WNT vs Thailand... 13 goals!?!

I was so excited to watch the game, the team's first of the tournament. It felt like forever between the Women's World Cup opening day and today. I can't imagine what it felt like for the players and coaches having to wait to play their first match. Imagine the pent up energy and emotion they all had as athletes who have dreamed of playing in the World Cup for their entire careers.

And as you may have heard by now, the team unleashed it all! The final scoreline will tell you that the Women's USA Team scored 13 goals while the Women's Thai team scored zero. In the soccer world, that's a lot. So much, in fact, that it broke records and is the highest number of goals scored by any World Cup team, men or women.

If you didn't watch the game, you missed much more than the scoreline. The team played really well. They attacked the entire time. Thailand barely made it to their attacking side of the field, the entire match. Yes, Thailand was overmatched (and we all knew this going in). Yes, that played into the result but, it also had to do with the World's number 1 ranked team (USA) playing like, well, the World's number 1 ranked team.

I believe that Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl summed it best “... I’m also not a professional soccer player, and I don’t feel comfortable policing the natural emotional reaction of someone who has just done something that may be the pinnacle of her career: Scoring in a World Cup.”

As others have mentioned, the controversy should have less to do with the scoreline and more to do with the players' celebrations. In which case I still stand with the players. This is a lifetime dream, a lifetime achievement.

There is much more to this argument. More layers, namely the divide between the soccer programs in countries like the USA versus the ones in Thailand (for example). In my opinion, Thailand played very well for Thailand. Especially considering that they were PLAYING THE NUMBER 1 RANKED TEAM IN THE WORLD! The Thai team got to the World Cup. They're good enough to get there. They earned it. And now they'll continue to build and develop.

I feel the same watching the South Korea team. They're not doing too well in the tournament. But they have what it takes; we know this because they got to the tournament in the first place. Growth and success is build on failures (losses).