The defending champion United States women's national soccer team opened its 2019 World Cup campaign in France by defeating Thailand 13-0, setting a record for the largest victory margin in World Cup history. Alex Morgan scored five goals alone. The lopsided score, and the team's enthusiastic celebrations of every goal, sparked a debate over sportsmanship even as the team went on to defend its title.
Nobody expected a rout of this scale, not even from a team as dominant as the reigning champion Americans. By halftime the US led 4-0; by the final whistle, Thailand had conceded thirteen times, shattering the previous record for the biggest win in a Women's World Cup match and matching the largest ever recorded across men's or women's tournaments.
Alex Morgan alone scored five goals, tying a single-match World Cup scoring record. Rose Lavelle, Samantha Mewis, and others added to the tally, and the American players celebrated every single goal with full enthusiasm, corner-flag dances and group huddles included, even as the score climbed toward the double digits.
The celebrations drew sharp criticism from commentators who called them unsportsmanlike toward a clearly outmatched Thai side, while others, including several players, defended the exuberance as a natural and hard-earned response after years of women's soccer being marginalized and underpaid. The controversy became part of a broader storyline that season, as the US team's run to a second consecutive title unfolded alongside a very public fight for equal pay with the men's national federation.
Key people: Alex Morgan, Rose Lavelle