Carli Lloyd is now backing down from her criticisms of the US Women’s National Team.
After the US 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.
“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 Wednesday, the USWNT legend wanted to make it clear that her criticism of the team comes from a place of love and wanting only the best for the USWNT.
“I was very critical of the team last night,” Lloyd said on Fox. “I’ve had some time to reflect, to sleep on it, and I want people to understand that I care deeply about this team.”
Several people within the soccer community took issue with Lloyd’s comments.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral Soccer stories via Google! Follow Us
After his team’s draw, her former coach, Vlatko Andonovski was told about her comments and called them “insane.”
“The one thing I want to say is that this team wanted to win this game more than anything else,” he said. “They’ve put everything they could in preparation for this tournament and every game that they go into, so to question the mentality of this team, to question the willingness to win, to compete, I think it’s insane.
“I’ve never seen this team step on the field and not try hard or not compete,” he continued. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, they can say whatever they want, but I just know how this team feels. It’s not like we played well by any means. We owned it. We know it’s not good enough. We’re not happy with our performance, but we qualified for the next round. We’re moving on.”
Although the draw sent the U.S. to the Round of 16, the team failed to silence any doubt that crept up on the two-time defending World Cup champions from the previous two matches. Those games were a 3-0 win over Vietnam and a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands.
Lloyd played for the USWNT from 2005-21 and was part of two World Cup championship teams.
The 41-year-old played 100 matches for the U.S. team from 2007-21 before retiring after the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. She scored 51 goals during her international career, including 10 in four Olympic competitions and 10 in four World Cups.
