Carli Lloyd and USWNT Stars Explain Origins of 'Golf Clap' Celebration in Win Over Chile

Carli Lloyd has explained the origins of the USWNT's 'golf clap' celebration, which came out when she opened the scoring in a 3-0 win over Chile on Sunday evening. 

The US team was criticised for over-celebrating their goals in last week's record-breaking 13-0 win over Thailand, and responded by pointedly under-celebrating their opener against a resolute Chilean side. 

Speaking after the game, goalscorer Lloyd – starting the match after coming off the bench five days previous – said: "I can't take credit for it, Lindsay told me that's what we were going to do if we scored so I went along with it after I did my little celebration. It was fun, I think it made a statement on the sideline."

Captain Megan Rapinoe was one of the players rested ahead of Thursday's group decider against Sweden, taking part in the 'celebration' from the sideline, but insisted that the widespread criticism hadn't gotten to the team. 

"I don't think it really irritated people," she said. "I was trying to articulate to the team how, during the tournament, you have these days in between where the media has to talk about something. This was the perfect moment for it to happen, but it didn't bother anyone. We know our intentions, and we felt okay about it. 

"I thought it'd be funny, everyone was talking about 'well, what if we did nothing?' It was kinda hard though, we were holding back smiles."

Alex Morgan was another player rested on Sunday, coming off the back of her five-goal showing against Thailand, and added: "The whole team is having fun with this. I don't know who came up with it, but we did the golf clap, we did snaps, we were having fun with it."