At halftime of the U.S. women’s national team’s 0-0 draw against Portugal, it seemed as though Carli Lloyd had thoughts. As Fox’s broadcast returned from its post-whistle commercial break, the former USWNT star was seen mouthing “alright,” as if to prepare herself to get stuck in. Instead, her sole remark beyond the standard highlight narration was surprisingly curt.
“Not good enough,” Lloyd said. “There’s so much to unpack, I don’t think we have time to do that right now, but honestly not good enough. At all.”
The game didn’t resume for another nine minutes.
That television equivalent of pleading the fifth may not have been ill-advised. After all, this was the vaunted U.S. women’s national team they were talking about, a storied program that has proven to be routinely capable of beating the odds and pulling rabbits out of seemingly nonexistent hats.
Then the final whistle blew with the United States advancing from Group E by literal inches, and there was little reason for such a reserved approach. Especially as the players who succeeded Lloyd and many others from the four previous World Cup-winning rosters were shown smiling, dancing, and taking selfies with fans to celebrate reaching the knockout round at all, after one of the worst performances in program history.
“There’s a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family, but to be dancing and smiling…”@CarliLloyd on the USWNT after the match 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/38zm1eC76r
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) August 1, 2023
“I have never witnessed…” Lloyd began. “I’m just seeing these images for the first time right now, at the desk. I have never witnessed something like that. There’s a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family, but to be dancing? To be smiling? … You’re lucky to not be going home right now.”
The replies to the embedded tweet above show a range of reactions. Some applauded Lloyd for calling out the sequence, saying she was simply speaking the truth. Others emphasized the importance of thanking fans who may have traveled 8,000 miles or more while draining their savings to see that team, regardless of the result. Her biggest detractors were also out in spades, recalling how in the wake of the team’s 2019 win, she complained about her playing time.
As one replier put it, “Carli is the grumpy Roy Keane of women’s football.”
Perhaps that’s what’s needed in an American soccer broadcast landscape that often sees its pundits pull punches to not belittle the on-field product. Perhaps it’s a reach too far given the ex-player involved. You can watch the full three-minute segment for yourself if you’re still on the fence.
Regardless, your view Lloyd’s reaction is likely informed by how you felt about her playing career, which in total left one of the most complicated legacies among the program’s true icons.
Lloyd and Julie Ertz in 2020 (Getty Images)
Every hero and every villain has an origin story; the ongoing boom of superhero movies has made that painfully clear for over a decade. Lloyd’s took place 20 years ago.
In 2003, U.S. Under-21 coach Chris Petrucelli cut Lloyd from the team ahead of that year’s Nordic Cup, a now-defunct U-21 women’s tournament which was among the most competitive of its kind at the time. He gave her a number of reasons why she wasn’t making the team, but he told her one thing that seems unimaginable now: that she didn’t work hard enough. Offered a choice between quitting and going all-in, she changed her entire life in pursuit of greatness. As Lloyd herself laid out in her memoir, she started training with local New Jersey coach James Galanis, which deepened a rift with those closest to her, that culminated in Lloyd leaving the family home.
“I think what people don’t understand is to reach the heights that I have, I almost had to be emotionless,” Lloyd told The Athletic ahead of her retirement as a player in 2021. “I mean, maybe I didn’t have to, but it was sort of fight or flight mode. I didn’t want anything to derail me. I almost didn’t have feelings, even amongst my rift with my family. I was just kind of numb to a lot of things.”
Among the biggest sources of ire was the written media. Lloyd acknowledged a disdain for writers who would tell “her story” from their perspective without bothering to get her own voice involved in the framing. She felt that “everybody was trying to drag me down,” as she told Meg Linehan in that interview, but was ultimately thankful for the adversity it provided her.
GO DEEPER
USWNT problems run deeper than disappointing World Cup group stage
Her on-field performances speak for themselves in collective hindsight. Only Kristine Lilly amassed more caps for the United States than Lloyd’s 316; only Abby Wambach and Mia Hamm topped her tally of 134 goals. While distribution wasn’t the calling card of her career, only Hamm, Lilly, Wambach and Megan Rapinoe logged more assists than her 64. On top of that, she won two World Cups (including an iconic Golden Ball-winning performance in 2015), two Olympic gold medals and a FIFA World Player of the Year award. If she isn’t on the Mount Rushmore of USWNT program history, she certainly has her own shrine nearby.
The competitive drive that led her to those heights also occasionally found her at odds with fans, coaches, and teammates. Comments about being a super-sub at the 2019 World Cup irked some fans who simultaneously couldn’t identify who she would have replaced in the lineup, although one would suspect it was Alex Morgan given their similar position. Lloyd featured in all seven matches, with her sole start coming in the group stage against Chile.
“I’m not going to lie and sugarcoat it,” Lloyd said in a podcast with ESPN after the tournament. “It was absolutely the worst time of my life. It affected my relationship with my husband, with friends. It really was rock bottom of my entire career.”
Her critics will also point to a book tour she went on in the fall of 2016 which coincided with the Houston Dash’s playoff push, keeping her with a decidedly split-focus despite being the club’s cornerstone.
“I have every sponsor knocking on the door, every appearance opportunity — how can I not take advantage of that?” she told The Athletic upon reflection in 2021. “If I look back now, and I decided to turn down all of those things, I would not be in a position right now to have a future, to have savings.
“All I wanted was for someone to call me or interview me and ask, ‘What’s your life been like?’ instead of attacking me. There’s just always been this perception of me that I’m selfish, I’m a terrible person, I’m hard to manage, I’m uncoachable, I’m this, I’m that. But everything you guys are saying is the total opposite of what I am. But no one’s asked.”
Lloyd had a big impact as a sub in the 2019 World Cup (Catherine Ivill – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
She also expressed frustration with players using their platform to express personal viewpoints, like when Megan Rapinoe knelt during the national anthem. “It is a distraction,” she said at the time, “We’re professionals and it’s our job to go out there and perform regardless of what is happening, and that’s what we’re going to do tonight. We’re going to make it about soccer.”
For Lloyd, it was the game or nothing, and big, important things got lost in that filter.
Ultimately, any criticism only further fueled her as she entered the final chapter of her playing career. It’s possible that in her current position, Lloyd may think that her criticism of the 2023 roster may similarly help them get back to their best. After all, even her staunchest critics could never deny that she loved playing for the United States.
“My cousin once said I’m like an egg; I’m hard on the outside but really soft on the inside,” Lloyd told The Athletic in 2022. “I don’t think that people have ever seen that side of me. Maybe just towards the end of my career when I was getting emotional, but that’s exactly who I am. My game face is on when you see me in training or game mode but, deep down, I get emotional.”
Of course, her longtime disdain for the media now seems quite ironic given her talking head role. She’s also a frequent part of FIFA’s pageantry, serving as one of the hosts of the 2022 World Cup draw in Qatar. To have someone who so often bridled against the noise surrounding the game join the chorus of voices is, in a way, rather odd.
Every.Single.Word. Thanks @CarliLloyd @AriHingst @AlexiLalas @RobStoneONFOX We cheer, but we can’t be cheerleaders….(I missed the post game last night. thankfully)
‘The player of that match was that post’ – Carli Lloyd on USWNT celebrat… https://t.co/V2jefceDi1 via @YouTube
— Tony Meola (@TMeola1) August 1, 2023
And in another way, for somebody whose entire career was driven by the commitment to hard work, it’s perfectly in character.
No doubt, she’ll see the reaction to her statements, positive and negative alike. For the newest voice among Fox’s gallery of World Cup pundits, it may be a similarly informing moment in her latest pursuit.
“You know, at the end of the day, we’re all human. I’m human,” she told The Athletic in 2021. “Words hurt, I see things, I hear things. But I mean, it motivated me. I was always self-motivated, but it motivated me even more. So I’m kind of oddly thankful that everybody was trying to drag me down, because it allowed me to find levels that I never even knew I could accomplish.”
(Photo: WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)
#Carli #Lloyds #USWNT #criticism #natural #extension #exacting #public #persona
