Over the weekend, the US Women’s National Soccer Team had their earliest exit from a FIFA Women’s World Cup in history as they lost to Sweden in penalty kicks in the Round of 16. Of course, the reaction to former national team player, now-soccer analyst Carli Lloyd and her comments about the team on FOX after a 0-0 draw to Portugal in group stage are still drawing headlines.
Taylor Twellman and Rebecca Lowe talked more about those comments on Offside With Taylor Twellman, and Lowe said that there are not a lot of people like Carli Lloyd in the industry because they don’t want to say anything about their friends that could upset them in the process.
“When you go from being a soccer player to being a pundit, it’s not always a particularly easy transition, especially if you are pretty young, fresh out of the game, knew a lot of people still playing. Carli is the same,” Lowe affirmed. “She knows most of those women on the team, so it’s difficult because you are going from being their friend to somebody who has to speak very brutally, very honestly.
“….This is her opinion and the job is no longer to be a football player; it is no longer to be friends with Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe. The job is to be a FOX Soccer pundit. I think that’s where lots of pundits down the years that I’ve worked with; they struggle with that because they don’t want to say anything about their friends that might upset their friends, so they don’t say anything.”
Lowe mentioned that she did send Lloyd a message after those comments encouraging her to not let the criticism she was receiving get to her.
“I actually sent Carli a message and said, ‘Girl, you are killing this because it’s not easy and don’t let all that criticism coming your way sway you.’ I just think there aren’t enough Carli Lloyds.”
The two of them got more into the discussion of the optics of the players celebrating with the fans after that draw. Lowe says she sees more in the women’s game that players connect with the fans post-match then on the men’s side, but it is easier to do in a NWSL game than in a World Cup.
“We do treat women’s football differently,” Lowe said. “When I go to a men’s game, at the end, the players just leave the field. They say thanks, quick clap to the fans, and off they go. There’s very little selfies; there’s very few autographs. It’s just not the culture.
“When I go to a San Diego Wave game, at the end no matter the result, they go around and meet the fans. It’s hard because I love them for doing that. At the end of the day, that goes a long way.”
Twellman argued that the women’s team wants to be treated exactly the same as the men’s team. Moreover, they emphasized that criticism of the USWNT should not be correlated to why people aren’t rooting for the team.
“Kylian Mbappe doesn’t need to do this; Lionel Messi doesn’t need to do that. The women do at the club level,” Lowe said. “At the World Cup level and I think this is where Carli Lloyd is coming from, it’s about winning. The generations of Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain all the way to her, that was the baton that was passed.
“I believe that the women should be criticized the same way the men are for 95% of it. Yet, when they are, there’s this weird critique analysis [of], ‘How are you not cheerleading?’ I’d argue this is what the women want. The women want to be treated no differently than the way we treat the men in these big tournaments.”
