Retiring American women’s football star Megan Rapinoe has at least one more match before her iconic career concludes.
Veronica Latsko’s header in the 87th minute gave Rapinoe’s OL Reign a 1-0 victory over visiting Angel City on Friday in a National Women’s Soccer League quarter-final match.
Latsko took a cross from fellow American Phoebe McClernon in the heart of the box and nodded the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal to deliver the triumph.
As a result, Rapinoe’s Seattle-based squad advanced to the semi-finals at top seed San Diego on November 5.
“Once the second half started, we began to play with more intensity and we got the goal, even though it took a little longer than we wanted,” Rapinoe said.
Rapinoe, who announced this year it would be her final season, received an ovation as she was removed late in second-half stoppage time from her final home match, played before 12,152 people at Lumen Field.
“To win the last one, play in front of another incredible crowd, I tried to hold back the tears,” Rapinoe said.
“To end my career here in Seattle on such a high note means the world to me. Thank you Veronica for that.”
The 38-year-old striker, celebrated for off-field activism as well as her success on the pitch, ended her epic US national team career last month with 63 goals in 203 caps over more than 17 years, playing in a farewell match at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
Rapinoe sparked the Americans to crowns at the 2015 and 2019 Women’s World Cups and gold at the 2012 London Olympics, and has been a champion for social causes as well.
A vocal advocate for LGBTQ rights who has supported an array of US social justice issues, Rapinoe was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s top civilian award, in 2022 by President Joe Biden.
Rapinoe, FIFA’s 2019 Women’s Player of the Year, also was among the leaders of the US women’s successful fight with US Soccer for equal pay and conditions with the men’s squad.
