REIMS, France: Holders the United States began their defense of the women’s World Cup trophy in style on Tuesday as Alex Morgan scored five times in an incredible, record-setting 13-0 destruction of hapless Thailand in Reims.
Ten of their goals came in the second half as the USA set a new mark for the biggest winning margin in a women’s World Cup match, bettering Germany’s 11-0 defeat of Argentina in 2007.
Rose Lavelle and Samantha Mewis netted twice each while Lindsey Horan, skipper Megan Rapinoe and substitutes Mallory Pugh and Carli Lloyd also found the net for the USA in an embarrassingly one-sided Group F encounter watched by a crowd of more than 18,000 at the Stade Auguste-Delaune.
The result also far outstrips the USA’s own record result in a World Cup match, which had been their 7-0 defeat of Taiwan in the quarter-finals of the first tournament in 1991.
Morgan was the star of the show, with her five goals in one game equalling the record for a player in a World Cup match set by her compatriot Michelle Akers, and taking her to 106 in total for her country on her 164th appearance.
She had an effort disallowed for offside inside five minutes but quickly made up for that by nodding in a Kelley O’Hara cross, before Thai goalkeeper Sukanya Chor Charoenying — standing at just 1.65m tall — allowed Lavelle’s shot to beat her at the near post.
Horan smashed in the third in the 32nd minute, but the floodgates really opened in the second half as Jill Ellis’s side scored four times in six minutes shortly after the restart.
Mewis bagged two either side of Morgan getting her second from close range, before Mewis squared for Lavelle to make it seven.
Only after that did the legendary Lloyd, scorer of a hat-trick in the 2015 final and now 36, come on.
There was a lull and it looked as if Thailand might avoid claiming an unwanted record, but the holders scored six more in the closing stages.
Morgan got three more to equal the record of Akers set in that game against Taiwan in 1991, while Rapinoe, Pugh and Lloyd joined in too as spectators struggled to keep up with the scoring.
The USA, who are aiming to win the trophy for the fourth time overall, now go to Paris where on Sunday they will face Chile, who lost 2-0 to Sweden earlier on Tuesday.
Morgan scores five as USA open World Cup defense with record victory
Morgan scores five as USA open World Cup defense with record victory
- The defending champions orchestrated a record-setting 13-0 destruction of hapless Thailand
Hosts Morocco off to winning start at Africa Cup of Nations
- Soufiane Rahimi had a penalty saved in a frustrating first half for much-fancied Morocco
- Win saw Morocco, Africa’s best team in FIFA rankings in 11th place, to extend world-record winning run to 19 consecutive matches
RABAT: Brahim Diaz and Ayoub El-Kaabi scored second-half goals as hosts Morocco got their Africa Cup of Nations bid off to a winning start by beating minnows Comoros 2-0 in the tournament’s opening game on Sunday.
Soufiane Rahimi had a penalty saved in a frustrating first half for much-fancied Morocco, but Diaz fired home from inside the area 10 minutes after the interval at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in the capital Rabat.
Substitute El-Kaabi then got the second with a stunning overhead kick, and the victory on a wet and cold night sets the Atlas Lions up for the potentially tougher tests to come in Group A against Mali and Zambia.
The result also allowed Morocco, Africa’s best team in the FIFA rankings in 11th place, to extend their world-record winning run to 19 consecutive matches.
The game was played out before a crowd of 60,180, with Moroccan Crown Prince Moulay Hassan — who appeared on the pitch ahead of kick-off — and FIFA president Gianni Infantino among those in attendance.
Morocco’s star man and captain Achraf Hakimi also ended up watching the entire game from the bench, with coach Walid Regragui preserving the Paris Saint-Germain full-back who has not played since suffering an ankle injury with his club at the start of November.
It looked set to be a long night for Comoros when Morocco won a penalty in the 10th minute as playmaker Diaz was tripped inside the box by Iyad Mohamed.
But Rahimi’s spot-kick was kept out by the legs of Yannick Pandor as the Comoros goalkeeper dived to his right, and the visitors then succeeded in thwarting their more illustrious hosts for the remainder of the first half.
- Stunning overhead kick -
However Morocco, who also saw veteran center-back Romain Saiss come off injured early on, succeeded in breaking down their opponents after half-time.
Comoros, the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago who are 108th in the world rankings, had their resistance ended as the opening goal arrived on 55 minutes.
Manchester United’s Noussair Mazraoui, starting at right-back with Hakimi not yet quite fully fit, picked up the ball on the right side of the penalty area and squared for Real Madrid’s Spanish-born number 10 Diaz to score.
Morocco, who had seen Neil El Aynaoui almost break the deadlock just before that, then saw space open up although Comoros had a chance of their own as Rafiki Said was denied when clean through on goal.
Mazraoui forced a good save from Pandor before El-Kaabi, of Greek giants Olympiakos, lit up the occasion by meeting a cross in from the left by Anass Salah-Eddine with a magnificent overhead bicycle kick to make it 2-0.
Morocco’s next game will be on Friday against Mali, who begin their campaign by taking on Zambia in Casablanca on Monday.
Elsewhere on Monday, South Africa face Angola in Marrakech before Mohamed Salah’s Egypt — the record seven-time African champions chasing a first title since 2010 — get their bid up and running against outsiders Zimbabwe in Agadir in Group B.
This latest edition of the Cup of Nations is the first to start in one year and end in another, with the final to take place in Rabat on January 18.
