Carli Lloyd Calls Out USWNT For Dancing After Portugal Letdown

Carli Lloyd is one of the most decorated players in United States soccer, and she echoed the frustration that many fans felt after Tuesday’s result against Portugal.

The United States was held to a scoreless draw in its Group E finale, but they are through to the knockout round with a likely matchup against Sweden on Sunday.

Throughout the team’s history, the U.S. has shown off its individual personalities and kept a personal connection to fans to help grow women’s soccer. But Alex Morgan and Crystal Dunn’s post-match dancing was a step too far for Lloyd.

“There’s a difference in being respectful to the fans and saying hello to your family,” Lloyd said on the FOX postgame show, per Awful Announcing video. “But to be dancing? To be smiling? The player of the match was that post.”

The last comment was in reference to Ana Capeta’s stoppage-time shot that went past goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and hit the post.

Lloyd admitted she had never seen that before. That’s probably because the United States has been the most dominant team in the world when she won two World Cups and two Olympic gold medals.

Two things can be true: The women’s game has grown to where more teams are competitive, and the United States has not played up to its full potential yet.

“The player of the match was that post.”

Lloyd on the poor performance from the USWNT

There certainly will be fans who will agree with Lloyd, who has been critical of the supposed loss of culture of the current team since she retired in 2021. Manager Vlatko Andonovski pushed back on the lack of passion Lloyd hinted at.

“The one thing I want to say is that this team wanted to win this game more than anything else,” Andonovski told reporters, per ESPN’s Caitlin Murray. “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. 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.”

Veteran and former teammate Kelley O’Hara echoed a similar sentiment to the team after the match.

Lloyd continuously preaches passion, tenacity and playing with “more heart” in her analysis as a commentator, and her comments Tuesday are an extension of that. But they also are reductive and don’t speak to the on-field issues that are the true problems with the United States.