The U.S. Women’s soccer team defeated Thailand 13-0 yesterday at the Women’s World Cup. It was a remarkable demonstration of U.S. dominance in the sport and should be celebrated by everyone.
In truth, Thailand is hardly a world power in female soccer. Their best players played collegiate ball in the U.S. (as did dozens of other women playing on one of the national teams competing for the championship). They have no pro league, a small budget, and little interest in the country.
But the U.S.’s historic lopsided win is has drawn fire. Two Canadian commentators were “disgusted.”
Clare Rustad and Kaylyn Kyle, analysts for Canadian sports network TSN and former players for the Canadian women’s national team, had some of the strongest rebukes.
#USATHA good commentary…. #uswnt #usa lead by example and have decency/respect. 13th goal does not need to be celebrated like a first goal pic.twitter.com/bYmWT13csp
— Hazelnoot-noot Latte (@allissanatalie) June 11, 2019
“I just think they could have won with some humility and grace, and they just couldn’t manage to do that,” Rustad said.”Celebrating goals later in the game like this is just completely unnecessary.”
Kyle grabbed the baton from Rustad and ran full bore into “disgusted” territory.
“What is this?” Kyle responded. “They’re the No. 1 team in the world. And for me, I’m disgusted, honestly. You’re going up against a team that’s their first time in the World Cup. They’re just happy to be there. … I’m embarrassed. I was a female professional athlete. There are kids watching this.”
Thanks, ladies, for confirming every rotten thing that male chauvinists think about women in sports. Girls are too delicate to play. They don’t have the killer instinct of champion male athletes. They should leave sports to the boys.
Phooey. These women get paid to play and to hell with “sportsmanship.”
You don’t like us running up the score???
Tell them to learn to play some defense and stop it.
People who complain about putting numbers on the board when you are already up big in anything are soft and bad for sports. Period.
— Ben Murphy (@BenMurphyTV) June 11, 2019
It’s true. Thailand gave up. You think it’s bad for the sport if the U.S. runs up the score? How about rolling over and letting the U.S. walk all over them?
There are kids watching.
Should the women have celebrated those last few goals? Why not? It’s great for the sport. It was a dark day in the NFL when they banned the “sack dance.” The “No Fun League” is well named.
But the unspoken argument by the snowflakes who are are whining about running up the score is that there’d barely be a whisper if the men did it.
Very annoyed with people’s hot takes on the #USWNT win vs Thailand.
Would we be asking the men’s team to ease up? To not celebrate each score?
VERY proud of the ladies for Romina and having fun on an international platform.
— whitnasty (@Whit_NotHouston) June 11, 2019
The same people complaining about “sportsmanship” and taking it easy on the opposition probably support giving participation trophies to kids. In every game there are winners and losers and at the highest levels of competition, there is absolutely no substitute for victory.
As for running up the score, the U.S. women are the defending champions. They’ve had a target on their backs since they arrived in Paris. The psychological effect on their upcoming opponents for the rest of the tournament of demolishing the opposition and humiliating them strikes fear in the hearts of lesser teams. It was a perfectly legitimate exercise in psychological warfare and may even have won them the World Cup right there.
However, there’s one significant drawback to the result. U.S. Men’s Soccer Hall of Famer Alexi Lalas said on the pregame show ahead of the France-Norway game that the world loves to hate a bully. And they love hating an American bully even more. Call us “The Great Satan” or just “arrogant Americans,” the world is always looking for an excuse to root against the U.S. in international sporting competitions.
But beyond that, the U.S. women should be congratulated for putting on an awesome display of skill and talent.
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