Fans blast USWNT over silence during national anthem at World Cup

The US Women’s National Soccer team was victorious in its opening match of the 2023 FIFA World Cup — but they’re not winners to fans left fuming after the most of the athletes stayed silent during the national anthem.

Before the reigning women’s World Cup champion team went on to crush newcomer Vietnam 3-0, many of the players stood quietly as the “Star Spangled Banner” blared through New Zealand’s Eden Park arena.

“Can someone teach [the United States Women’s Soccer team] the words to the ‘Star Spangled Banner’?” Their silence was deafening,” one person quipped. 

Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who was pardoned by former President Donald Trump after he was convicted on eight felonies in 2010, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials, called the display “an international embarrassment [sic].” 

“No one should be allowed to wear the American flag, and represent the U.S. if they don’t believe in it,” he wrote. “Most of them don’t even know the words.

The Vietnamese national team, meanwhile, belted out its national song, “Tiến Quân Ca,” or “Song of a Marching Army,” with all 11 players singing along with their right hands over their hands. 

It was first time the anthem had ever been played at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and the newcomer team’s coaches and fans exuberantly joining in. 

“Too bad they all aren’t proud to have hands-on hearts and sing. Vietnam team was sure proud if theirs. Disappointing,” another person wrote. 

Forward Megan Rapinoe, who will retire after the 2023 World Cup, said ahead of the 2019 World Cup that she would “never put my hand over my heart.”

“I’ll probably never sing the national anthem again,” she said at the time.

Rapinoe has continued to kneel during “The Star-Spangled Banner” following protests by NFL player Colin Kaepernick’s in 2016.