The US Women’s Soccer Team, set to soon head to New Zealand and Australia to defend its title as World Cup champ for the second time, just played the Wrexham Red Dragons and lost. Wrexham is a team of retired Welsh footballers, some of whom are in their 40s.
The two teams faced off at “The Soccer Tournament,” which took place in North Carolina. The special rules of the tournament, per GiveMeSport, include “no offside, no slide tackles, no throw-ins and a final period in which one of the teams need to reach a target score to win.”
That didn’t go well for the women. The US Women’s Team, the best in the world, got blown out of the water by the retired footballers on the Wrexham team, who won 12-0.
That came despite Heather O’Reilly’s trash-talking before the match, saying, “This is a message for Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, your team is about to go down!”
“This message is for Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) & @RMcElhenney!”@HeatherOReilly had some words for the @Wrexham_AFC owners. 👀 pic.twitter.com/SUdR3YqI8d
— TST (@TST7v7) June 2, 2023
Wrexham did not, in fact, “go down.” Rather, they utterly destroyed the competition. After just 14 minutes they were up 4-0, at the halftime mark they were up 7-0, and they won the match by 12-0. During the match, 46-year-old Lee Trundle managed to score four goals to his name, a “Poker”. Further showing the disparity in the match was that, by the end of the game, the shot count was 39-5, meaning Wrexham had nearly 8 scoring opportunities for every opportunity the women’s team had.
In short, the match was an utter blowout for a sport in which few goals are ever scored when evenly-matched teams play each other. Watch part of the blow out here:
What a start for @Wrexham_AFC!
They score two QUICK goals against the US Women.
📺: @TST7v7 on @peacock pic.twitter.com/A9uo9OaPLn— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) June 2, 2023
O’Reilly, for her part, had changed her tune by halftime. Rather than continuing to mock Wrexham, she went with the “we’re just happy to be here” line of interview answers, saying, “We’re super proud, so happy to be here at this event. Hopefully we’ve proven to anybody, just go for it, just live. What’s the worst thing that could happen? We could lose 16-0 to Wrexham? We don’t care. We’re living, we’re being bold, we’re being brave.”
"What's the worst that could happen? We lose 16-0 to Wrexham? We don't care because we're living, we're being bold, we're being brave."@HeatherOReilly knows the result isn't everything. 🙌
📺: @TST7v7 on @peacock pic.twitter.com/ZOkLOAzEpE— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) June 2, 2023
Here are some highlights of the match:
Wrexham will now continue on to the finals, and the winning team in the tournament will take home a $1 million prize.
The Wrexham Red Dragons is a Welsh Football Club. Wales’ oldest football club and the third-oldest football team in the world. The team here was composed of current and former players from the team, some retired and in their late 40s. The women’s team was also composed of current and former players.
The US Women’s team, despite its World Cup wins, is perhaps best known for demanding “equal pay” to the men’s team despite the men’s team bringing in far more viewers and fans, and thus more money, than the women’s team. Additionally, the team, particularly team member Megan Rapinoe, was known from protesting the National Anthem during the 2019 World Cup.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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