Carli Lloyd says she has thought often over the past two weeks why her commentary about the U.S. women’s national team at the World Cup prompted so much attention. Sitting in her hotel room in Sydney, a couple of hours prior to covering Spain’s 2-1 win semifinal over Sweden in her now-familiar role as a studio analyst for Fox Sports, Lloyd offered her perspective.
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“This wasn’t anything that was scripted,” Lloyd told The Athletic Tuesday morning over the phone from Australia. “This was a reaction to what I was seeing, what I was feeling, what came from my heart. I poured my heart and soul into this team for 17 years. I came into (the USWNT) not understanding how hard you have to work and learned how hard from the players that had come before me who instilled that mentality and DNA within the team. If I was going to stay on the main team, I had to work hard every single day. It’s probably one of the most unhealthy environments someone could place themselves in but one of the most rewarding as well, and I would do it over again in a heartbeat.
“I was at the tail end of what I saw was a regression with the team, which wasn’t good enough in Tokyo (at the Olympics, where the U.S. took bronze). The team was disjointed, was not a unit, and the coaching was not what this team needed. So I saw this, I felt this, I experienced this. I wasn’t truly confident in this team winning the World Cup. That’s not because of the lack of talent or the lack of players wanting to win. Every player wants to win. But there are certain steps and processes that you have to go through in order to win. There’s a certain formula that a championship team has.
“So I think maybe I was the only one brave enough to say it how it is,” Lloyd continued. “I’ve always been somebody that is blunt, that’s honest, that maybe comes across to the media as being selfish, arrogant, all these words that I’ve heard about me. And that’s been pretty wild to hear because it’s really not true. I think there’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and I just saw this team go in a direction where the values that were built and instilled in this team is not what was displayed out at this World Cup.”
The archetype for a standout analyst in sports television is someone who combines a Hall of Fame playing career, an engaging style that lets viewers in, and noteworthy commentary that gets people talking. (Charles Barkley would be the exemplar.) Lloyd’s soccer resume speaks for itself — 316 caps (second most in history), two World Cup victories (2015 and 2019), two Olympic gold medals (2008 and 2012), and two-time FIFA Player of The Year (2015 and 2016), among many other honors. Only Abby Wambach and Mia Hamm have more career goals for the national team than Lloyd, who scored 134 between 2005 and 2021.
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David Neal, the longtime executive producer of Fox’s World Cup coverage, believed Lloyd could be a breakout on-air performer given her playing credentials and a propensity to be blunt with her opinion. While sports broadcasting was not something Lloyd planned on pursuing upon retiring from playing in 2021, Neal made repeated attempts to try to coax Lloyd to give television a shot. The answer was no multiple times. Lloyd said she didn’t want to cross the line from former player to commentator. But her agent, Josh Pyatt of WME, continued to pitch her on Fox, and particularly when an opportunity arose to get eight days of work during Fox’s World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
“The opportunity was to do the men’s World Cup, and I was nervous about it,” Lloyd said. “I didn’t consider myself necessarily knowledgeable on the men’s side. Of course, I know the game and all of that, but I was trying to talk myself out of it. I kind of hit the pause button on the idea, but my agent kept coming back to me saying, ‘You only retire once. Why don’t you give it a try?’ I said to myself that I’d always stepped out of my comfort zone as a player. I’ve always risked things on the field. If I wasn’t good at something, I just kept coming back for more. So I took that leap and worked eight straight days in Qatar and loved it. Loved the people I was working with and being part of Fox. It was really cool to kind of be part of a team again. Now here we are at the Women’s World Cup and I’m very thankful for David Neal being around (Neal is retiring after this World Cup). They had confidence in me, and if they didn’t push this hard, I may never have stepped into this world. I’m grateful.”
Prior to the tournament, Neal predicted to The Athletic that Lloyd would be the breakout on-air performer of his group. He could not have predicted, of course, how far and wide her comments about the USWNT would resonate. After the United States and Portugal’s scoreless draw on Aug. 1 — which secured the U.S. a spot in the knockout stage, barely — Lloyd offered pointed criticism as cameras showed players posing with fans and dancing after the draw.
"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
“Just seeing these images for the first time right now, at the desk. I have never witnessed something like that,” Lloyd said on air. “There’s a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family. But to be dancing? To be smiling? I mean, the player of the match was that post. You’re lucky to not be going home right now.”
This type of criticism is not new for anyone who has followed Lloyd’s Twitter feed and career at large, but these comments naturally blew up on social media and launched endless commentary on the commentary. There was understandable pushback from current members of the national team. Lloyd said she received a ton of messages, both public and private, thanking her for, in her words, telling it how it is. Among the public support was from NBC Premier League host Rebecca Lowe and Apple soccer analyst Taylor Twellman, both of whom offered strong sentiment for Lloyd on Twellman’s podcast.
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“I did speak the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts,” Lloyd said. “But it came from my heart. The world has caught up. I get that. But there’s no reason why we still can’t be at the top. But we have regressed so far down that there really is no gap. That’s what’s hard to swallow because the team has been built on legacies that have been passed down from generation to generation, and I simply didn’t like what I saw.”
There is a reasonable discussion to have on Lloyd’s comments during the tournament, as my colleagues Jeff Rueter and Steph Yang did. Personally, I think criticism of players taking photos and smiling after a draw is overwrought. Athletes are not bots. Human beings are complex figures with multiple ways to come down after sports. But I also think there was zero wrong with Lloyd expressing her views as a former star player turned analyst charged with offering opinions. She has insight 99.9 percent of us do not have. Watch her clips during the World Cup. It’s not kayfabe. She’s not being performative. This is her. (I will note as someone who has watched a ton of World Cup coverage over the years, from ESPN to Fox to TSN, Lloyd was tougher on the U.S. performance in Australia/New Zealand than Fox has ever been on human rights issues in Qatar or Russia.)
Lloyd unquestionably wants the U.S. to do well and has said so. Understanding that, I asked her if she felt the U.S. team crashing out in the Round of 16 gave her criticism more validity.
“If they did well and went on to win a World Cup, I’d be deemed as I don’t know what I’m talking about,” Lloyd said. “I was very vocal two years ago when I exited and talked about the culture and the lack of respect that had been there amongst the team. It’s not everybody, right? But you have to have everybody on the same page. I was very vocal and got trashed. I was vocal before the tournament when people asked me who is going to win the World Cup, and I honestly said, I don’t know if the U.S. can win it. I mean, on paper they can potentially win it. But there’s more that goes into that.
“I’m not looking to be deemed, ‘Carli Lloyd was right in everything that she said.’ I’m in a position to speak the truth and analyze. I’m the one that has been immersed in it. I have a different perspective than the media and the fans and other people that are just viewing this team. I played with a number of these players that wrapped up the World Cup. I’m not looking to be right. I’m just looking to help the programs continue to be at the top. As much as you don’t want to see something crash down, sometimes when things crash down and explode, it’s the moment to rebuild and get this program back.”
As the tournament winds down, with the Australia-England semifinal on Wednesday and the final on Sunday (both at 6 a.m. ET), Lloyd said she has loved the experience and being onsite at the World Cup. She feels like she is growing into a role as a broadcaster and wants to continue to get reps. Lloyd is not contracted for any Fox Sports assignments beyond this tournament, but her agent is undoubtedly going to hear from Fox Sports management.
“I’ve enjoyed every bit of this,” Lloyd said. “The best thing I can do is just continue to put myself out there in those uncomfortable situations because ultimately that’s how I’ll learn and grow and evolve. I am definitely open to more future opportunities. I think I’m getting my groove with it a bit and really kind of liking it.”
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USWNT's World Cup loss carries far-reaching implications
Episode 325 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features three guests: First up is Men in Blazers co-founder Roger Bennett and USWNT midfielder and podcaster Sam Mewis, who have combined forces with USWNT center back Becky Sauerbrunn to broadcast on Twitch during the Women’s World Cup. The two will be live on the Men In Blazers Twitch feed for the Women’s World Cup semifinals and final. This podcast features Bennett and Mewis discussing how they approach a second-screen experience for soccer fans; Mewis on watching the WWC coverage this month and how that differed from how she consumed media as a player; the next evolution of Men In Blazers; Mewis’ post-playing interest in working in the media, and more.
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Also featured is Rustin Dodd of The Athletic, who discusses his new book with Mark Dent, “Kingdom Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs, and How a Once Swingin’ Cow Town Chased the Ultimate Comeback”; the roots of Kansas City and how it is Everytown USA; why Mahomes has succeeded; how Dodd views Mahomes historically; why Kansas City is unique as a sports town; why Dodd sees Mahomes as similar to Steph Curry; and more.
You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more.
Australia’s win over France drew an average audience of 4.23 million Australians, via measurement company OzTAM. The viewership number increased to 4.9 million viewers during penalty kicks. The Sydney Morning Herald said it was the most-watched sporting event in Australia since Cathy Freeman’s 400-meter final at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. (The numbers do not include out-of-home viewership, which means the actual number is higher than any estimated measurement.) Australia’s population is 26 million.
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Linehan: This World Cup's anti-USWNT outrage isn't just hateful, it's irrational
(Photo: Harold Cunningham – FIFA / FIFA via Getty Images)
