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U.S. Women's Soccer Sets 13-0 FIFA Record In 1st Game, Beating Thailand

Alex Morgan (second right) celebrates after scoring the United States' 12th goal during the team's 13-0 win over Thailand Tuesday.
Alessandra Tarantino
/
AP
Alex Morgan (second right) celebrates after scoring the United States' 12th goal during the team's 13-0 win over Thailand Tuesday.

Updated at 6: 24 p.m. ET

The U.S. Women's National Team won its first game of the World Cup with the largest margin of victory in FIFA history Tuesday in a wild soccer match against Thailand.

The record-setting night ended at 13-0. No World Cup team, men or women, had ever scored 13 goals before. Alex Morgan scored five. She now ties with Michelle Akers' previous 1991 World Cup record for goals scored in a single game.

"We really just came into the game really wanting to showcase ourselves," Morgan said after the game. "Every goal matters in this tournament and that's what we were working on."

She added that she is "speechless" over her own performance. "The ball just happened to bounce my way," she said.

Thailand, which ranked No. 34 in the world, was considered one of the weaker teams entering the tournament.

Tuesday's match was first of three matches for the U.S. in the tournament's opening round. The American team will take on Chile on Sunday. They will face Sweden on June 20.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Vanessa Romo is a reporter for NPR's News Desk. She covers breaking news on a wide range of topics, weighing in daily on everything from immigration and the treatment of migrant children, to a war-crimes trial where a witness claimed he was the actual killer, to an alleged sex cult. She has also covered the occasional cat-clinging-to-the-hood-of-a-car story.