Carli Lloyd must have been tired of losing. Or maybe she just suddenly remembered why she was in Tokyo -- something about a soccer competition? At any rate, before the USWNT’s bronze medal match with Australia, Lloyd remained standing while the rest of her team took a knee to protest racism, or sexism, or whatever was Thursday’s gripe du jour.
And she went on to score two of the four U.S. goals in the victory. (Don’t take that to mean cosmic justice prevailed; purple-headed, perennially pissed-off Megan Rapinoe scored the other two.)
ALL the USWNT players and staff knelt. All except Carli Lloyd. To say Lloyd is a "somebody" on the team is an understatement.
— Edward Chang (@Edward_Chang_8) August 5, 2021
Also surprised to see Australia didn't kneel and are actually standing in solidarity opposite the U.S.
Not sure what's going on here. But interesting. pic.twitter.com/7RPab0IWn1
The USWNT’s Olympics got off to a disastrous start when they were crushed (after kneeling) by Sweden. They righted the ship for a while before being upset by lowly Canada to foreclose their hope for gold. But bronze is pretty good, considering Rapinoe et al are full time social justice warriors concerned with fighting against “racist infrastructures,” sexism, reality based economics and attractive women’s lingerie.
To her credit, Lloyd, 39, has always been ambivalent about all the virtue signaling. Back in 2016, when Rapinoe started kneeling in solidarity with noted couch potato Colin Kaepernick, Lloyd told her it was a distraction for the team. Team player that she is, Rapinoe kept right on kneeling.
Lloyd finished her games (and perhaps her career) standing, with dignity and humility. Bravo.
