Following her jaw-dropping, tournament MVP performance at the 2007 Algarve Cup, 365 Todays knew it had to get a hold of US WNT midfielder Carli Lloyd and introduce her to the world she’s about to take over. Thankfully she agreed to sit down, dial us up, and talk about her role on the WNT, her personal training regiment, and what she’d be doing if she couldn’t play soccer professionally. What we found out is that this is a girl who lives and breathes her sport; soccer is most definitely her way of life, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Carli’s what our Manifesto is all about, and she’s only going to get better.


To start off, what made Algarve 2007 different from the first 24 games of your US WNT career? Were you preparing differently? Did you feel different? How come things just kinda’ clicked?
I don’t think I took any different steps in preparing for the tournament. I’m kind of a new, younger player just getting on to the scene with the team. I’ve taken my stay one trip at a time, one day at a time. I just think the biggest difference was that I scored goals. I was more comfortable with the team and more comfortable with the coaching staff. It was just a combination of different things. I had a whole year under my belt with the team, so I was just a bit more comfortable out there on the field.

What are some things you are hoping to work on now that Algarve is over and the team is working up to the Cup and the Olympics thereafter? What parts of your game are you trying to focus on, and have you set some new goals for yourself?
I want to try to become the best player that I can. My ultimate goal is to get a FIFA Woman’s World Player of the Year or at least a nomination. Right now though, I’m just trying to help the team, make the Cup team, and then go from there. Hopefully I can have a lasting career with the WNT.

"I want to try to become the best player that I can."

When you say help the team, can you describe your role as an in-between in that attacking center mid role? With someone like Shannon Boxx holding behind you and Abby Wambach in front, what is your focus on the field?
My goal playing that attacking role is to create as many scoring chances as possible, get assists, and also get the ball and spread it around; switch it, shorter passes, longer passes, combining with people, and winning 50/50 balls, and defending well. Playing with such great players like Abby and Boxx and Lil’ and a number of different players, it’s possible to do that on the field with their support. Sometimes you actually play with two holding midfielders and I’ve been the other one. So whatever the game brings us, Greg might plug me in there and I know that I’ll be playing against somebody in a more defensive role. So I think they’re both similar for me. Those descriptions I gave you go for anywhere in the midfield, but that’s what I try to lean towards doing.

Do you think you’ve found your position with the WNT?
Yeah, but I’m open to anything Greg wants on any particular day that will help the team. It’s nice to be closer to the goal. You can link up with Abby and Lil up top, but I still need to be defending no matter where I am. I look at them both as sort of the same, in my eyes, because when I’m playing holding mid I still try to get forward and get into the attack.

How would your teammates describe your personality on and off the field? If we went up to one of them and randomly asked, “Tell us about Carli,” what would they say?
On the field, I’m very focused and energetic. I’m competitive; I want to win. Off the field, some people may think at first I’m a little shy until I get comfortable. I’m relaxed, pretty easy going, but I’m always committed to getting better as a player.

Considering you’re still one of the younger players in this new generation of WNT stars, was there anyone on the team that you looked up to or helped to ease the transition when you first got the call up to the top side?
In ’05 we had a quiet year, but I was still in some of those camps with McMillan, Milbrett, Fotopoulos. All of them were there. Shannon McMillan and Tiffany Milbrett kind of took me under their wings a bit. Then, you pretty much knew who were the starters and who were the reserves. They were awesome though, really supportive. I had a lot of fun. Even Abby and Lilly have kind of taken me under their wing and supported me. All the veterans have played a part in helping to usher in what you might call my generation.

Do the young players on the WNT really see themselves as part of a “new generation” trying to reassert American dominance, or is it more about players gradually filling new roles as individuals?
I think for us this is an awesome opportunity with the 2007 Cup coming up to reach out to kids and have them take notice of the new generation of players. What Mia and all those guys did was awesome, but yeah, all of us are excited for when the Cup gets closer and fans hopefully start to take notice of different types of players on our team.

Can you describe what the atmosphere in training camp is like under Coach Ryan? Is it looser or tenser than in past camps you’ve been to?
I’ve only played for Greg really, not so much with April Heinrichs former US WNT head coach, so I can’t really talk about her type of practices. But with Greg it’s great. He’s really easy going but he knows when we need to take care of business and get things done. He works with the midfielders a lot; we do a lot of shooting, a lot of positional stuff, but his practices are very intense, very organized and educational, and that’s what we need. I think he brings a good balance.

What type of stuff do you do with your downtime at camp?
We normally stay at camp. Only the people who live out there in Southern California really have their cars around. I try to relax; I try to get my feet up, especially when we have double days. I watch movies, read books. Sometimes we go out to eat as a team. Sometimes players have family and friends in the area and we’ll get together with them. We do the movies, the mall, the beach, or just be hermits and sit inside.

Being a New Jersey girl, what do you like most about playing and training out on the West Coast?
The weather is awesome. Jersey weather is nice; it’s usually hot. In the winter, obviously it’s not that great. But you wake up in California and the sun is shining, blue skies. It just makes everybody happy when the suns out.

So this sounds like a busier training and game schedule for the WNT than normal. When you don’t have the opportunity to be working with the WNT in residency, what type of things do you do on your own, at home, to stay fit and improve your game?
I consider myself really lucky after finding James Galanis Carli’s personal trainer and mentor because for the past four years, I haven’t had to wake up and say, “Well, what do I have to do today?” If it weren’t for him, I don’t think I’d have any of this success on the team. He’s not only my trainer; I talk to him about life decisions, anything. He knows that it takes a lot of hours to become a good player and to do well. He never pushes me too much when I come home from a break, but he knows how to train hard. Whether it’s fitness or strength training, we do it all. Anything that has to do with the game of soccer and making me stronger, fitter, mentally tougher, everything. It’s important because this is my job; this is my life. It’s what pro soccer players do, they train around the clock.

Can you go through a typical day working out with James?
Yeah, I mean I can’t ever remember repeating a session with him. We do different things all the time. We work on the skill stuff: the juggling, foot skills, volleys, free kicks, shooting. We do a lot of strength training and fitness. Typically we’ll train for two or two and half hours in a session, and within that every day is a little bit different depending on what we’re working on. He tries to incorporate everything. Sometimes he’ll have me go do a 45-minute run or an hour run on my own or a stretching session. It all depends. We play some soccer volleyball and games too.

So were you raised as a soccer player? Was soccer really big in your household or did you come to the game later on?
My parents got me into it even though they never played. There was a pretty good youth soccer program in the area and my Dad ended up coaching for a number of years. I guess I just kind of knew at the time that that was what I wanted to do. Kept doing it; kept enjoying it. I played other sports, but eventually I really just had a passion for soccer.

Now for some off the field questions. Can you name four or five musicians or groups on your iPod right now?
Hmmm. Rascal Flatts, Beyonce, Eminem, Brian McKnight…

What do you listen to before games to get yourself going? Are you one of those players that plugs into the iPod to focus?
Yeah I do. I put my iPod on shuffle and just kind of go through random songs. I don’t listen to anything too particular.

Do you have any pre-game rituals? Anything you like to eat before every game?
Well, I hydrate and mentally prepare, so along with the iPod I guess those are my three rituals.

What is involved with mentally preparing?
Over the last two years I’ve found it to be extremely important. The night before a game I just think of different situations I might find myself in and think of what I would do or what I’m gonna’ bring to the game the next day. Just prepare myself to work hard, defend well.

If you weren’t playing soccer right now, what do you think you’d be doing?
Tough one. Probably be coaching youth soccer. Not coaching college, but being a trainer for youth teams.

Why youth teams?
I enjoy seeing players develop when you coach them at a younger age and giving them the necessary tools early on and then seeing them progress.

So you have coached before?
Well, mostly just hanging around James’ academy. It’s fascinating to see how he makes good players into really great players. I’d like to do that.

What was the last personal vacation you went on?
Hmmmm. This is pretty sad. I guess Mexico—Playa del Carmen—for my cousins wedding. That was over three years ago.

Doesn’t sound like you vacation too much.
Yeah, not really, not in the last few years.

Like any great soccer player, you’ve probably had to make a lot of sacrifices (like vacation) to get to where you are today. What is it about soccer and being on the team that ultimately makes it worth it?
Just going out to train in California and getting the chance to train for a few hours. When we’re on break and I’m at home, I don’t work at all, I just train. Throughout my entire life I’ve made tons of sacrifices, and I think if I didn’t make those at the time this wouldn’t be possible. It’s tough; it’s tough balancing high school and friends, and college and friends. But everybody looks at my life now, all my friends from college, and tell me how lucky I am. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all the easy life, but you’re still playing soccer and making a living. That’s the greatest part about it and it’s kind of priceless to me.

Very cool. Carli, we look forward to hearing more good news about you in the future. Thanks for taking the time to talk.
No problem. Thanks for having me.

Sometimes a season, let alone 365 days of training can feel insurmountable. For US WNT defensive midfielder Shannon Boxx, the latter half of 2006 was practically Mt. Everest. But after a grueling base-climb rehabbing a knee injury suffered over the summer, the player teammates and coaches casually refer to as “Boxxy” is finally ready to sprint towards the summit, take a nice long look towards China 2007 and firmly plant the stars and stripes over the women’s soccer loving world. For now though, it’s all about March’s Algarve Cup and defending her title as reigning tournament MVP.



This story is about a truly uncommon player battling through an unfortunately all too common injury. After a stellar four years at the University of Notre Dame, including the 1995 Div. I National Championship as a freshman, Shannon took on the challenge of a professional career overseas with Saarbrucken, a club in the German women’s Bundesliga. It was not the smoothest of transitions and she briefly left the game and Germany to return home, just in time, as it so happened, for the launch of the WUSA. Drafted by the San Diego Spirit, Boxxy’s meteoric rise to national team stardom began when she was traded to the New York Power two seasons later. With Germany and the Spirit in her past, Shannon found a personal trainer and a new never-quit attitude to ensure that New York would be the perfect meeting point for everything to come together. The next season she started all 21 matches for the Power and her tenacious defensive play, now her trademark, was impressive enough to garner a spot on the All-WUSA First-Team, as well as shot with the WNT. She didn’t waste any time. Not only was she named to the 2003 Cup squad despite only having two caps to her name, but she went on to start all five matches and was one of three Americans named to the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup All-Star Team. The rest is a beautiful history.

Until this summer, that is. In July, upon returning to play following hip surgery, Shannon tore her ACL (as well as her MCL), an injury which female soccer players are reported to be four times more likely than male soccer players to sustain. Privileged with a relatively injury-free past for most of her career, Boxx approached rehab as just another one of the many challenges in the game she loves, the game she lives.

“Very devastated, that was my first feeling,” Boxx said in a 365 Todays telephone interview. “But once I went through my two surgeries I think my focus then became about getting better. As soon as my first surgery was done I was in PT physical therapy by the end of that first week because I knew that the faster I could bend my knee, the faster I could get the swelling out of my knee, I could go in for my second surgery, which was a month later, and my process of healing would be that much faster.”

An optimist and fighter by nature, Boxx is also human. “Every day I took it step by step,” she said, but admitted, “I got discouraged sometimes when the simple things seemed so hard and I got so winded doing them. But I knew I was getting better and that was very uplifting…I’m not going to say that there weren’t days I was crying because everything was taking so long, but I had a positive outlook.”

Shannon used her recovery period to spend much-needed time with family, friends and a home in need of some redecoration, but soccer was never placed on the backburner. The injury allowed her to work on the physical and mental aspects of her game that needed improvement. While she focused on bettering her agility and quickness three times a week in physical therapy and supplemental fitness workouts, Boxxy also made sure to show up to every residency training session. She wanted to demonstrate her commitment to the team and be available as a mentor to the younger players who were carrying the torch in her absence.

It was also a chance to take in the game from a new vantage point. “I would say to myself, ‘Oh my god, I could be doing this better,” Boxxy admitted. “I’m telling Leslie (Osbourne) ‘you have so much more time than you think’ and in my head I knew, ‘That’s exactly what everybody was telling me when I was saying, ‘No I don’t!’ You see so many more little things. As a player, you’re going to get better watching the game. I was still working, still practicing in my mind, ‘This is where I should be; this is what I need to do to come back to the ball.’”

And as the well-known saying goes, time flies when you’re having fun. The WNT program brought in a crop of young players that have gone on to an undefeated record under head coach Greg Ryan. “I’m considered old now, which is a little bit strange,” said a laughing Boxx, who is still only 29. “I think I went from pretty young to pretty old very quickly.”

Now the experienced vet is set to learn a few things from her green counterparts like Natasha Kai and Lindsey Tarpley. “One thing I’ve noticed is these young players love to take people on, they’re not afraid to take people on, and they’re not afraid to take touches.”

As she works to gradually return to her usual form, which Shannon admits might take some time, she will be relied upon to fulfill a somewhat uncharacteristic role in the midfield of the unsettled WNT roster. “I want to be able to go forward more, score more goals, help on the other side of the ball,” she said. “I am always so focused on the defensive side—and I want to continue to do that—but also improve my offensive side.”

In the end, however, Boxxy’s exceptional contribution will always be her leadership and attitude. Not one to describe herself in terms of technical skill, this is an athlete that plays the game with a passion and dedication unrivaled by most of her opponents and teammates. In other words, she’s where Joga Bonito meets 365 Todays—tackling hard, winning possession, winning games—in sickness and in health.

“If I had to describe myself, I’m definitely more of a leader on the field. I show by example. That’s more my style. I talk a lot on the field, I demand things of my teammates—If you’re not there, you need to get there, you need to talk, you need to do this. I’m very demanding on the field. I hope my tenacity and that mentality comes out in my teammates because that’s just gonna’ make everybody better. Some days it’s not me bringing it, it’s somebody else and I’m stepping up because they showed it first. I think that’s what a team is.”

And this WNT is not complete without her. The US Women have a long way to go over the next seven months, but it’s reassuring to know Boxxy will be back, leading the climb.

(Check out Shannon’s podcast with ussoccer.com to hear the story yourself)