Carli Lloyd faces the end armed with her most valuable weapon: anger

It seemed like a fairly innocuous question – complimentary even. Carli Lloyd had been in such good form recently as the Women’s World Cup approaches, scoring five goals in her previous three games, that the reporter had to ask: what’s changed?

But Lloyd disagreed with the premise of the question.

“I’ve been in form for the last couple of years,” she answered flatly. “I’m banging in more goals now – you start to peak as you get closer and there’s a certain strategy that goes into my training. I wasn’t just a bad soccer player two or three years ago and turned into a great one overnight. I’ve been in form.”

Lloyd has been here before. “Here” meaning the Women’s World Cup – she is about to compete in her fourth. “Here” meaning people misunderstanding her, whether it’s the media or her own coaches. Here is where Lloyd thrives.

For casual observers of the US women’s national team, the enduring image of Lloyd is as the hero of the 2015 World Cup final when she scored a hat-trick – including one from an audacious half-field punt – and led the Americans to the trophy.

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But these days, Lloyd references the 2012 Olympics more often. That was the tournament in which Lloyd lost her starting spot because coach Pia Sundhage felt Lloyd took too many risks and gave up the ball too often. The parallels going into 2019 are obvious – again, Lloyd has lost her starting spot. This time, it’s not because she’s not good enough, but because she’s almost 37 and coach Jill Ellis has emphasized a frenetic, non-stop attacking style better suited to other players. Just as in 2012, Lloyd is unhappy with her new role.

“I’m not here to be a super sub, plain and simple,” she told reporters in New York City last month. “That’s not the type of person I am. I’m a fighter – I’ll fight to the end. I know my age isn’t a factor. My ability isn’t a factor. I feel the fittest I’ve ever felt, the sharpest I’ve ever felt.”

Lloyd was calm but there was a tinge of anger in her voice. She can’t play a game for the USWNT without reporters inevitably asking her how she has adjusted to being a substitute, with her response being that she hasn’t adjusted. In April, when she only played five minutes against Australia and didn’t score, she went behind the sponsor boards in the mixed zone to avoid reporters. But that’s probably what Ellis is glad to see. After all, if that Olympics seven years ago – the tournament that Lloyd keeps bringing up – is any guide the midfielder-turned-striker will find a way to take this World Cup by the scruff of its neck somehow, someway.

Sixteen minutes into USA’s 2012 Olympics campaign, Shannon Boxx went down with injury and Lloyd was thrust into the role she had been told she wasn’t good enough to play. Lloyd scored the game-winner in that opening game against France, and when the US landed in the gold-medal match, she scored the game-winner again.

Even at the 2015 World Cup, in a performance that later helped her become Fifa World Player of the Year, Lloyd started the tournament drawing criticism from fans and pundits alike. The US looked sluggish and sloppy, and Lloyd was ineffective. But finally, after some serendipitous yellow cards, Lloyd took over and she eventually led the USWNT to a thrilling World Cup victory. Lloyd played angry – she played to prove everyone – her coaches, fans and reports – wrong. Now, she’s doing it again, and her teammates appreciate every bit of it.

“She’s angry. She wants to be out there, and she trains like she wants to be out there,” said fellow US veteran Becky Sauerbrunn. “And when she comes in, you see her – she’s scoring, she’s getting assists, she’s creating opportunities. She’s doing everything she possibly can to show she deserves to be on the field.”

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Sauerbrunn is also confident Lloyd will be a threat from the bench. “We know if we’re needing a goal, she’s going to work very hard, she’s going to get an opportunity on goal and she’s probably going to score it. I’m proud of her and the way she’s handled it. I think she’s just a star and when you put stars on a big stage like that, amazing things are going to happen.”

That could make the difference in France, when the US start their World Cup journey on 11 June against Thailand. Lloyd is known for stepping up in big moments. She is the only woman to score in three finals of a World Cup or an Olympics (2008, 2012 and 2015) – and she scored the game-winner in all three.

And she has remained productive, even as her minutes have diminished. By the time 2016 ended, Lloyd had started 176 games in 202 appearances for the US. Since the calendar flipped to 2017, she has been a substitute in 28 of 42 matches. And yet she has held steady, notching a goal or an assist every 88 minutes, according to TruMedia analyst Paul Carr. That is nearly the same level of production as Alex Morgan, the team’s designated starter in Lloyd’s striker spot.

She is ready for the World Cup, but Lloyd’s exact role in France is still unclear. Ellis has been upfront in that she views Lloyd as a substitute and that doesn’t figure to change. The Americans now play in a 4-3-3 that looks different than the team’s system in years past, which essentially eliminated the midfield role Lloyd used to play. That is why Lloyd is now a striker, unburdened by defensive responsibilities, but she doesn’t offer the same mobility or speed of someone like Morgan.

Lloyd insists, however, that she has reinvented her game as she has grown older. No longer is she the athletic battering ram she was in her youth, recklessly going at goal. Now, she says, she is making smarter runs and is a better finisher.

In other words: doubt Lloyd at your own peril – you’ll only make her angry. With Lloyd admitting this may very well be her last World Cup, she’s happy to prove herself one last time.

“The bigger the pressure, the more it becomes instinct for me – the more I go up three levels,” Lloyd said. “I know what’s at stake. I know this could be a storybook ending. The pen is in my hand ultimately and I know the story’s not over. It’s going to be up to me.”