Alex Morgan
Alexandra " Alex " Patricia Morgan ( born July 2, 1989 in Diamond Bar, California) is an American soccer player. She plays for the Portland Thorns FC and for the U.S. national team.
Life and career
Morgan scored in her first season at the University of California as the top scorer for the Golden Bears seven goals. In 2008, she was with nine goals, top scorer of the Golden Bears, though they did not participate in all games due to international operations. 2009 they increased their success rate for the Bears to 14, 2011, she was drafted as the first player of the Golden Bears for the Women's Professional Soccer, playing for Western New York Flash, with which they won the championship in 2011.
Morgan's first major tournament was the CONCACAF U -20 Women's Championship 2008, where the U.S. lost the final against Canada 0-1. At 9-0 against Cuba in their second group game she succeeded already in the second minute of the 1-0. The U.S. qualified thus for the U-20 World Cup Women 2008, when Morgan was used in all six matches and scored four goals, including 2-0 in the final against North Korea. This goal was voted the Goal of the Tournament and Morgan was awarded the Silver Ball as the second best player of the tournament as well as the Bronze Shoe as the third- leading scorer.
Her first senior international she made on 31 March 2010 in a 1-0 against Mexico. It was the first game of the U.S. team on snow and record national Kristine Lilly was after three years break her comeback in the national team. Your first goal in a senior international game they scored on 6 October 2010 in a 1-1 draw against China. Also at the CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup in 2010, where the U.S. team only surprising third place and automatic qualification for the 2011 World Cup missed, she participated and scored two goals. In the resulting need playoff games against Italy in the first game they scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory.
In 2011 she played in the WPS for Western New York Flash.
In 2011 she came in all ten games for use, so at the Algarve Cup, which the Americans won for the eighth time in March and at the Morgan three goals was top scorer. Morgan was the youngest player in the squad of the U.S. for the World Cup 2011 in Germany. She came in five games for use and scored two goals, including the 1-0 goal in the final against Japan. In the 120th minute, she was prevented when the score was 2:2 only by an emergency brake at the goal, so that their antagonist Azusa Iwashimizu first player received a red card in a World Cup final. Since the subsequent free-kick could not be used to score the winner, the shoot had to decide where three teammates could not convert, and thus the U.S. team was only the second place.
For the 2012 season, she moved to the Seattle Sounders Women in the W-League.
At Algarve Cup 2012 you get in the 3rd place match against Sweden for the first time three goals in a game.
At the Olympic football tournament in 2012, it achieved in the semifinals in the third minute of injury time the decisive 4-3 victory over Canada. With the U.S. team won by 2-1 in the final of the Japan the gold medal.
On January 7, 2013, it took in the election for the FIFA World Player - 2012, the FIFA Ballon d'Or, in third place behind their national team mate Abby Wambach and Brazil's Marta.
In the 2013 season they played in the newly established National Women 's Soccer League, the highest American professional league in women's soccer for the Portland Thorns FC.
Achievements
- Second the CONCACAF U-20 Championship 2008
- U -20 World Champion 2008
- Algarve Cup winner and top scorer in 2011
- Vice World Champion at the World Cup 2011 in Germany
- WPS Champion 2011
- Olympic Champion 2012
- Algarve Cup winner and top scorer in 2013
- NWSL Champion 2013
Awards
- Silver Ball at the U- 20 World Cup 2008
- Player of the Year in the USA 2012
- Nominated for the FIFA Ballon d'Or 2012
- Nominated for election to the FIFA World Player of 2013
- 2013: elected to the All- Time Women's National Team Best XI as the youngest player and the only player with less than 150 internationals