What The Women's Team Had To Say Post-Match

After the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team's historic 5-2 victory over Japan on Sunday, Twitter and Instagram came alive with reactions from World Cup soccer fans from across the globe. The American team made history as the first women's team to secure a three-time World Cup win, and the entire world was on social media to celebrate. The reactions we really needed to hear, though, were from the players themselves. How does it feel to be a world champion? What goes through an athlete's mind after they have just made history?

Watching a World Cup — or any international sporting event — isn't just about tallying up the number of times a ball lands in a net. The final score only tells part of the story. The experience is meant to be emotional, even romantic. I'm not making that up, the science actually supports this idea: as fans, we need to understand our heroes, empathize with them, and imagine that their journey says something about our own. It's not enough to know how many rocks it took for David to slay Goliath. As fans, we want to know how many times David had to practice to get the shot just right. We want to understand what motivated David to show up in the first place.

In the wee hours of the night, as the rest of the world celebrated in their honor, several members of the U.S. women's team headed to social media to give us all peek at what it's like to be a world champion just after the win. Many of them expressed some of the emotions you'd expect after crossing this kind of finish line: elation, gratitude, and overwhelm. Several simply posted a word or picture to try to capture the emotion of the moment. Here are seven reactions from the U.S. Women's National Team players on their big win.

Alex Morgan

In a tweet to her 1.9 million followers after the win, Morgan said simply, "Today we are World Cup champions, and forever we are World Cup Champions."

Lauren Holiday

Midfielder Lauren Holiday scored one of the five goals that sealed the U.S. victory over Japan, more than earning her the right to be among the first to kiss the trophy.

Morgan Brian

The youngest player on the U.S. team, Brian expressed gratitude for her part in the U.S. win.

Hope Solo

The day before the match against Japan, the goalkeeper for the U.S. team tweeted a picture with the hashtag #winitall. On Sunday night, she answered that post with another, this time in the past tense.

Sydney Leroux

Leroux, whose badass Twitter bio says "I kick balls for a living," tweeted after the event: "It doesn't get any better than this."

Heather O'Reilly

Three time Olympic gold medalist Heather O'Reilly tweeted thanks to everyone who supported her long journey to the finals.

Abby Wambach

And finally, while not all the players were present on social media after the game, some of them still managed to make a major impact. Wambach didn't update her social media accounts on Sunday night, but the emotional kiss Wambach shared with her wife set all of social media on fire anyway.

Images: Getty Images (1)