U.S. coach Jill Ellis defended her players by noting both the importance of goal differential in determining seeding for the tournament's elimination rounds and the need to build her team's confidence, as she was able to play some substitutes. "I don't find it my job to harness my players and rein them in, because this is what they’ve dreamed about, and this is a world championship," she told "The New York Times". "When you have a deluge of goals like that, it's important." Her Thai counterpart, Nuengruethai Sathongwien, also defended the American players, who she noted had encouraged her clearly overmatched team to keep their spirits up.