USWNT Sportsmanship vs Thailand

Did you have a problem with some of the USWNT's celebrations late in the game?

  • Yes

    Votes: 5 23.8%

  • No

    Votes: 16 76.2%
  • Total voters
    21
DrunkOffPunch

DrunkOffPunch

New member
In the opening game of the WWC for the US, they played an outmatched Thailand team and won 13-0. There has been some heavy conversation since about a lack of sportsmanship from the US squad for running up the score or excessively celebrating such goals. A counter argument to this is that this is the biggest stage in the women's soccer world. As kids they dream of being on this stage and if you don't want them to score/celebrate, then stop them. Also, since goal differential can determine whether you make it out of the group stage, you might need every goal you can get. To be fair the vast majority of the conversation has been about the excessive celebrations. 

What do you think?

 
Absolutely zero issues with the amount of goals scored. It's the highest level of competition, and goals scored is a tiebreaker, so there's no reason to let off the gas pedal for anyone. That being said, there's something to say about "acting like you've been there before", particularly when you're ahead as massively as the USWNT was. 

 
To start off I have no problem with the score. If you can score 30 do it. On the other hand I do have a problem with the excessive celebration. The USWNT has been no stranger to controversy in loss (pretty much just Hope Solo). To me, it's not good look.


This is the celebration that people are really talking about. A veteran who's been on this stage before who scored the 9th goal late in the game. Thailand's team is a bunch of amateurs. I will say the USWNT did console some of Thailand's players after the game, which is nice, but this just seems disrespectful to me.

 
I have a problem with the premise of your first question.  It implies - possibly unintentionally - that they were running up the score.  I don't think they were trying to embarrass anyone - which is implied by "running up the score".  They were a good team playing a bad team.  Their goalie was terrible.  They litreally looked like they were barely trying out there - they couldn't even keep the ball with us applying minimal pressure.  We routinely got wide open right in front of the the net.

The only thing we could have done differently was kick it back and forth in our own end and not even try.  

 
Running up the score is not a problem. They are serious athletes who should not stop competing until the game is over.

But i’ve never really liked the big show-offy celebrations in any sport unless it is an actual championship moment or something like a dramatic comeback. Some of those celebrations were unnecessary and a bit unbecoming.

 
Mavric said:
I have a problem with the premise of your first question.  It implies - possibly unintentionally - that they were running up the score.  I don't think they were trying to embarrass anyone - which is implied by "running up the score".  They were a good team playing a bad team.  Their goalie was terrible.  They litreally looked like they were barely trying out there - they couldn't even keep the ball with us applying minimal pressure.  We routinely got wide open right in front of the the net.

The only thing we could have done differently was kick it back and forth in our own end and not even try.  
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It was mostly unintentional. It was somewhat of a talking point on sports media. 95% of it centered around the celebrations, but since it was being talked about in such a way, I thought I would just word it how it was in the media. Like I said, score 30 if you can, but I think it's pretty natural to call it 'running up the score' when there's such a huge win margin. To be fair I don't think we were running up the score.

 
Zero problem with either the score or the joy after the score.

This is the World Cup, the highest level of competition in the sport. Thailand qualified to be there, they weren't just handed a spot. If you're good enough to make it there, you're good enough to put up a fight.

Scoring a goal in the World Cup is what every one of these women dreamed of growing up. It's a lifelong goal. They get a goal and they're just supposed to... what? Mope around and not celebrate? 

Melvin Gordon ran for 408 yards on Nebraska in about three quarters of work, and he celebrated every touchdown, every first down, with cheers and high-fives with his teammates. If we didn't want him doing that, we should have stopped him. Our guys are on scholarship, too.

 
DrunkOffPunch said:
To start off I have no problem with the score. If you can score 30 do it. On the other hand I do have a problem with the excessive celebration. The USWNT has been no stranger to controversy in loss (pretty much just Hope Solo). To me, it's not good look.


This is the celebration that people are really talking about. A veteran who's been on this stage before who scored the 9th goal late in the game. Thailand's team is a bunch of amateurs. I will say the USWNT did console some of Thailand's players after the game, which is nice, but this just seems disrespectful to me.
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I have no problem with this celebration. She’s celebrating with her team and not taunting the other team. 

 
knapplc said:
Scoring a goal in the World Cup is what every one of these women dreamed of growing up. It's a lifelong goal. They get a goal and they're just supposed to... what? Mope around and not celebrate? 
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Yeah at first I thought it was kind of dumb to celebrate like that that late in a blowout, but then I thought about how amazing it must be to score a goal on that stage, even if it's 100 to 0. I'd be celebrating my a$$ off having so much fun.

 
knapplc said:
Scoring a goal in the World Cup is what every one of these women dreamed of growing up. It's a lifelong goal. They get a goal and they're just supposed to... what? Mope around and not celebrate? 

Melvin Gordon ran for 408 yards on Nebraska in about three quarters of work, and he celebrated every touchdown, every first down, with cheers and high-fives with his teammates. If we didn't want him doing that, we should have stopped him. Our guys are on scholarship, too.
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Nobody has said that though. It’s the excessiveness people have a problem with. Again coming from a vet that has scored in WCs before.

It would be more like if Melvin Gordon had that performance against Wayne State and did a pirouette into a slide and some leg farts on rout to a 130-0 blowout.

 
There is a big difference between high fives and cheers with your teammates, versus choreographed dancing in the middle of the field when you are up by a dozen scores.

 
DrunkOffPunch said:
Nobody has said that though. It’s the excessiveness people have a problem with. Again coming from a vet that has scored in WCs before. 

It would be more like if Melvin Gordon had that performance against Wayne State and did a pirouette into a slide and some leg farts on rout to a 130-0 blowout. 
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So Thailand, who made it to the World Cup, through qualifying rounds and friendlies, is analogous to a D2 school playing a money game in early September.

Not seeing that.

Your better analogy would be 1995 Nebraska trouncing Florida, up by several touchdowns, and Christian Peter dances into the end zone on a fumble recovery.

All of Nebraska celebrated with him (even though the TD was called back).  Now we're supposed to be upset that these players celebrated too much after fulfilling a lifelong dream?

I'm more upset Thailand didn't play better. What they put on the pitch was more offensive to the sport than anything the Americans did.

 
knapplc said:
So Thailand, who made it to the World Cup, through qualifying rounds and friendlies, is analogous to a D2 school playing a money game in early September.

Not seeing that.

Your better analogy would be 1995 Nebraska trouncing Florida, up by several touchdowns, and Christian Peter dances into the end zone on a fumble recovery.

All of Nebraska celebrated with him (even though the TD was called back).  Now we're supposed to be upset that these players celebrated too much after fulfilling a lifelong dream?

I'm more upset Thailand didn't play better. What they put on the pitch was more offensive to the sport than anything the Americans did.
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It's actually closer to true than one would think. They qualified for the WC by finishing 4th in the 2018 Asia Cup. They've lost their last 6 matches by a combined score of 31-3 (the USA game being an outlier, that's still 18-3). None of their players play with an international club. Only two of their players play in Thai League 2, which I'm assuming is the second national league in Thailand, but I can't actually find any info on a women's League 1. Also, this is the country's second World Cup. 

This has been my dissertation on Thailand's Women's World Cup squad. Thank you for listening. 

 
So they're the worst team in the NFL playoffs. Let's patronize them and take it easy, not celebrate or have any fun after scoring in the World Cup.

I'm sure the other five teams that scored an average of four goals a match against them didn't celebrate any of those goals.

 
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