Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
OPENING SALVO
Morgan ties Cup mark with 5 goals in champ’s record-breaking 13-0 rout
Alex Morgan, left, celebrates with teammate Megan Rapinoe after scoring her team’s 12th goal during a 13-0 win over Thailand in a Women’s World Cup game at Stade Auguste Delaune in Reims, France. Morgan scored five goals for the U.S., tying the Women’s World Cup single-game record set by former U.S. midfielder Michelle Akers in 1991.
REIMS, France — Alex Morgan tied a tournament record with five goals and the defending champion U.S. team opened the Women’s World Cup with a historic 13-0 rout of Thailand on Tuesday night.
Samantha Mewis and Rose Lavelle each added a pair of goals for the U.S., which broke the record for goals and margin of victory in a Cup game. Lindsey Horan, Megan Rapinoe, Mallory Pugh and Carli Lloyd also scored. The previous record margin was Germany’s 11-0 victory over Argentina in 2007.
Morgan tied Michelle Akers’ record for Cup goals, set in the quarterfinals against Taiwan in 1991.
“We really just came into the game really wanting to showcase ourselves,” Morgan said. “Every goal matters in this tournament and that’s what we were working on.”
Asked repeatedly about the lopsided score, U.S. coach Ellis wondered if a 10-0 victory in a men’s Cup would elicit the same questions.
“Getting off on the right foot is important,” Ellis said. “But we also feel like we’ve got more to do. So were going to stay humble and go back to work.”
The two teams were the last to kickoff in the group stage for the monthlong tournament. Host France opened the World Cup before a sellout crowd in Paris on Friday night with a 4-0 victory over South Korea.
Ranked No. 1 in the world, the Americans had dropped only one match in their previous 38, a loss to France in Le Havre in January. The team is 7-1-2 overall this year, with six straight wins going into the Cup and its seven different scorers against Thailand set a record for most in a Women’s Cup game.
The last time the Americans played on the world’s biggest stage, Lloyd had a hat trick in the first 16 minutes and the U.S. beat Japan 5-2 in Canada for the trophy.
The U.S. pounced early against Thailand in the Group F match, on Morgan’s header in the 13th minute off Kelley O’Hara’s precisely placed cross. Mewis, Lavelle and Horan were all making their Cup debuts.
“When you get a deluge of goals like that, it’s a good feeling. It builds confidence,” said Ellis.
Thailand, ranked No. 34 in the world, was clearly outmatched even though the team has shown progress on the world stage. Making its Cup debut in 2015 four years ago, Thailand finished third in its group but earned its first win, a 3-2 victory over Ivory Coast.
At the final whistle, Lloyd and Christen Press were seen consoling the Thailand goalkeeper. Morgan put her arm around Thailand’s Miranda Nild, who was wiping away tears on the pitch. Nild and Morgan both played college soccer at Cal.
“They were disappointed of course, they intended to make an impression in this first match and they were disappointed,” coach Nuengrutai Srathongvian said. “Yes they’re athletes and resilient.”
Ellis made some lineup moves for the match in the absence of defender Becky Sauerbrunn, who the team said was held out as a precaution with a minor quad injury.
Julie Ertz was moved to the backline for Tuesday night’s game, and Mewis got the start in the midfield.
Sauerbrunn, at her third Cup, was a steadying force for the U.S. defense in Canada when the U.S. went 540 minutes without conceding a goal.
Morgan, U.S. Soccer’s 2018 player of the year has 106 international goals. Playing in her third Cup, she was named player of the match.
The team’s biggest margin of victory was a 14-0 win over the Dominican Republic in a 2012 Olympic qualifier in Vancouver, British Columbia.