Can US Women 3-Peat At 2023 World Cup? Former Soccer Star Critical Of Current Roster's Mentality
The United States women's national team is looking for their third-consecutive title when they compete at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia.
The U.S. is ranked No. 1 ahead of Sweden, Germany and England by FIFA. The Yanks are coming off World Cup wins in 2015 in Canada and 2019 in France.
The U.S. remains a superpower, but retired World Cup winner Carli Lloyd on Friday posted on Twitter that the current roster is slowly losing its "winning culture" and appeared skeptical of their outlook.
Lloyd's comments came after the U.S. suffered three consecutive losses.
Lloyd quoted and responded to a tweet by Heather O'Reilly, a three-time Olympic Gold medalist and World Cup winner, who was also openly critical of the team's performance.
O'Reilly took exception after watching a recent defeat, where she was "tremendously disappointed." She said that it was "simply not good enough."
Lloyd retired from U.S. competition in 2021. She had 316 caps, which is short of Christine Lilly's 354.
Coach Vlatko Andonovski dismissed the former player's criticisms and defended the current players, stating after the match that he trusts the players and believes that they are "capable of scoring goals."
"They've proven that they can score goals," Andonovski said. "They've proven they can play through this."
The U.S. responded with a 2-1 win over Germany on Sunday night in a friendly at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey. Down a goal, the U.S. answered in the second half with goals from Sophia Smith and Mallory Pugh.
There may be plenty of time for Andonovski to work out issues, which include uneven play from the midfield.
The U.S. remains the favorite to win in Australia at +235 odds, according to U.S. Bookies. France has the second-best odds at +285.
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