Credit: Twitter
In the round of 16 of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, the defending champions United States of America bowed out of the tournament, after losing against Sweden on penalties by 5-4, at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on August 6, Thursday. With that, the USWNT failed to finish in the top three of the World Cup for the first time in their illustrious history.
Notably, the four-time champions USA played a great brand of football throughout the match, but they couldn’t find that all-elusive goal. The Swedish goalkeeper Zecira Musovic was inspirational for her side, keeping the star-studded lineup from the USWNT at bay. Overall, there were 11 attempts on target from the Americans, while the Sweden team managed to register only one.
After the goalless 120 minutes in Melbourne, the pre-quarterfinal went to a penalty shootout where both goalkeepers from their respective sides put on an absolute clinic. Zecira Musovic from Sweden was on the winning side after the American goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher couldn’t stop a Lina Hurtig penalty from going into the goal.
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Piers Morgan, the English broadcasting journalist, also tore into Megan Rapinoe, with a tweet, which read, “On a positive note, Ms Rapinoe wants to pack the USWNT with biological males, so they should win everything going forward.”
The moment the USWNT suffered a tough fate in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, social media was flooded with fans reacting in many different ways to their defeat. Some of the Twitter users were in disbelief, while others were wondering what had gone wrong in the round of 16 matches for the USA.
Check viral fan reactions:
Megan Rapinoe, who had missed one of the penalties in the shootout, was heavily criticized by American fans on social media. The users on Twitter put the hate on her, especially because she seemingly laughed on camera, after putting her penalty over the crossbar.
