Yahoo News Carli Lloyd calls for side-by-side camps, cohesion between USWNT, USMNT
Carli Lloyd has an idea for mending relations within the U.S. Soccer Federation. And it has to do with the federation’s own motto of “One Nation, One Team.”
Lloyd, who will answer fan’s questions as part of the Yahoo Sports #WeKeepPlaying livestream on Saturday, told Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl she’d like to have more interaction between the U.S. women’s and men’s national teams.
Lloyd wants true ‘One Nation, One Team’
Lloyd, 37, has made 281 appearances for the national team and is well-versed in how U.S. Soccer operates. She’d rather see the USWNT and USMNT be on better terms than they are now, and to that end she proposed side-by-side training.
“As a whole, we need the culture to change,” Lloyd said, via Sports Illustrated. “We need everybody to feel united. I wish that we integrated more with the men's team. I wish that we had camps side by side. Maybe for the January camps we could all go to the same place and just have a bit more interaction. Because as long as I’ve played on the national team, that's never really happened. The slogan ‘One Nation, One Team,’ I think we really need to kind of bridge that.”
“I'm not saying we need integrated practices, but I think it would be fun to just do some rondos with the guys, intermingle and have some of us women in there with the men. It would just be fun. And then when you're watching their games and you get to know more of these players, you pull for them more and you kind of have a better understanding of them from a relationship standpoint. So that's my idea. And maybe that'll happen one day.”
The teams are constantly compared, including in the current lawsuit the players filed against the federation, and putting them together in camp would relinquish some of those walls.
USWNT’s equal pay battle continues
The USWNT is still in its legal battle with the federation and new president Cindy Parlow Cone is hoping they can reach a settlement rather than head to court.
She took charge when former president Carlos Cordeiro resigned following the sexist legal filing on US Soccer’s behalf. The federation’s lawyers were attempting to argue that women are inferior to men and therefore less skilled and talented. That law firm has since taken itself off the case filing.
It was a blanket statement of presumed fact with which Lloyd took issue. According to official depositions, when asked if the USWNT could compete with the men, Lloyd replied:
“I'm not sure. Shall we fight it out to see who wins and then we get paid more?"
USWNT lawsuit shows divide with USMNT
The issue has not only brought to light the divide between players and federation, but between the women’s team players and the men’s team players.
USWNT goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris called out the USMNT for its silence on the lawsuit, and it wasn’t until the men reportedly stood to lose money that their players association became invested.
While the women may still want their USMNT counterparts to take a stand for them, as NBA players have for the WNBA, simply bringing the two teams together is a solid start.
It’s only appropriate, given the motto U.S. Soccer gave itself.
More from Yahoo Sports:
