebrate the star. The Wave sold more than 11,000 tickets in the 24 hours after Morgan announced his retirement, and some of those in the stadium weren’t locals. Some signs seen on the broadcast indicated that fans had traveled from North Carolina and Alaska to see the player’s final game.
It’s a far cry from Morgan’s first game at the club level as a rookie with the Western New York Flash of the WPS (the now-defunct NWSL) in 2011. Sahlen’s Stadium in Rochester, New York, was filled with 2,164 people to see a team that included Marta and Christine Sinclair, a sight that fortunately was unfamiliar to Morgan during his final years as a professional. While the national team regularly plays in front of large crowds now, the Wave has averaged 20,000 fans per game this season, making it one of the strongest markets in the ever-growing NWSL. It seemed fitting that the league made history on Sunday, too. The NWSL drew 1.5 million fans for the first time during the regular season and is on track to reach 2 million by the end of the season.
That wasn’t the only landmark moment on Sunday. Morgan’s final game was simulcast on CBS Sports Network, Paramount+, ESPN2, Amazon Prime Video and NWSL+, marking the first time multiple media companies have co-aired a women’s sports event in the United States. This again reflects the progress women’s sports have made during Morgan’s career. She joked during her pre-game press conference Friday that she learned from a USWNT publicist why she was drafted to the Flash because the event wasn’t televised and had little social media coverage.
But the simulcast speaks volumes about Morgan’s unrivaled status as the face of women’s soccer, a game that has grown exponentially. She has not taken that privilege lightly, raising the bar across the sport, and vowed to continue that even after retirement.
