Carli Lloyd agreed with the assertion that the United States Women’s National Team is losing a dearth of talent from a certain generational block of players, which includes Megan Rapinoe, Julie Ertz and maybe even the likes of Kelly O’Hara, Alex Morgan and Alyssa Naeher, among others.
Lloyd, a national team legend herself, has been quite critical of the U.S. and its performance in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. After they were eliminated by Sweden in a penalty shootout Sunday, Lloyd used it as an opportunity to talk about what’s next for the national team on the set of Fox Sports in Melbourne.
“I think certainly after this performance and this result,” Lloyd said in response to a question from host Rob Stone. “The public and everyone has seen these players play over the last several decades, and it’s been a team full of winners and champions. And you can never get too comfortable with winning.
“And so this gonna be a really new identity. What is that going to look like? A new crop of players? The players that have been here will most likely be coming back. This is a whole moment to rebuild and I think this stems from the youth level. I don’t think this is necessarily something that just came to fruition now. This is deeper. This is at the youth level, developing players…This needs to be an entirety of a rebuild. And what is that new identity gonna look like? It’s going to be very interesting to see.”
It’s certainly a bold claim from Lloyd, who has never been shy to give her opinions as an analyst on Fox Sports. That’s become inherently clear over the past couple of weeks, let alone days. At the same, she has a point and we’ll likely see an entirely different team in 2024, let alone the 2027 World Cup roster.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.