Carli Lloyd has been very critical about the United States Women’s National Team and what the future holds. The U.S. soccer legend went as far as to say that there needs to be a rebuild, but her former teammate, Heather O’Reilly, also a Fox Sports analyst, didn’t go that far.
O’Reilly reacted to the United States’ elimination by Sweden in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, alongside Stu Holden and Kate Gill.
“When you look over the course of the last two games, we didn’t score any goals,” O’Reilly said following the penalty shootout loss to Sweden. “I mean we scored four goals in four games in this tournament and three were against Vietnam. That is just…it’s not gonna win a World Cup. And I don’t think it was a matter of effort, especially in this last game (vs. Sweden). It wasn’t a matter of grit or determination—that was all there. But at the end of the day, the sport is about scoring goals, putting the ball in the back of the net.”
O’Reilly mentioned how somebody like U.S. co-captain Alex Morgan didn’t score at all during the tournament, while also making sure to give praise to the team’s defense and goalkeeping.
“The attack just never got firing this entire tournament,” she said.
O’Reilly, who won a World Cup with the national team in 2015, shared her feelings on the program of U.S. women’s soccer as it stands.
“We won in 2015, and in 2019, the team, of course, got it done,” O’Reilly said. “But in 2007, I was part of a team that got knocked out 4-0 to Brazil in a semifinal. And there was a lot of whispers amongst probably pundits or former players, ‘like does this team have what it takes to carry the tradition of excellence that Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy laid.’ And it was hard for me, but it drove me and it drove my generation of players. It took us a while, but we got back there.
“There’s no doubt in my head that this U.S. team will get back there. I think they will always be the standard bearers of this game. I’m just super proud to be part of this program. It means a lot to my life. I’m certainly hurting right now, but there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll be back again.”
It’s certainly a bold claim by O’Reilly. We’ll have to see how the next 3-to-4 years play out.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.