List of United States women's national soccer team hat-tricks
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The United States women's national soccer team played their first international soccer match on August 18, 1985, losing to Italy 1–0 at the 1985 Mundialito.[1] Since that first match, 28 U.S. international players have scored a hat-trick (three goals or more in a game).[2][3] The first player to accomplish the feat was Carin Jennings, who had three goals against Japan on June 1, 1988.[4] Nine players have scored five goals in a game: Michelle Akers, Brandi Chastain, Crystal Dunn, Sydney Leroux, Carli Lloyd, Tiffany Milbrett, Alex Morgan, Amy Rodriguez, and Abby Wambach.[5][6][7] Four-goal performances have been achieved by seven players; Wambach and Mia Hamm each did so twice.[2] Multiple American players scored three goals or more in the same match on June 2, 2000, against Canada (Milbrett and Cindy Parlow);[8] September 8, 2002, against Scotland (Hamm and Wambach);[9] January 20, 2012, against the Dominican Republic (Rodriguez and Heather O'Reilly;[10] and December 18, 2014, against Argentina (Lloyd and Christen Press).[11]
The record for the most international hat-tricks by a U.S. women's national team player is 10, by Hamm; she scored three goals in a match eight times, along with her two four-goal games.[2] Lloyd has nine hat-tricks; her ninth came in a 9–0 win against Paraguay on September 17, 2021, which was her five-goal performance.[7] Parlow and Wambach each had eight hat-tricks. Along with one four-goal match, Parlow scored three goals on seven occasions. Wambach had three-goal efforts in five games, in addition to her three matches with four or five goals.[2] Akers follows with seven hat-tricks, while Morgan has six. Milbrett and Press each have four hat-tricks.[2][6][12] The most recent U.S. women's national team hat-trick was recorded by Sophia Smith, who had three goals in a 9–1 win against Uzbekistan on April 9, 2022.[13]
U.S. players have scored hat-tricks in the FIFA Women's World Cup four times.[14] Akers' five-goal performance came in the quarterfinals of the 1991 World Cup against Chinese Taipei, in a 7–0 U.S. victory. She set the record for the most goals scored in a Women's World Cup match.[15] In the semifinals of the 1991 tournament, Jennings posted a hat-trick as the U.S. won 5–2 over Germany.[16] At the 2015 World Cup final against Japan, Lloyd scored three goals inside of the first 16 minutes of an eventual 5–2 U.S. win; her performance was punctuated by her final goal, a right-footed strike from the halfway line.[17] Morgan matched Akers' record at the 2019 World Cup with five goals in the first group stage game for the U.S., a 13–0 rout of Thailand.[6]
Three players have recorded hat-tricks against the U.S. national team. At the 2001 Algarve Cup, Ragnhild Gulbrandsen of Norway scored three times in her country's 4–3 win over the American side.[18] Eleven years later, Christine Sinclair of Canada became the second player to score a hat-trick against the U.S., as she tallied three goals in the 2012 Olympic semifinals.[19] Despite Sinclair's efforts, the U.S. defeated Canada 4–3 en route to winning the gold medal.[20] In 2014, Marta accounted for all of Brazil's goals in a 3–2 victory against the U.S. at the International Women's Football Tournament of Brasília.[21]