And then there is this little inconvenient truth................................ Thailand Women's National Team beat Indonesia 13-0 in a friendly and Cambodia 11-0 in the AFF Women's Championship last year. Here is a link to the video. You can be the judge if Thailand celebrates appropriately for your liking. https://www.foxsportsasia.com/football/asian-football/aff-womens-championship/908757/thailand-vs-cambodia/
I didn't watch the game but saw highlights. Absolutely 0% of me was surprised it was Megan Rapinoe who decided to celebrate in a classless manner against a destroyed opponent. There was absolutely no reason for it, I don't buy the exuberance or "its the WWC" argument. It's not her first one, and he's supposedly a veteran leader who decided to act like a strutting bully. 0% of me will be disappointed if the WNT get knocked out and whoever scores the winning goal counts to 4 or does some sprinkler celebration nonsense after the winner. And it'll be completely deserved. Like someone said upthread, if Barbados somehow made it to the MWC and Ronaldo & Co hung 13 on them, and Ronaldo did his stupid flex celebration after goal #11, everyone would call him an preening jerk. If you saw your kid do that on the field, you'd (hopefully) reprimand him or her for being an incredibly poor sport.
No it was criticized around the world. Not because you didn't bother looking elsewhere means that the biggest backlash was from Canada...at a day and time where not a lot of people were watching to begin. Heck, plenty of US media and analysts said it was over the top. CanWNT? You mean former members of the CanWNT that aren't part of the current team? Ahhh... now that's accurate. 4 women on a sports panel doesn't represent the opinion of 36 million people. Why aren't you throwing American sports panels and journalists that said the same thing under the bus too? The current CanWNT? They were asked their opinion and said they'd go at it just as hard but wouldn't celebrate as hard. They didn't take any shot at the USWNT. Durant chants? Those idiots were called out by everyone here but hey, let's not talk about the standing ovation and KD chants that happen when he left or KD getting cards and donations to his Foundation the next day by fans who were disgusted by those idiots. Not worth talking about that. Hypocrisy? Let's not pretend that Solo didn't call Sweden cowards and insulted Brazil with her Zika nonsense.
Really good post. I'm solidly in the camp that final few celebrations were over the top. It would be like a MLB team doing bat flips and mobbing the hitter at home plate after hitting the final home run making the score 30-3 in the last inning...i.e. rangers v. orioles 10 years ago...except it didnt happen...players handled the blowout with grace. But your post helps me understand the mentality. Even though they are world champions with the most success, and the most money invested in their success, their egos are still fragile. So the celebrations were as much about insecurity and pressure release as anything else....an argument I can buy. I do agree with the chorus saying focus on the celebrations has been exaggerated at this point. The passion on both sides had been fun to watch, but now it's sucking energy from the rest of the WC. From what I've seen of France so far, they dont look as sharp or hungry as our women. Looks to me they made a serious gaffe leaving out Katoto...Gauvin is good, but nowhere near the same threat. Reynard looks out of form and their backline doesnt look cohesive. I dont think our women needed to demoralize Thailand to get an edge on France. USWNT preparation likely did that already. But hey - if they had to do it to shore up their own psyche - do what you have to do to bring it home. Just make sure you bring it home.
When it's too much for even Hope Solo My senior writing partner on the Thailand game. Hope Solo: "The US scoring 13 against Thailand was great, the celebrations were not." https://t.co/atj2rG1Rij— Matthew Hall 💥☠️💣🤬😭 (@matthew_hall) June 12, 2019
for 1,000 female players in Thailand? It was in the BBC 5Live Football Daily podcast episode that ran the day of the game, or the next. The one where Hope guested. Go listen to that, if you're really interested. Or, you can ask Alexa It's a good show, by the way.
You mean when *some* of the goal celebrations, but *none* of the scoring is too much for Hope Solo... just to accurately sum up the article. Edit: From the article: "Should the US have taken their foot off the pedal against Thailand? Absolutely not. When you respect your opponent you don’t all of a sudden sit back and try not to score."
ya, I don't recall ever criticizing the score. If I did, let it be known that I've backed off that. And, ya, Hope said that some of the celebrations went over board. That's what I mean. And, you can verify for JackiesDad that they stated that the total number of "registered" female soccer players in Thailand is ...... One Thousand. And, yet Rapinoe felt it was appropriate to pirouette across the field and do a prone stanky leg after the 9th goal. And, the team thought it was appropriate to do a choreographed celebration after the 11th. 1,000 registered female soccer players. How many AYSO regions is that? 2? 4? But, I hope you enjoyed the podcast - I thought it was great and plan on listening to it through the rest of the tournament.
Understood. The 2 views are getting conflated a lot in this and the pbp thread; many are also harping on the score, which is why I emphasized that. I just read the article. I'm not really good at absorbing information aurally so podcasts aren't my thing
Oh, I found the "choreographed dance" that you accused Pugh of performing which offended you so much. (Translation: She spontaneously went over to her fellow bench players who weren't fortunate enough to get into the game and - shudder - she HUGGED them! The horror!) It's clear to me now that you are spouting off here without ever watching the game. HISTORY! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸The @USWNT ties the all-time record for biggest World Cup win as @malpugh gets in on the fun in her 1st #FIFAWWC game pic.twitter.com/C2NrVyH3L2— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 11, 2019
You watch that and I feel like they could have celebrated just a little bit more. Very subdued. In stark contrast to the Americans.
Is the inconvenient truth.... Friendlies are the lowest level of international competition and the World Cup is the highest level? ....or is it.... In the Thailand-USA friendly in 2016, the celebrations by the USA are non-existent, similar to the celebrations by Thailand in video you linked?
It's clear to me that you (and, Orcrist, apparently) have no ability to comprehend what you read. Here is what I wrote (post 147: "Pugh's celebration was nothing. The whole bench doing a dance, for the 11th goal in the opening match against a nation that has a grand total of 1,000 female soccer players .... in.the.country. Well, that's ridiculous, don't you think?" Feel like an idiot? You should. It's also funny that you post a video showing about .5 seconds of what happened on the sideline to show what happened on the sideline. Last, you never responded about Thailand having a grand total of 1,000 female soccer players in the entire country. That's typically the case with people who respond with "link?" They aren't actually interested in the link. So, I'll ask again - how many AYSO regions would it take to come with 1,000 female players? 3? 4? A whole district? Woot, the USWNT beat the equivalence of an AYSO district, 13-0! Let's party on the sidelines like it's 1999, and we just beat a nation of a billion!
Show your work. My reading comprehension is extraordinary. (apparently it's poor because I repped a post written by someone you are accusing of that?) P.S. None of us defending the USWNT's right to celebrate as they choose gives a crap about how many soccer players are in Thailand. *You're* the one who thinks that's important to this discussion. The premise we are rejecting is that the celebrations are over the top, thus the "poor little Thailand" narrative has no bearing.
Wow. You're spouting so much crap on this thread, even you can't keep track of it all. At the risk of wasting a bunch of time here, I'll take you through it. First you said: "This is so wrong and ridiculous ..... If the men celebrated goals 10, 11, 12, 13 against an opponent as hapless a Thailand the way the ladies did, they'd be laughed out of the game." Not even realizing that goal #11 was Pugh's, you went on to say: "No one is complaining about the way Pugh, Mewis, Lavelle or Horan celebrated." Yes, someone is complaining. YOU JUST DID. When I pointed out that you contradicted yourself, you said: "Wait - the 11th is where they did the choreographed dance, right?" You then went off on some unrelated tangent about the number of female soccer players there were in Taiwan, as if anyone gave a shit about that. When I asked you for a link to that "choreographed dance" you hallucinated about, you misinterpreted my request as a question about your tangential and unrelated point. When you failed to produce a link to that supposed "choreographed dance" I found a link to Pugh's goal celebration myself, one I thought was quite reserved and appropriate, in light of it being her first World Cup goal EVER. So yes. You keep going back and forth criticizing the celebrations in one breath and then saying "Pugh's celebration was nothing" in your next breath. And then you keep coming back to that "1,000 players" fixation of yours, despite the fact that NOBODY CARES. You really need to increase your medications. Or at least tell the 8th or 9th voice in your head to increase your medications.
The choreographed dance I remember was by the Swedes after they beat the USA in the shootout last cup. And they did it again after the Chile match this cup.
The loyal media has stopped trying to defend the celebrations. The new talking point is that it has become a big talking point. Any publicity is good publicity. Onward to the next game. Hopefully, the team hasn't peaked and they can get 15 against Chile.
That would be funny if the USWNT trolled the public even more by doing more choreographed celebrations, even one where they do back flips. I love seeing those celebrations enrage former Canadian players whom all of a sudden were acting like they were all high and mighty.
The death threats would be funny? Edit: No wait, you're actually saying "you", as in lumping us personally in with people making death threats? Holy smokes, and you're a moderator? Dafuq's wrong with you?