U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe faces backlash after ‘lose to Canada’ remark

American soccer star Megan Rapinoe is facing strong backlash online, particularly north of the border, following some rather blunt remarks she made after her team’s loss to Canada at the Tokyo Olympics.

Canada defeated the U.S. squad by a score of 1-0 on Monday after London, Ont.’s Jessie Fleming scored a penalty goal. The U.S. team has dominated the sport for the last several years, so it came as a shock to the squad, which was commanding throughout the rest of the scoreless game.

The American loss also shattered a 20-year win streak they had been holding over Canada, which added even more fuel to the fire. The U.S. team will battle for bronze against Australia and the Canadians will take on Sweden for the gold medal on Thursday.

“It’s terrible,” said Rapinoe to ESPN. “We just didn’t have it today. Just too many errors from us again. I felt like the space was there for us to play and we just couldn’t get into it, too many touches or, you know, an errant touch.”

“So yeah, it’s a bitter one to swallow,” the 36-year-old continued. “Obviously we never want to lose to Canada. I don’t think I’ve ever lost to Canada.

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“So it’s a bitter one. Obviously, there’s still a lot to compete for. That’s what I told the girls and what we talked about in the huddle. It’s not the colour we want, but there’s still a medal on the line. That’s a huge thing and we want to win that game, but yeah, this is… this sucks. It sucks.”

Social media was quick to react to the soccer star’s remarks, with many people calling her a poor sport. Others revelled in her obvious disappointment.

The U.S. Women’s National Team officially congratulated Canada from its Twitter account.

This will be the first time in Olympics history that Canada will compete for a gold medal in women’s soccer. The country finished third at both the 2012 London Games and the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.