You want the Americans to impose the slaughter rule or patronize their opponents by pretending they didn’t just tack another goal onto the scoreline? Go join the 6-year-olds in the park. Maybe you’ll get a participation trophy and an orange slice while you’re at it.

This is high-level competition, and the Americans have no reason to apologize for treating it as such.

“You don’t want to take your foot off the pedal because you want to respect the game and play through and play them as we would play anyone else,” Kelley O’Hara said. “It is a tournament. Goal differential matters.

“At the end of the day, you can’t feel bad for scoring as many goals as possible.”