LYON, France — Walking through the quiet streets of France’s third-largest city on Sunday morning, Alex Morgan felt right at home.

It had been more than two years since Morgan — the United States women’s national team headliner who will lead her squad into Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal here against England — had visited Lyon, but it didn’t take long for the memories to come flooding back.

Morgan played for Olympique Lyonnais in 2017, helping perhaps the best club in all of women’s soccer win the UEFA Champions League title that spring. And although she wasn’t there for long — just six months on loan before returning to her NWSL club, Orlando Pride — it’s clear that the experience left a lasting impression on the 29-year-old striker.

“This city is beautiful and one that I spent a lot of time in alone, by myself, because I didn’t have my husband, I was new to the team,” a smiling Morgan said during the pre-match press conference at the 59,000-seat Stade de Lyon, the home arena of Olympique Lyonnais.

“So being able to explore this morning was, I think, a good emotional break from soccer for an hour and just helped me remember some of the important times of how I progressed my game and was able to evolve as a player.”

The fruits of that evolution have been on full display at France 2019. Morgan helped the USWNT win its record third World Cup title four years ago, but she entered that tournament having just returned from an injury, coming on as a sub in the Americans’ first two games and scoring just once in seven appearances in Canada.

This time, she looks like a different player. She’s healthy, despite being battered by opposing defenses. She has five goals, tied for the tournament lead with teammate Megan Rapinoe and England’s Ellen White (and Sam Kerr of already-eliminated Australia). And she’s more versatile, more adept at doing all the little and unglamorous things — drawing fouls, holding the ball for her teammates, closing space and passing lanes defensively when the other team has possession — that top strikers must to help their teams be successful against elite foes.

USWNT standout Alex Morgan played in Lyon, the site of Tuesday's World Cup semifinal against England, in 2017. (Christopher Lee/Getty) More

Many of those skills were honed during her time in Lyon.

“I think I was able to really dive in as football was my one-and-only here,” said Morgan, whose spouse, journeyman MLS midfielder Servando Carrasco, had just begun his season with Orlando City at the time. “I didn’t have family here, I didn’t have anybody to really lean on. I lived by myself. I came here, I trained. I ate, breathed, slept soccer.”

European club teams are scrambling to up their investment in the women’s game — Real Madrid, the third-most valuable sports team on the planet according to Forbes, recently announced plans to start a women’s team — and that trend will only accelerate after fans tuned into television broadcasts of this World Cup in record numbers across the continent. Olympique Lyonnais was ahead of the curve.

“Obviously this club is world-class in terms of the facilities, the stadium,” Morgan said. And the level of play wasn’t too shabby, either.

“We had a lot of games in a short period of time in the league, the French Cup and the Champions League,” she said. “I was able to maximize those six months. I think my evolution as a player grew a little bit here, because I was able to focus on a different style of play and was also used in different ways: as a classic ‘nine’ role and as a leader.”

“So I was able to learn from that,” added Morgan, who captained her country in last week’s big quarterfinal win over France. “And then obviously playing with some of the best players in the world, the training environment was the best it can possibly be besides playing with the U.S.”

As much as Morgan is enjoying her return, this is no vacation. It’s strictly a business trip. But with Lyon also the site of Sunday’s World Cup final, she’s hoping for an extended stay.

“Just coming to this city made me so happy,” she said. “Being at the stadium for the first time in two years brings back such great memories”

There could be greater ones still to come.

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