Burlington County native Carli Lloyd is back in south Jersey, following an astounding performance at the Olympic women's soccer finals in London.

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The 30 year-old Delran midfielder and Rutgers graduate scored both U.S. goals, leading them to a 2-1 victory against Japan.

She also scored the winning goal against Brazil in Beijing four years ago.

"Its still all a blur to me really, but its something I will never forget" said Lloyd, as she met with a group of kids at the Universal Soccer Academy in Lumberton, where she used to train.

"It was incredible, there was just something about this team and this run that we had" she said.

A run, that she says, was an uphill battle.

"To win six games, to be in that epic Canada game where we nearly almost didn't finish out, we came back three different times, it was amazing."

On Tuesday, a day after she reunited with her family and friends, she came back to her old stomping grounds on the soccer field.

"Reuniting with her was great, she looked at me with a big smile and said 'we did it'. She trained really hard for 36 hours a day, almost seven days a week" said her personal trainer and friend James Galanis. "I am really happy for her."

Lloyd hopes she can inspire other women to go for their dreams.

"I hope I can be a good role model for girls that are playing soccer that this is possible and with hard work and dedication they can get where I am someday."

There's no downtime for the two-time Olympic gold medalist. After some rest and relaxation, Lloyd hits the road for a ten game victory tour across the country with the U.S. women's team and then its back to training for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

"I am going to keep going, I am going to train even harder and then hopefully be in the next World Cup and the next Olympics."

 

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