The sun was still sleeping early Monday morning in Greece, but James Galanis had been awake for hours, sitting in his hotel room in a state of euphoric shock.
Roughly 30 minutes had passed since the United States’ 5-2 World Cup championship win over Japan in Vancouver, where Galanis’ pupil and protege, Carli Lloyd, scored an unprecedented three first-half goals — the longtime national starter becoming an all-time national hero.
Half a globe from Galanis, Lloyd called to thank her longtime coach and trainer from atop the world.
“I said to her, ‘What are you doing?’ and she said, ‘Not much. Just winning World Cups,’ ” Galanis told The Post on Monday. “Then she said, ‘I’m not stopping. This isn’t enough. I want more.’ That’s the type of player she is and that’s the type of mentality she has. That’s why she’s so special.”
When Galanis met Lloyd in 2003, he wasn’t sure she would ever reach her potential because she wasn’t even sure she wanted to continue playing.
After being cut from the U.S. under-21 team, Lloyd lost her passion for the game, telling her parents she would stop playing after her final year at Rutgers was over and would start looking for a job.
Convinced by her father to connect with Galanis months later, Lloyd worked out for the former Australian pro, who came away unimpressed with her physical conditioning and mental focus, a player filled with bad habits and easy excuses.
Still, Galanis saw a player with so much talent and a ceiling few could scrape, a player who just needed to commit to a two-way game and understand that sacrifices could produce the rewards she always sought.
“Even Carli didn’t believe it, but I saw the potential of a player who could go on and become the best player in the world,” said Galanis, the director of the Universal Soccer Academy in Medford, N.J. “She’s done some things over the course of the last 12 years that not many athletes would do, from sacrifices in her personal life to changes in her eating and sleeping habits, and never switched it off. She put in the work and I was happy to see her rewarded on the biggest stage in the biggest possible way.
“It’s a remarkable story, but I’m not surprised because she’s outworked every single soccer player on the planet.”
Leading the U.S. to its first World Cup title in 16 years while winning the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player, the 32-year-old midfielder and New Jersey native constructed moments that seemed impossible without witnessing and remain somewhat implausible even with proof.
In the opening 16 minutes of Sunday’s game, Lloyd achieved the quickest World Cup hat trick by a member of either gender and the first-ever three-goal game in the woman’s final, capping it with a remarkable 60-yard knockout punch. Having been held scoreless in the group stage, Lloyd finished the tournament by becoming the first American to score in four straight World Cup games, which included the game-winning goals in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
Lloyd, the only player in history to score gold-medal winning goals in consecutive Olympics (2008, 2012), plans to play at the 2019 World Cup in France, Galanis said. There, he believes, the end of her epic career will somehow be even more incredible than what the world just watched.
“As she’s getting older, she’s understanding the game more and her tactical awareness has evolved,” Galanis said. “She keeps getting stronger physically and she’s only stronger mentally. She’s still got a lot of years left in her.
“The best of Carli is yet to come.”