EAST HARTFORD, Conn. -- U.S. Soccer honored former national team goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher on Sunday at Pratt & Whitney Stadium, a short drive from where she grew up, for a career that included two World Cup titles and an Olympic gold medal.
"I've been incredibly blessed to have the career that I had and to be able to come back and celebrate it tonight, I hope that people can remember the career as being a good teammate, as somebody who left the game better than I started it," Naeher told reporters in the player tunnel before the United States played Portugal in a friendly.
Naeher said she had over 150 friends and family in attendance, including 12 of her Chicago Stars teammates who flew in for the match and tailgated with the Naeher family. She received a boisterous, standing ovation from the crowd as she was presented with a goalkeeper jersey with the No. 115 on it, representing her number of international appearances.
Naeher retired from international play last year after leading the team to the Olympic gold medal. She was the USWNT's starting goalkeeper in its 2019 World Cup triumph.
"Her perseverance is second to none," said USWNT head coach Emma Hayes, who coached Naeher in the final year of her international career. "Her ability to dedicate to giving to this team, even sometimes without getting a game -- the goalkeepers always feel that the most. She is a real testament to those things."
Naeher, 37, retired from international play last year but continued to play for the Chicago Stars, who have been her NWSL club since 2016. She signed a one-year contract to stay with Chicago for the 2025 season.
On Sunday, Naeher was noncommittal about her future at the club level.
"I'm just gonna play on Sunday [in Chicago's final game of the year] like I've done for the past eight years," she said. "I'll make a decision at the end of the year."
Naeher ranks third in USWNT history in goalkeeper caps, wins and shutouts behind only Hope Solo and Briana Scurry. Naeher is the only goalkeeper in women's soccer history to earn a shutout in both a World Cup final and an Olympic final.
Her star-kick save against Germany in the dying seconds of the USWNT's semifinal victory at last year's Olympics is one of Hayes' fondest memories of the gold-medal run.
"We can talk about Mal [Swanson] and Trin [Rodman] and Soph [Wilson] finding game-winners last year," Hayes said on Saturday. "That is the one moment that stands out in my head about winning a gold medal, that save by Alyssa Naeher.
"And that is why to have the best goalkeeping behaviors for this team, you have to be ready for that moment, and that just sums her up. We miss her character, absolutely. You see how challenging that is to get to those levels, but what a role model she has been for everyone."
Hayes has searched for a new No. 1 goalkeeper for the past year since Naeher's retirement. The USWNT coach praised Naeher for working hard even when she was the third-string goalkeeper on the team and didn't earn a minute of game action over a decade ago.
Naeher offered that perseverance as a lesson for the next generation.
"Consistency to be able to find the type of goalkeeper that you want to be, find your strengths and play to them," Naeher said. "Obviously, it depends on how the coach wants to play as well in style and how they can best fit. It's been really fun to watch all the goalkeepers come through and it's going to be really exciting for the next year or two ahead of the World Cup."