Megan Rapinoe defends 'in-the-moment' celebration, blames FIFA for disparity: 'It's on FIFA to invest'
The U.S. women’s national team’s 13-0 win over Thailand on Tuesday in their Women’s World Cup opener was as controversial as it was historic.
While the win set a new World Cup mark for victory margin and showcased the greatness of a dominant team, it also drew widespread criticism for player celebrations while running up the score on an overmatched opponent.
The USWNT’s two biggest stars, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, responded to that criticism Thursday in an interview with Fox Sports.
Rapinoe: ‘Pent-up’ emotion played role in outburst
Rapinoe took the opportunity to defend and provide insight into her celebration while laying the blame of the disparate matchup at the feet of FIFA.
"We always want to send a message."@mPinoe and @alexmorgan13 joined our Paris set to talk about the @USWNT's 13-0 opening win and the big debate that followed. #FIFAWWCpic.twitter.com/9uXts5efl9
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) June 13, 2019
Rapinoe directly addressed one of her celebrations that was singled out for criticism when she slid to the turf on her knees and kicked her right leg in the air after scoring to give the U.S. a 9-0 lead.
Celebration a nod to teammate’s knees
She said that the celebration wasn’t orchestrated and was a spontaneous nod to her teammate Ashlyn Harris and her knee problems.
“That’s actually a shout-out to one of my best friends on the team, Ashlyn Harris,” Rapinoe said. “She has these crazy bad knees that she says are terrible all the time. … It was in the moment. It was definitely in the moment.”
“I think just in general for us — obviously we have the utmost respect for all of the opponents we play and will continue to do so forever and ever. I feel like we were pent up. … That sort of explosion of joy was very genuine for us. Honestly, I think we needed it.”
Pressure release
Rapinoe explained the outburst of emotion and joy the USWNT put on display Tuesday as a sort of pressure release after a stressful buildup to World Cup play and a chance to do some team building.
“I think our lead-up has been heavy — everything off the field, all the pressure that’s on us all the time,” Rapinoe said. “For us to be able to just go and play and enjoy ourselves — and bring our bench into it like we did. Obviously everyone wants to play. There’s players on that bench that might not even get to see the field in this tournament.
“To bring everyone in and have that feeling on the first day, which was the last match day, was really important for us and something that was special for us.”
Morgan dismisses critics
Morgan, who previously brushed off the criticism by calling it “disrespectful” to do anything other than play Thailand hard, remained unapologetic.
“We had a pretty dominating performance,” Morgan said. “Of course someone’s going to find something to talk negatively about.”
Rapinoe calls out FIFA
Rapinoe continued on, saying that it’s not up to the USWNT to prevent lopsided scores against overmatched opponents and echoed others who have put the blame on FIFA for not developing a competitive field from top to bottom.
“If we want to talk about strengthening the game top to bottom, let’s talk about FIFA,” Rapinoe said. “Is FIFA putting all the money that they can into all of these federations leading up? I’ve heard stories of Chile only played a couple of games in the last three years, Argentina. I don’t know how many games Thailand played.
“If you want the field to be better top to bottom, we can’t do that by playing that team. We’re just out here playing as well as we can. Obviously our federation supports us very well. For me personally, I think it’s on FIFA to invest a lot more money and mandate to all these federations around the world to invest in their women’s programs.”
The USWNT next faces Chile on Sunday in another matchup that has blowout potential. Don’t expect the U.S. women to lay off the gas if they go up early.
And don’t expect them to apologize after the match if they win big.
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