Steven Danis
Women’s World Cup Correspondent
There’s no expectation when two countries that are so different meet for a match. Thailand, who are the best in South East Asian, played against the United States, the World Number 1 and the reigning champions of Women’s World Cup. The USWNT scored 13 goals into Chabakaew’s net but the world must accept that the result may the disparities amongst the different continents in the case how they develop women’s football.
The Chabakaew came into this tournament without their best goalkeeper, Waraporn Boonsing, meaning that their net guarded by Sukanya Chor Charoenying, who was the second option in Canada four years ago. The USWNT began their domination at the 12th minute when Alex Morgan opened for the Americans with a header after getting a perfect pass from Kelly O’Hara from the right side.
USWNT even only score another two goals before half-time courtesy of Rose Lavelle and Lindsey Horan with a perfect attacking scheme, which shows the differing levels of quality of both teams. Lavelle herself, who made her debut in this year’s World Cup campaign, registered her second goal at the 56th minutes after another three goals found their way into Thailand’s net.
Another World Cup debutant who scored a goal was 21-years-old striker Mallory Pugh, who came on from the bench replacing Julie Ertz. Samantha Mewis, Megan Rapinoe, and Carli Lloyd were also goalscorers for the USWNT alongside Alex Morgan, who had a five-star performance with five goals last night.
As the USWNT set the highest score ever in World Cup replacing the score of Germany against Argentina, which ended 11-0 for the European side back in 2007. Morgan became the second player who scored five goals in a match after US legend, Michelle Akers, in the famous journey from the Class of ’99. In just this single game, the Women’s team scored more goals than the men’s team did (12) in their last three World Cups.
But at another point, we must respect both sides as the USA gave their best during the match, keeping the intensity high while giving Thailand many lessons in how to defend, how to build up their game, spring counter attacks and most importantly, how to rise back up after conceiving.
Chabakaew even made 2 attempts in this match, both of which were on target at Alyssa Naeher’s net. Additionally, they made 24 tackles, 9 blocks and 48 clearances with only 1 yellow card. Both sides should be commended as they only registered five fouls per team. However, the Americans were just on another level, which was reflected in the final score.
Two European Giants Won The Battle
Before the match between the United States against Thailand, two European giants – the Netherlands and Sweden – both won their first games of this year World Cup campaign. The reigning champions of Women’s Euro Oranje Leeuwinnen narrowly won 1-0 against New Zealand. Arsenal striker Jill Roord scored the only goal in the dying seconds of the match as she came as the substitution for Jackie Groenen at the 79th minutes.
Meanwhile, Sweden beat another South American representative, Chile, in a very hard game in Rennes. Goalless at the half-time, the weather change from the very bright sunshine into a gloomy day with heavy rain and a thunderstorm in the second half. The referee, Lucila Venegas, delayed the game in the 72nd minutes due to the unsafe situation. Sweden came back to earn three points after the delay with goals from Kosovare Asllani and substitute Madelen Janogy.