REIMS,France: The United States began their defence of the women's World Cup football trophy in style on Tuesday as Alex Morgan scored five times in an incredible, record-setting 13-0 destruction of Thailand in Reims.
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.
Rose Lavelle and Samantha Mewis scored twice each while Lindsey Horan, captain Megan Rapinoe and Mallory Pugh and Carli Lloyd also found the net for the USA in an embarrassingly one-sided Group F encounter watched by a crowd of more than 18,000 at the Stade Auguste-Delaune.
The result also far outstrips the USA's own record result in a World Cup match, which had been their 7-0 defeat of Taiwan in the quarter-finals of the first tournament in 1991.
Morgan was the star of the show, with her five goals in one game equalling the record for a player in a World Cup match set by her compatriot Michelle Akers.
She had a goal disallowed for offside inside five minutes but quickly made up for that by nodding in a Kelley O'Hara cross, before Thai goalkeeper Sukanya Chor Charoenying -- standing at just 1.65m tall -- allowed Lavelle's shot to beat her at the near post.
