Now working with Fox Sports, former United States international Carli Lloyd believes that the Americans enter this FIFA World Cup with a target on their collective backs. Lloyd, born and raised in New Jersey, got her career started as a midfielder at Rutgers.
That career culminated in over 300 international appearances, three World Cup medals (won two) and three Olympics (two gold medals, one bronze).
Now working as an analyst for Fox, the broadcast partner for the tournament, Lloyd knows and understands the pressure on the United States. The Americans have won the last two World Cups. A win in this tournament would be the first-ever three-peat in World Cup history.
“It’s business as usual. The approach is always that the US is the favorite, the No. 1 team in the world. Everyone wants to go out there and beat them, there is a target on their back,” Lloyd said in a preview for Fox this week.
“They’re most likely not talking about a three-peat or really talking about the history they could potentially make. Everybody just knows that, they know in the back of their mind that history is at stake.”
The United States are the unquestioned favorites in this tournament. But there are a lot of other factors at play that could derail their plans for a parade.
This is the most balanced World Cup in the history of the women’s game as the standard of play and competition globally continues to rise. There are also time zone issues with this World Cup be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
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“Ultimately it comes down to one game at a time. You can’t get ahead of yourself. The moment you get ahead of yourself is probably the moment you get knocked out or something. It’s really important to first and foremost come out first in their group – that’s their first battle,” Lloyd said.
“Once they hopefully do that, the next challenge is going to be making sure that they get past that knockout round.”
At Rutgers, Lloyd was four times named All-Big East. While with the Scarlet Knights, she played for the United States U21 national team.