U.S. women’s national team legend Carli Lloyd is lacing her boots up again. But don’t look for her in the National Women’s Soccer League.
Lloyd will be playing with a collection of former USWNT teammates in The Soccer Tournament, a seven-aside competition. Entering its third year, TST has doubled the size of its women’s competition in 2025, inviting 16 teams to vie for a $1million, winner-takes-all prize.
Lloyd, who coached in the tournament in 2023 and 2024, will take the field alongside former team-mates Ali Krieger and Heather O’Reilly — the first time the trio has shared the pitch since 2016.
The U.S. Women, as the team calls itself, played against men’s sides in the tournament’s inaugural edition and returned again last year, defeating a team representing the NWSL’s North Carolina Courage to claim the tournament’s first women’s title.
TST, which will run from June 4 to 9, is hosted at WakeMed Sports Park, the home of the Courage.
“I had such a great time last year being part of the U.S. Women coaching staff,” Lloyd said in a press release. “This year, it’s time to lace up my boots and reunite with some of my former teammates – Heather O’Reilly and Ali Krieger – and help the U.S. Women win back-to-back TST titles!”
Lloyd and O’Reilly won Olympic gold together at London 2012
Lloyd is among the most decorated players in American soccer history, having won the Women’s World Cup twice and a pair of Olympic gold medals. Her 316 caps are second only to USWNT legend Kristine Lilly. Lloyd scored 134 goals across those matches, third most in the history of the national team.
Lloyd was FIFA’s women’s player of the year in 2016, won the Golden Ball at the 2015 World Cup — where she scored a hat-trick in the tournament’s final — and is widely considered to be one of the all-time great attacking players in U.S. soccer history.
Since retiring from club soccer in 2021 Lloyd has taken up commentating, working largely as a studio analyst for Fox. She has been a polarizing figure at times; during the 2023 Women’s World Cup, she drew the ire of some USWNT fans for her blunt criticism of the squad. As a player and commentator alike, Lloyd has a hard-earned reputation for intensity.
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Entering its third year, TST is the brainchild of Jon Mugar, the creator of The Basketball Tournament (TBT): a winner-takes-all basketball competition that’s awarded $14m in prizes over the past decade.
TST debuted in 2023 and added a women’s competition last year. The tournament, which features seven-a-side teams competing on a shortened field, casts aside the offside rule, throw-ins and a host of other traditional soccer norms in favor of quirks like the “Elam Ending,” where every match ends by teams attempting to hit a target score in a “next goal wins” scenario.
The tournament was successful in its first year and grew in popularity in 2024, when it signed a media rights partnership with ESPN.
Other notable teams returning to the tournament include German sides Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, Welsh side Wrexham, La Liga’s Villarreal and a handful of popular semi-professional teams such as the UK’s Hashtag United, who rose to prominence via YouTube.
Last year’s tournament was won by La Bombonera, a club composed largely of players from the indoor Major Arena Soccer League. Indoor players are widely used in the tournament.
The tournament has a history of featuring high-profile players like Lloyd post-retirement; former Manchester United and Portugal winger Nani, ex Manchester City and Argentina striker Sergio Aguero and a host of others will feature in this year’s competition.
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(Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
