Carli Lloyd doubles down on USWNT 2023 World Cup criticism

Carli Lloyd is not backing down from her criticisms of the U.S. Women’s National Team.

Tuesday morning, after the U.S. escaped its match against Portugal with a goalless tie to advance past the World Cup group stage, Lloyd lit into the team for dancing like it had earned a hard-fought victory as opposed to skating by the skin of its teeth.

“I have never witnessed something like that. There’s a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family,” Lloyd said on the Fox Sports studio show. 

“But to be dancing, to be smiling. I mean, the player of the match was that post. You were lucky to not be going home right now.”

Later, she spoke to Fox Sports digital reporter Martin Rogers and reaffirmed her dismay with how the players are carrying themselves.

Lloyd asserted that the USWNT’s opponents can sense that they are arrogant and beatable.

“I spoke up in that room, and I told them that you can’t take anything for granted — you have to work for everything that you get,” Lloyd said.

“I just talked about what the mentality of this team has been about and passed down from generation to generation. But the problem is when you win, and you get things, winning has taken on a different meaning.

“It is no longer we want to win because we want to win. No, we want everything that comes with winning, and we think we can just roll out and win games. And that’s not the case, and teams see that. They see the arrogance in the U.S. and see that they’re not this unstoppable team. They see that they’re able to be broken down and beaten.”

Lloyd, who played for the USWNT from 2005-21 and was part of two World Cup championship teams, said she’s always going to have feelings about the team that she spent a significant chunk of her life with.

“I am always going to care,” Lloyd said.

“That was 17 years of my life and … it gave me everything in my life. 

“It just hurts me. It hurt me at the end of my career, those last couple of years to see the change and the shift in that culture and in that mentality.

“That hurt me to leave seeing what was coming.”