Carli Lloyd

It was a pivotal moment in my career, in my life.

And I kind of break up my life into two halves.

The first half, you know, being born and then up until this U21 point of getting cut.

I was one player in person.

I relied on my talent a lot.

I had a lot of coaches who supported my talent.

And even though one day I would show up and give 80%, it was still better than most people's 100%.

And whether that was right or wrong with some of the coaches that I had, they would constantly play me.

They would constantly need me.

I was the best player on every team I played on.

And

I never really kind of went through anything that was a little difficult or a little challenging or hit an obstacle, per se.

And I was pretty lazy, in fact, and didn't have the best workout ethic, pointed the fingers, blamed a lot of people.

There was never that...

again, that growth mindset, that internal motivation to say, all right, I'm going to look myself in the mirror.

What do I need to do to be better?

It's not anybody else's fault.

What do I need to do?

So when I got cut from the under 21 national team,

The easy way out for me was to quit.