Doug Gottlieb: “The issue wasn’t that you guys were celebrating too hard with every goal, it was at 12 you set the record and it was DONE. Was there ever a thought of ‘hey, let’s just bring it out and run it out?’ A basketball analogy would be pressing when up 30. Was it too much in hindsight?”
Samantha Mewis: “No. In a World Cup, goal differential matters and we don’t know how any of the other games are going to play out.”
Gottlieb: “But there had never been a game in the history of the World Cup where it had ever been more than 11-0.”
Rose Lavelle: “We didn’t even know that. We don’t pay attention to records. We were just playing the best we could and ended up winning. Ultimately, still talking about it is funny to us. We haven’t listened to the criticism."
Listen to United States Women’s National Team players Rose Lavelle and Samantha Mewis join The Herd (With Doug Gottlieb filling in for Colin Cowherd) to talk about their controversial blowout win of Thailand in the group stages that saw the world’s most powerful team run up the score against a punchless Thailand team, 13-0. It was the most goals ever scored by one opponent in a women's World Cup.
There was some backlash around the sport concerning the sportsmanship displayed by Team USA during the game, not only because it was a blowout from start to finish, but because the team was still animatedly celebrating when the onslaught was getting out of control.
Check out the audio below as the two USWNT stars say they have no regret over the ‘incident’ and explain why their focus was simply performing immaculately on the world’s biggest stage just as the goal is for every other team.