Women’s World Cup 2023: ‘Yes! Bye!’ – Lineth Beerensteyn celebrates ‘big mouth’ USA exit after defeat to Sweden

Netherlands forward Lineth Beerensteyn says she was delighted by the USA’s exit from the Women’s World Cup, citing the reigning champions’ arrogant attitude to the tournament.

She told reporters ahead of the Netherlands’ quarter-final against Spain: “The first moment when I heard that they were out, I was just thinking, ‘Yes! Bye!’

“From the start of this tournament, they already had a really big mouth. They were talking already about the final and stuff.

“I was just thinking, ‘you first have to show it on the pitch before you are talking’.”

The four-time winners endured a disastrous World Cup campaign after failing to make at least the semi-finals for the first time in tournament history.

They began with a comfortable 3-0 win over debutants Vietnam, but shared the spoils in 1-1 and 0-0 draws with the Netherlands and Portugal, respectively.

That aforementioned shoot-out defeat to Sweden followed, leaving their dreams of an unprecedented third consecutive World Cup title in tatters.

It could have been even more humiliating for Vlatko Andonovski’s side, had Portugal’s Ana Capeta not hit the post in stoppage time of their final group game – a goal which would have eliminated the US at the first-round stage.

“I am not being rude in that way. I mean, I have still a lot of respect for them, but now they are out of the tournament,” added Beerensteyn.

“For them, it’s a thing that they have to take with them in the future – don’t start to talk about something that’s far away.

“I hope that they will learn from that.”

In contrast, the Dutch have made good progress in this year’s tournament and can look forward to a quarter-final against Spain on Friday.

They finished above the USA in Group E, with 7-0 and 1-0 wins over Vietnam and Portugal, respectively, being enough to top the group.

That was followed up with a 2-0 victory over South Africa in the last 16, as they look to reach the final in successive tournaments.