The Turning Point, a Marlton, New Jersey, brunch spot, is an homage to its state. On one wall, a canvas print trumpets Garden State cities -- Marlton! Hoboken! Manalapan! -- in block letters. On another, black-and-white photographs showcase local landmarks in sharp relief. And squirreled away in a booth in the back, the reigning FIFA Women's World Player of the Year, a New Jersey product herself, picks at a pesto infusion skillet, pondering the match that she says "changed everything."

Last summer Carli Lloyd scored three times in the first 16 minutes of the World Cup final against Japan, the fastest hat trick in World Cup history by a man or a woman. Now, seven months later, she recalls her third goal -- an improbable 54-yard kick from midfield -- with assuredness and bemusement.

"When I got the ball at midfield, I took a touch. I looked up and saw the keeper off her line. I took another touch to prep. I just hit it. As perfect as could be. When it came off my foot, I knew it was perfect."

Then she laughs. It was a play that could never go right, except on the one day when nothing could go wrong.

Lloyd finally stepped to the forefront of women's soccer on that afternoon in July, but here, at the Turning Point, she practically recedes into the background. She is not Serena Williams, granite sculpture of biceps and triceps. She is not Ronda Rousey, bulk and power. At 5-foot-8, her hair piled into a messy bun, and sporting an unremarkable all-black warm-up suit, she could just as easily be your fitness-conscious roommate as a World Cup Golden Ball winner. Lloyd grew up about 10 miles north in Delran, is engaged to her high school boyfriend, Brian Hollins, and still calls South Jersey home. But when the waitress swings by the table to offer refills, she does not seem to realize she is sharing the room with the best women's soccer player in the world.

"The thing is," Lloyd goes on, "those 16 minutes were 13 years of hard, hard work."

So call the prayer from midfield a happy accident if you like. Just don't call Lloyd one. She is, she'll tell you, more than the sum total of those 960 seconds. And she is over being overlooked for all that came before.

"I have scored some big-time goals," Lloyd says, almost defiantly. "I've done well in Algarve Cups. I've done well in World Cup and Olympic qualifiers, Olympics. In big games when we're playing top-five teams. But yet you never see my face or my name out there. And it has frustrated me my entire career."

It seems implausible that Lloyd, now 33, could ever fly under the radar. Since making her national team debut nearly 11 years ago, she has become the team's most prolific scoring midfielder ever, a remarkable 69 international goals coming from center mid. She has started 24 of 25 matches in the past two World Cups and two Olympics combined, and her 222 caps ranks eighth in U.S. women's national team history. And yet, after the 5-2 World Cup win over Japan, U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati declared that generations of fans had a "new hero" in Lloyd, giving voice to the idea that her hat trick, the first in a women's final, represented a breakthrough for the veteran. Indeed, just after that long ball arced its way from midfield toward Japanese keeper Ayumi Kaihori, beneath the collective jubilation was a prevailing puzzlement.

Finally. And then: What took her so long?

THE CHASM BETWEEN Lloyd's appraisal of her career pre-2015 World Cup and the referendum offered by outside observers makes the Grand Canyon look fun-size in scale. She was either the national team's most effective contributor the three years prior, or a turnover-prone, shoot-first-pass-much-much-later liability. She was its most consistent grinder, or its most inconsistent playmaker. She was clutch personified, or choker incarnate. So when Gulati dubbed Lloyd a "new hero" last summer, it made both perfect sense, and none whatsoever.

Gulati now says that starring in a game of that magnitude would make anyone a new hero, regardless of prior work. "A performance like that changes things," he says. Still, last summer was not the first time Lloyd dabbled in big-game heroics: In 2008 and 2012, she scored the Olympic gold game winners. "If there was any doubt from 2008 and on, there is no doubt that from 2012 until today she has been the most impactful player on the team," says James Galanis, Lloyd's longtime personal coach.

I've kept to myself, I've put my head down, I've gone to work. And I have felt undervalued. - Carli Lloyd

Yet right up until the round of 16 in last year's World Cup, when the U.S. emerged with a 2-0 victory over Colombia, there was a small but insistent call for Lloyd's outright removal from the starting 11. "There were some analysts, co-analysts of mine in the studio, saying that she should be benched in the World Cup," says former USWNT coach Tony DiCicco, now a broadcaster for Fox Sports. In fairness, in all the ways Lloyd was transcendent in the knockout round -- she scored six of the team's 10 goals in those four matches -- she was pedestrian in the group stage. She would come on, and explode, only when midfielder Lauren Holiday's yellow-card suspension gave way to Morgan Brian's insertion into the lineup, moving Lloyd back up to her natural attacking position. Lloyd's tournament was a microcosm of the ways she has both dazzled and confounded for years.

"Carli ... she's an interesting player," DiCicco says. "[A few years ago] there would be moments of greatness surrounded by mediocrity." She'd make errant pass after errant pass. She'd force shots instead of slipping the ball through. "Then she'd have a moment of greatness again," he continues, "and you'd say, 'Mmm, there's some genius in this player.'"

So is the question what took her so long? Or what took everyone else so long? For Lloyd, the answer is simple: She is not a late bloomer. She is a casualty of late-blooming recognition. "Way late," in her words.

"I'm not going to go and pose for a swimsuit edition because that'll just ruin my reputation right off the bat," Lloyd says, picking up steam. "So I guess what I'm getting at is, you know, it's just really been about how many jerseys they can sell. I've kept to myself, I've put my head down, I've gone to work. And I have felt undervalued."

She doesn't utter Alex Morgan by name, but the reference feels like an unspoken presence. Despite logging 13,943 minutes in international play before 2015, it took the World Cup for Lloyd to land a rash of big sponsorships -- Comcast, United Airlines, EA Sports, Whole Foods. The 26-year-old Morgan, by contrast, skyrocketed to fame, scoring more goals (41) in her first three years than any other U.S. player, landing knee-deep in endorsements almost immediately and posing for Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue twice. "It's funny to me," U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo says. "People don't always turn their heads, because she's not in swimsuits and she's not posting on social media. But, you know, people should have known about Carli for a lot longer than 2015 and beyond."

In some ways, her fame was a product of her circumstances. She shared the field with scene-stealers in now-retired Abby Wambach, then Morgan, and for a long spell, both. Even her prowess in back-to-back Olympics had a short shelf life. "She scored two winning goals in the Olympics; those were terrific goals, two gold medals, but it didn't resonate in the same way as this World Cup did," Gulati says. "The Olympics are different because it's a multisport event, so you're not the only one onstage, so to speak."

But what one person sees as circumstances, another can see as oversight. Lloyd would look up at the JumboTron to see a promotion for an upcoming game but would never see a photo of herself as the selling point. And one source close to the U.S. team recalls going to the federation's online store before the 2015 Women's World Cup to look for a Carli Lloyd jersey, only to find noncustom options limited to Wambach, Morgan and Sydney Leroux. "Even within our own federation, she hasn't been pushed to the forefront," the source says. "That says a lot in terms of what we valued."

Says Galanis: "She's been a hero over and over again. But U.S. Soccer has failed to recognize that. Over and over again."