A professional men’s soccer team from the U.K. destroyed a U.S. women’s soccer team 12—0 on Thursday, illustrating in the process the profound physical advantage that male athletes have over their female counterparts.
Wrexham AFC, a professional soccer association based in Wales, took 39 shots in the match to USA’s five, CBS Sports reported. The Wrexham squad was composed of former, current and guest players and the U.S. squad was composed of former players including World Cup winner Heather O’Reilly. In the first 20 minutes of the match, Wrexham scored seven goals.
“We’re super proud,” O’Reilly said after massive loss. “Hopefully we’ve proved to anybody, just go for it, just live. What’s the worst that could happen? We lose 16-0 to Wrexham?”
Despite the resounding defeat, women’s team members just said they were happy to participate.
“We don’t care because we’re living, we’re being bold and we’re being brave,” O’Reilly said. “Here we have two amazing products that American soccer fans are getting behind. It’s just a ton of fun and it’s brought all of us together.”
The U.K. men’s team overwhelming victory against the women comes amid the transgender debate in the U.S. and Europe, where proponents of the movement have insisted that men who transition to women retain no significant biological advantages that would pose unfair competition in sports. In school swimming, volleyball, and other sports at the K-12, collegiate, and professional levels, many female athletes have been handily outperformed by male athletes who entered the female division claiming to be women.
During the 2022 NCAA women’s championship, University of Kentucky female swimmer Riley Gaines tied transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in the 200-yard freestyle event.
“We know testosterone has an effect on performance, outcome and strength,” Gaines said during an appearance on Fox News in March. “Men, on average and this is not opinionated, it’s a fact, men on average are taller, they’re stronger, more powerful, faster than women. Again, to deny that is denying science. We have so much data and scientific evidence that prove this.”
In April, a female high school volleyball player who was injured while competing against a male player last year testified before the North Carolina legislature to the mental and physical trauma she’s dealt with since the incident. Payton McNabb was struck in the face by a ball that was spiked by a male competitor in a match last September.
“I suffered a concussion and neck injury that to this day I’m still recovering from,” she said. Other injuries she’s still living with include impaired vision and partial paralysis on the right side of her body, she said.