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During its World Cup coverage, Fox Sports leaned in to its new marquee hires in Zlatan Ibrahimović and Thierry Henry. But it was the unsung analyst, Carli Lloyd, who excelled on TV after Team USA’s devastating 4–1 loss to Belgium on Monday night.
After Team USA crumbled during the round-of-16 match, Lloyd didn’t pull any punches. The women’s soccer legend was blunt, unsparing, and incisive in her commentary. As a player who won two FIFA Women’s World Cups in 2015 and 2019, Lloyd knows what it takes to thrive on the big stage. Even if it hurt the precious feelings of the U.S. men’s national team, Lloyd said they played “scared” when it mattered most.
“It’s a bit of a downer for us being out here now after this loss. But I felt like they lost the game before they even stepped out onto the pitch,” Lloyd said. “I’m not sure why, and I don’t know the reasons. But just from the beginning, just chasing, tentative, scared, just not confident on the ball. And I think big-time players—you wanted some of those big-time players to step up in big moments.”
You can’t win the World Cup if your stars don’t show up. Lloyd called out Team USA striker Christian Pulisic for coming up small at the biggest moment of his career.
Lloyd knows whereof she speaks. She scored a hat trick during the USWNT’s 5–2 win over Japan in the 2015 Women’s World Cup final. Pulisic, meanwhile, went goalless during the 2026 World Cup. He lost possession 11 times in 45 minutes on Monday night, the most of any player on the pitch, according to ESPN FC. A flailing Pulisic was finally removed in the 59th minute due to injury.
“I’ve got to be honest; I was a bit disappointed with Christian Pulisic,” said Lloyd. “I think whether he wants to be the star of this team or not, we didn’t see enough from him in this particular game, and really the whole World Cup. Little glimpses here and there.”
As Lloyd’s analysis spread on social media throughout Tuesday, the New Jersey native posted what many interpreted as a thinly veiled shot at Pulisic’s postgame comments regarding his ankle injury, in which he said, “Now I get time to rest, so it’ll be O.K.”
“You rest when your playing career is over. Period,” she wrote on X.
That kind of brutally honest commentary should serve Lloyd well in her TV career moving forward. Netflix holds the U.S. media rights to the 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cups. If I’m building my coverage team for next year’s event, my first phone call is going to Lloyd and her agent.
Despite fierce criticism of Alexi Lalas as the “All-American Idiot,” Fox’s veteran soccer analyst also didn’t sugarcoat things for viewers. Rather than waving red, white, and blue pom-poms, Lalas lamented that Team USA picked the worst time to play its worst match. In the end, Team USA went out with a “whimper” rather than a roar, he said.
“The question is always: Was this a success? Look, I think this team did win hearts and minds. This team did bring people into the tent. They should be incredibly proud for that,” Lalas said. “But there’s also part of me that says the time for moral victories is over. We’ve left something on the table here. That to me is disappointing.”
