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Rozner: USA women have earned soccer celebration

Tim Anderson fires his bat 20 feet past the head of an opposing catcher as he pimps a home run.

And he's cheered around the sports world for having fun and saving the game.

Patrick Kane destroys a goaltender and taunts the road fans, gesturing to them and mocking his competitors.

That's great for hockey, we're told. He's just excited about his personal achievement.

Kahlil Mack does a sack dance with his team ahead by miles late in the game.

It's fantastic, say the experts. He's expressing himself and should be allowed his full artistic vocabulary, regardless of the score and impervious to all else, especially in a manly game like football.

But female soccer players, well, they should know better than to have fun on the field and never at the expense of their fellow players.

It's poor sportsmanship and disrespectful, a shameful display of histrionics and hysterics.

In other words, know your place ladies.

This is No Country for Young Women, not when ancient thinking unites in disgust over the U.S. Women's National Team celebrating at the World Cup when they score goals and win games, something that's absolutely accepted - no, more like encouraged - when it's the men doing the same.

It would be laughable if it weren't so ridiculous, the hyperbolic hypocrisy after Team USA put a beating on Thailand in the opener, a 13-0 thrashing.

Some two weeks ago, it's still the subject of commentary, still on the minds of the American women as they check their enthusiasm, more careful than before, seemingly trying to avoid displays considered offensive at worst and gratuitous at best.

What a shame.

They have been more subdued in the games since, including a 2-1 victory over France on Friday that sent them on to the semis and a match with England on Tuesday (Fox, 2 p.m.).

The double standard is so obvious as to be appalling, if those who think it's still the 1950s had any shame - or their view of the world wasn't through a black-and-white television.

Team USA should have stopped scoring goals goes the tired narrative, should have stopped trying against Thailand, which - if you've ever played sports or been on the bitter end of a pounding - is actually more impertinent.

The other team is always aware when you stop playing the game, a moment more embarrassing than the indignity of the score.

"This is a world championship, so every team that's here has been fantastic to get to this point," said Team USA head coach Jill Ellis. "To be respectful to opponents is to play hard against opponents."

Never mind the fact that scoring goals is actually important in group stage when differential is a tiebreaker.

"As a coach, I don't find it my job to harness my players and rein them in," Ellis said, "because this is what they dreamed about it. This is it for them."

As the decrepit criticism rained down on them, former teammate Abby Wambach, an Olympic gold medalist and World Cup champ, made the case quite simply.

"For all that (take) issue with (scoring) many goals," she tweeted, "for some players this is (their) first World Cup goal, and they should be excited. Imagine it being you out there. This is your dream of playing and then scoring in a World Cup. Celebrate. Would you tell a men's team to not score or celebrate?"

It's unfortunate that in the matches since this occurred, the focus has at times been in the wrong places, the Americans clearly restrained in comparison to that day against Thailand, when many players went out of their way postgame to embrace the Thai goaltender and show great compassion.

But Team USA is one win away from the title game and their behavior is still part of the conversation.

If this were the men, they would be applauded as they go for the jugular and remain ferocious.

For this Team USA, it's unseemly - in No Country for Young Women.

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