Megan Rapinoe blasts ‘absurd’ criticism over World Cup laugh
Megan Rapinoe caught plenty of heat following the U.S. Women’s National Team’s World Cup debacle earlier this month, particularly the fallout of her missed penalty kick in an elimination loss to Sweden — criticism she believes is “absurd and outrageous.”
The 38-year-old Rapinoe addressed in a new interview with The Atlantic the brutal miss, after which she was seen staring down at the pitch, laughing in apparent disbelief after her ball sailed over the net, a moment that ignited furor from her detractors.
“I’ve been lucky not to miss a lot in actual competition, but eventually, that can happen. But I love taking them. I would take them all the time. I would take that one again. I would pick me to take them,” Rapinoe said.
“For a long time, I have thought about missing one in a really big moment. What are you going to do? The only other thing you could do is to not take one. I’m not going to do that. I would rather step up and be in that moment.
“And I think that’s something that made the criticism after that loss particularly fake and disingenuous and absurd and outrageous to me. It’s like, you’re going to bash on me for getting out there and trying my best?”
Rapinoe likened the missed kick to a “sick joke” as the United States was ousted before the semifinals for the first time.
“That’s like a sick, sick joke. I’ve never hit it over, when I miss they are saved. That’s why I had that smile on my face,” Rapinoe said of the final moment of her World Cup career. “I’m like, ‘You’ve got to be f–king kidding me.’ I’m going to miss a penalty?’ Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I missed.”
Former President Donald Trump mocked Rapinoe in the wake of the USWNT’s early exit, writing in part on the Truth Social platform: “The ‘shocking and totally unexpected’ loss by the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team to Sweden is fully emblematic of what is happening to our once great Nation under Crooked Joe Biden,” and “Nice shot Megan.”
“What he’s saying is fake. It’s a compilation of hit words and hot-button words that don’t actually make any sort of sense or square with reality at all … I think, just in general, the way that our team was spoken about over the course of the tournament, it was fake,” she told The Atlantic.
Rapinoe, who retires with two World Cup titles in 2015 and 2019, reflected on this year’s tournament in a candid Instagram post.
“This game is so beautiful, even in its cruelest moments. This group was so very special, and I am immensely proud of every single one of us. This team is in special hands as I walk away, just like it always was, and always will be,” she wrote in the Aug. 9 post.
“Because that is what this team is all about. We lay it all out on the line every single time. Fighting with everything that we have, for everything we deserve, for every person we possibly can.”
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