Carli Lloyd: Opponents can 'see the arrogance in the U.S.'

Carli Lloyd’s comments were a long time coming. Long before the United States came within a post’s width of being dumped from the Women’s World Cup, she saw things changing for the worse.

Long before, years even, before she ripped into the team during FOX’s postgame show following its demoralizing 0-0 draw with Portugal on Tuesday, Lloyd was mad at what she was seeing from the national team.

So, when the World Cup and Olympic gold medal-winning icon spoke out in the aftermath of a tepid display that saw the USWNT outplayed by Portugal — the world's No. 21 team and a World Cup debutant — it wasn’t a talking head sounding off for either attention or impact.

It wasn’t a gratuitous shot from the safety of the studio, or because she wishes she was still out there. It sure as heck wasn’t because of any sense of disloyalty to the program and everything it stands for.

It was because she cares.

"I am always going to care," Lloyd told me in a telephone interview a few hours after the USA result. "That was 17 years of my life and … it gave me everything in my life. 

"It just hurts me. It hurt me at the end of my career, those last couple of years to see the change and the shift in that culture and in that mentality. That hurt me to leave seeing what was coming."

Lloyd came to feel certain other players cared more for their social-media following, and their endorsement tally, and their photoshoot schedule, than the only damn thing she ever bothered herself with. 

Winning. 

The 41-year-old understands that not everyone can be like her. Not everyone shares the sheer single-mindedness needed to tell their friends and future husband, Brian Hollins, to stay home from the 2015 World Cup, lest it distract her in any way whatsoever from the task at hand.

Not everyone cares enough that they’ll use their own international career farewell to try to make things better for the future. When the USWNT staged a private ceremony at the team hotel the night before her last game and everyone brought her gifts, Lloyd spoke up then, despite the uncomfortableness of it all, to talk about some of the things she knew needed fixing.

"I spoke up in that room, and I told them that you can’t take anything for granted — you have to work for everything that you get," she said. "I just talked about what the mentality of this team has been about and passed down from generation to generation. But the problem is when you win, and you get things, winning has taken on a different meaning.

"It is no longer we want to win because we want to win. No, we want everything that comes with winning, and we think we can just roll out and win games. And that’s not the case, and teams see that. They see the arrogance in the U.S. and see that they’re not this unstoppable team. They see that they’re able to be broken down and beaten."

[Portugal draw makes it clear: The world no longer fears the USWNT]

Giving tough love is rarely easy. Lloyd loves American soccer as much as anyone you’ll ever meet, with enough passion to smash through any awkwardness created by bringing up the difficult and unpleasant truth.

So, it is no surprise that she doesn’t like to see dancing and posing for selfies for TikTok and the ‘Gram on the field before games, and she sure as heck doesn’t want to see it afterward, moments after disaster was so narrowly averted.

Alexi Lalas gets Lloyd. 

Lalas, the FOX analyst and former men’s national team star, sat next to Lloyd throughout the Portugal game, saw and felt her frustration, but knows how hard it can be to vocally and forthrightly criticize those who used to play alongside you.

"Know this," Lalas said, on Twitter. "[Carli Lloyd] is the real deal. Giving honest opinions on TV, even about something as inconsequential as sports, means exposing yourself to criticism, mockery and vitriol. But it comes with the territory. Most ex-athletes find it hard. Carli was awesome tonight."

Remember those words. Lalas is nearly two decades into his broadcasting career, long enough to know the best of television analysis comes when those who have been there and done it — no, more than that, have lived it — share their experiences, without favor or filter. Like Lloyd.

"I chose to be really, really hardcore, to some they may think that that’s crazy and some people have said it's crazy," Lloyd told me, talking of her career approach. As a cute aside, Lloyd’s best friend Karen Sweet and family members (but not her husband) defied her orders and jetted in for the 2015 final, but wore disguises to prevent her from spotting them on the streets of Vancouver. 

She continued: "But I knew what I needed to do to be at my best, and if I was at my best then ultimately the team was at their best. Everybody is different and everybody has their significant other there [in New Zealand], and they have friends and family there, and that’s OK. 

"But there’s too many distractions. There’s too much emphasis on, you know, how many followers do I have or doing photoshoots and doing this and doing that. I’m not to say you can’t have all that comes with that, but you have to stay humble throughout the process, because they nearly just crashed out of the World Cup."

Lloyd cares about the growth of the women’s game. She cares about empowerment. She just felt the best way of going about it was by being relentlessly, unapologetically, remorselessly excellent at her job.

The United States is the two-time defending champion but isn’t playing anything like it. 

The opening win over Vietnam? Muted. Against the Netherlands in game two? Outplayed for long stretches before being saved by Lindsey Horan’s equalizing header. Game three against Portugal? Lloyd’s words, plus a wave of social media outrage from the fan base, has said everything that needs to be said about that.

Something needs to change, or the USA will quickly be heading out of Australia and New Zealand. The round of 16 clash, probably with third-ranked Sweden (Sunday, kickoff at 5 a.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app, coverage begins at 4 a.m. ET), looks like anything but a formality. Sweden beat the Americans at the 2016 Olympics and the Tokyo Games, and, frankly, it’s hard to know who should be considered the favorite.

Lloyd knows that any time inflated egos come into play, someone is setting themselves up for a fall. She didn’t like it when she saw it infiltrating during her playing days and likes it even less now that it is manifesting in substandard performance. It makes her think back to her own predecessors and role models, with some level of nostalgic emotion.

"You can’t let your head get too big," she said. "I just think of where this team started, the pioneers, the women who had to wash their jerseys and bring them to a game, who had to carry their cleats to training, all these things. Then you look at how far we’ve come and what is given and what is provided and the resources, it is a bit of a slap in the face."

Lloyd’s words on FOX were generally taken to be the gold standard in exactly what the team needed to hear as it clings to its tournament life. Inevitably, however, there were those who didn’t appreciate it.

Lloyd has reservations about whether coach Vlatko Andonovski has the right personality to spark a turnaround. 

When asked about Lloyd’s comments on Tuesday, Andonovski said it was "insane" to question his team’s willingness to fight for a win.

"I have been open and honest about it and people have criticized me, and people have bashed me," Lloyd added. "[They have] said I was bitter and don’t like my teammates and all these things, and it is not that. It is just the reality of the situation I saw coming."

Lloyd wishes it was different. She wishes the things she said … didn’t need to be said. She would much rather be talking about a comfortable American victory and evaluating where the team stands among the best squads in the event.

She wishes a potential three-peat was still on everyone’s mind, rather than feeling of, "Hmm, how did it come to this?"

But the reality is she sensed something like this was going to happen, and takes no happiness from the fact that her opinion was vindicated. She won’t be quiet, because that’s just not how and who she is. 

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX and subscribe to the daily newsletter.