Americans awoke on Sunday morning to find themselves bathing in wave after wave of schadenfreude. In Melbourne, the unthinkable had happened: the US Women’s National Team had been defeated – and eliminated from the football World Cup.
The online criticism was unrelenting. ‘They really are equal to the men’s team,’ said The Spectator World’s Stephen L. Miller. ‘Any men’s team that was as cocky as this US women’s soccer team and got eliminated this early in a shocking upset would get absolutely obliterated by sports media,’ tweeted radio host Clay Travis.
The US women are already widely disliked internationally for appearing cocky
After a languid and leggy group stage performance that saw the team fail to win for the first time since 2015 and go through to the knockout stages in second place, America’s ladies looked much more positive in regulation time against Sweden. But a gargantuan performance from Swedish goalkeeper Zećira Mušović kept the US at bay – and after 120 minutes it was time for penalties.
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