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SALT LAKE CITY — Tuesday afternoon, the United State's women’s national soccer team made history in Game 1 of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.
The team faced up against Thailand, a team they had faced only once before. But after 90 minutes of play, the U.S. had made history with a 13-0 victory. The U.S. was up only 3-0 after the first half, but exploded in the second half.
Starting in the 50th minute, the team scored four goals in the span of six minutes, and six more by the end of the match. The time span is the fastest that four goals have been scored in a single match in World Cup history.
The United States held onto the ball for 75 percent of the game and had 39 attempts compared to Thailand's meager two attempts.
The win is the largest margin of victory in World Cup history, and the United States' largest win since 1991 against Chinese Taipei where they won 7-0.
Before Tuesday's match, the most goals scored in a World Cup match was 11, set by Germany in 2007 in a 11-0 win over Argentina.
With seven different players scoring goals, the match also surpassed the previous record for most individual goal scorers. Alex Morgan, Rose Lavelle, Linsey Horan, Sam Mewis, Megan Rapinoe, Mallory Pugh and Carli Lloyd all contributed at least one goal during the match.
Morgan netted five goals of her own, tying the record with fellow American Michelle Akers for most goals by a single player with five. Akers scored five goals in a 1991 quarterfinal game against Chinese Taipei. Morgan now has scored 106 times internationally, and has scored eight times in a World Cup match, which ties for the third most goals scored in World Cup matches.
Morgan also recorded three assists, which is the most of any player since 2007. Her assists combined with her goals make her the fourth player in tournament history to record more than three goals and one assist in a game. She is the first to have five goals in addition to three assists.
Lloyd’s goal also put her up to eight World Cup goals. She has scored goals in five consecutive World Cup matches since 2015, a record she has tied with Brigit Prinz of Germany.
The U.S. is also the first team to have three different players score multiple goals in a World Cup game. Morgan, Lavelle and Mewis all scored at least twice.
When Pugh scored, she became the 32nd different U.S. player to score in a women’s World Cup. Only Germany has reached that number with 34 different scorers.
Three women from the U.S. also scored their first World Cup goals in the match, and seven players played in their first World Cup game.
Team USA will be back in action against Chile on Sunday at 10 a.m. MDT.
