Carli Lloyd can imagine the disappointment Alex Morgan felt when she didn’t make the 2024 Olympics soccer team.
“I can imagine it’s hard. She has been a big staple to the team for so many years,” Lloyd, 41, exclusively told Us Weekly at GBK Brand Bar’s Pre-ESPY Luxury Lounge presented by MEND on Wednesday, July 10. “I would imagine that it’s not the news that you want to hear.”
At the same time, Lloyd believes it’s a sign that coach Emma Hayes is taking the team “in a different direction” and building towards 2027 and the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
“It’s going to be one of those things where some people are not going to like the news they hear, so it’s tough,” she added. “It never gets any easier. I think what people don’t realize is it is cutthroat, incredibly cutthroat. But also, it’s somewhat easy to get there, but to stay there and to be a consistent player for many, many years is one of the hardest things to do.”
On June 26, the official Olympic roster for Team USA’s women’s national team was announced. While she comPeted in the 2012 London Olympics, 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Morgan, 35, was noticeably missing from this year’s roster.
“Today, I’m disappointed about not having the opportunity to represent our country on the Olympic stage,” Morgan wrote via X at the time. “In less than a month, I look forward to supporting this team and cheering them on alongside the rest of our country. LFG.”
According to Lloyd, who was the co-captain of the U.S. Women’s National Team alongside Morgan and Megan Rapinoe from 2018 to 2020, the older an athlete gets, the harder it is.
“That’s why you always have to constantly be evolving your game,” she said while wearing STAUD. “You always have to be proving yourself out on the field and production matters. The way that you play and for her sake, as a goal scorer, you got to score goals.”
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This November, Lloyd will mark three years since she retired from professional soccer. While she misses the Game, the Fox Sports analyst is preparing to experience a whole new chapter of her life when she welcomes a baby this fall with her husband and professional Golfer Brian Hollins.
While she’s keeping the sex of her baby private for now, Lloyd is hopeful her child will be interested in more than a few Games.
“We’re two very athletic people, very competitive people so we’re going to give the baby all the opportunities to enjoy some sort of outdoorsy sports life,” she told Us with a laugh. “Balls and golf clubs. That will be the two.”
