American women’s soccer legend Carli Lloyd criticized her former teammates in a series of interviews this week, saying she “hates” the “culture” of the permanent power program.
Two-time gold medalist and a member of two World Cup winning teams, Lloyd told former teammate Hope Solo that she has struggled to enjoy playing in recent years.
“It’s been really tough and tough playing for the past seven years. To be completely honest, I’m totally honest,” Lloyd said on the ‘Hope Solo Speaks’ podcast. aired on wednesday.
“It wasn’t fun getting in. It was just for the love of the game, really, for me. I wanted to win and I wanted to help the team, but the culture inside the team was the worst I’ve ever seen.”
Lloyd made similar comments earlier in the week Alexey Lalas’ State of the Union podcast, By saying that there was a noticeable change in the program after winning the 2015 World Cup.
“What we’ve had in the past several years hasn’t been a good culture, and the mentality has changed, and it has become toxic,” I told Lalas. “It wasn’t good.”
When asked what changed after 2015, Lloyd made vague accusations of selfishness. She didn’t call anyone by name.
“I just saw a shift in people’s mindsets,” she said. “It becomes more about what I can do to build my brand out of the field? What can I do to get an endorsement deal and less about what we have to do when we step between those lines.”
But the women’s field team results appear to refute Lloyd’s critique of post-2015.
USA team Failed to win the medal at the 2016 Rio Olympicswho fell to Sweden in a thrilling penalty shootout in the quarter-finals.
But then the American woman He came back to win the World Cup in 2019 and before He won bronze in Tokyo last year. she Retired from the national team Shortly thereafter.
Lalas defended Lloyd’s right to express her opinion, but was distressed by the bitter fight within American football.
“I know CarliLloyd is an adult woman and can stand the gusto of saying some provocative things about @USWNT. But American football…we eat our food,” Lalas tweeted on Thursday.
Lloyd is famous for scoring three goals in the first 16 minutes of America’s victory over the team Japan in the 2015 World Cup Final.
Debates about who is the greatest player The history of American women’s football usually revolves around Lloyd, Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach.
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