REIMS, France, June 11-- The title-holding Americans and former runners-up Sweden began their World Cup campaign with victories as the first round matches of group stage completed in France on Tuesday. Alex Morgan scored five to help the United States destroy Thailand 13-0 in Reims to kick off their defending campaign strongly. It's the biggest scoreline in the quadrennial event's history and Morgan leveled the record held by Michelle Akers who had been the only one scoring five in a World Cup match before tonight's U.S.-Thailand game. The Orlando Pride forward, who turns 30 years old in less than a month, broke the deadlock with a 12-minute header, just six minutes after an earlier effort was ruled offside. Her other goals all came in the second half, respectively on 53, 74, 81 and 87 minutes. And Samantha Mewis and Rose Lavelle each had a brace. "I'm feeling in peak form right now," said the former Lyon player at the post-match press conference. Substituted Carli Lloyd, 36 years and 330 days old, sealed the victory in the second minute into the stoppage time, coming out the oldest goal scorer at the grand competitions, while Mewis' 50-minute score was the 800th goal in the quadrennial event's history Lindsey Horan, Megan Rapinoe, Mallory Pugh and Lloyd also added their names on the score board. Thailand's best chance came in the 28th minute when Rattikan Thongsombut took a long-range shot to force Alyssa Naeher to make her first save, out of two throughout the game. |