Nope...long gone with Patriotism, Modesty, Continence, etc...
“Isn’t ANYONE teaching good sportsmanship anymore????”
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The U.S. Women were in a non-winnable PR situation. When my daughters were playing club basketball occasionally, usually in a tournament when a team was playing up, we would be bracketed against a team that should not have been there. And, my girls team being very good would basically have the game won by the get-go. And, there would be different reactions by the opposing coaches. Some would prefer to just let both sides play. Some would request we play the bench. Some would request that we make three passes before shooting, some would ask that our defense stay behind half court so the other team could get the ball in play. All sorts of stuff. The real problem though was the opposing team was not prepared to play “up” and should not have been allowed to do so as it wasn’t fair to the superior team. Such was the case with the Thai team yesterday. How it ever qualified for the Cup is beyond me. Thirty two teams qualified for the Cup. Makes me wonder if that’s too many. Apparently, women’s world wide soccer talent is not very deep. There are probably several hundred elite soccer teams here in the U.S. that could beat that Thai team.