Carli Lloyd is hoping for a more literal interpretation of the US Soccer slogan “One Nation, One Team” when it comes to the US men’s national team and the USWNT.
Her plan, as relayed to Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl, is for more connection between the two teams, which could potentially start as soon as January camp.
“As a whole, we need the culture to change,” Lloyd said. “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.”
It’s not about competition or seeing who is better, it’s about a camaraderie that could be beneficial to both programs.
“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,” Lloyd said. “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.”
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