'Should be ashamed': Outrage over 'disgusting' moment at Women's World Cup

The USA have made a massive statement in its first match of the 2019 FIFA World Cup, but it didn't come without a bit of controversy.

The Americans finished with a dominant 13-0 win on Tuesday, but many questioned whether they should have continued to celebrate as they added on more and more misery to their hapless opponents in the record thrashing.

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.

Star striker Alex Morgan netted five by herself, as she and her teammates continued to celebrate finding the back of the net every time.

After her fifth, Morgan could be seen counting out her goals on her fingers, and the continued celebrations caused anger.

“I just think they could have won with some humility and grace, and they just couldn’t manage to do that,” former Canada player Clare Rustad said on TSN’s broadcast.

“Celebrating goals later in the game like this is just completely unnecessary. What is this?”

Fellow Canadian great Kaylyn Kyle was also filthy, blasting the lack of professionalism.

“They’re the No.1 team in the world and for me, I’m disgusted, honestly,” she said.

“You’re going up against a team that’s first time in the World Cup, they’re just happy to be there. Celebrate, I get it.

“But these people counting their goals, I’m embarrassed. I was a female professional athlete; there’s kids watching this and to be celebrating when it’s eight, nine, 10.

“I said in the pre-game, yes, you want to score a lot of goals, yes, you want to make your mark because of the goal difference. But there’s a way to do it, and that is not the way for me.”

‘Every goal could matter’

However Morgan and US coach Jill Ellis have since defended themselves, explaining how important each and every goal is.

"I think in the moment, every time we score a goal in the World Cup it's, you've dreamt of it since you were a little girl, winning a World Cup and being back here for a third time, we want that fourth star," Morgan told reporters.

"We knew that every goal could matter. In this group stage game and when it comes to celebrations, this was a really good team performance tonight and I think it was important for us to celebrate with each other."

Ellis questioned why there are even concerns about how many goals the Americans scored.

"If this is 10-0 in a men's World Cup, are we getting the same questions to be quite honest? I think a World Cup, it is about competing. It is about peaking. It is about priming your players ready for the next game,” she said.

She went on to explain that it was important for the Americans to score as much as possible because the tournament is based on a goal differential criteria.

"This is a World championship so every team that's here has been fantastic to get to this point and I think that to be respectful to opponents is to play hard against opponents," Ellis said.

"Games are games. You have to go out and compete and this is about building momentum.

"As a coach, I don't find it as my job to harness my players and reign them in because this is what they've dreamt about. This is a world championship.

“I respect Thailand, I celebrate that they're here. I spoke to some of the players afterwards and just said to keep their heads up. This is part of growth of the game."

Morgan elaborated on the growth of the game, and explained that USA's win was important for making a case for FIFA to add more funding for certain federations to make the World Cup stage more competitive.

"With the score line tonight, we have to look at the group stage as every goal counts and it was important for us to continue to go," Morgan said.

"But for these 24 teams, it's a great opportunity for women to showcase what they've worked their entire life for and not every federation gives the same financial effort to their women's side and that's unfortunate."

with agencies