The U.S. women’s national team has been slammed for its celebrations against Thailand, with current Canadian national team star Diana Matheson saying USWNT manager Jill Ellis should be embarrassed at her team’s antics.
The USWNT began its World Cup defense with a 13-0 destruction of Thailand on Tuesday night in Reims, setting an all-time World Cup record for the highest margin of victory in a game.
With goal differential a tiebreaker in the group stage, the U.S. was incentivized to score as many goals as it could, but the way the team reacted to several goals late in the match has come under fire.
As their goal tally reached double digits the USWNT still celebrated exuberantly, with the entire bench involved in the celebrations for nearly every goal against the overmatched Thai side.
This has rankled with a member of the team’s greatest regional rival, Canada.
Diana Matheson, who is missing the World Cup through injury, took a shot at the USWNT and in particular the team’s head coach on Canadian television network TSN following the game.
“Of course in a World Cup you’re not going to hold back and maybe they have an internal target that they want to meet or they’re trying to break the record, but ’embarrassed’ is the word for Jill Ellis I think the way she was leading her team in this one,” Matheson said.
U.S striker Alex Morgan, who scored five goals in the game, was asked about her team’s celebrations in the post-match press conference.
“Tonight we knew that every goal could matter in these group stage games,” Morgan said.
“When it comes to celebrations, this was a really good team performance tonight. I think it was important for us to celebrate with each other.”
Morgan celebrated her incredible night by counting off each of her goals on her hand. This did not sit well with former Canada star Kaylyn Kyle, who compared Morgan to an all-time great Canadian striker.
“We played against the Americans before where you have a player like Christine Sinclair scoring three goals and she would never even think about counting how many goals she has on one hand,” Kyle said.
“For me it’s disrespectful, it’s disgraceful. Hats off to Thailand for holding their heads high.”
The U.S. will continue Group F play with a match against Chile on Sunday, before facing Sweden on June 20.
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