Canada's Lauren Sesselmann responds to haters

Lauren Sesselmann, a member of Canada’s national soccer team, fired back to her haters late Sunday evening on her personal Instagram account.

Sesselmann was the defender who slipped and fell in Canada’s quarter-final loss at the Women’s World Cup, which led to the first goal from England’s Jodie Taylor.

The turnover was a costly error and it likely cost Canada a trip to the semi-final. Canada outplayed England for most of the match, but lost the game 2-1. But there is likely nobody who feels worse about it than Sesselmann herself.

We now live in a time with Twitter and Instagram, where fans can voice their displeasure directly to the source of their anger. And they can be cruel.

It comes as no surprise then, that Sesselmann was the target of some hate online. She took to Instagram to fire back:

Words cannot describe how utterly heartbroken I am. The tears have not stopped flowing and this one is going to hurt for a really really long time. Yes I slipped, yes they scored and yes you can blame me all you want..If that’s what makes you feel better fine. No one knows how hard I worked to get back from injury to be a part of this special team and make a difference. I know my worth and I know all the great things I’ve done to help this team get here. For all you classless people with your negative comments and threats you know absolutely nothing. You can sit there and choose to focus on every negative and pick apart our team BUT you have NO IDEA how much passion, heart and hard work this team puts in. No matter what any of you say I am so damn proud to wear this jersey and so damn proud of what we have accomplished and how hard we fought. Yes we arn’t perfect and yes we ALL made mistakes, every great athlete makes mistakes..YOU even make mistakes..it’s part of life…but it’s how you respond that matters, and we never stopped fighting. And I can promise you all this…WE WILL be back and WE WILL be better. THANK YOU to all the fans who have supported us thru thick and thin…and Thank you to my friends and family…Who ALWAYS believe in me and pick me up when I fall. I am so proud to play alongside all of these beautiful and talented women…This truly will be a journey I will never forget. I you all and can’t wait for what’s to come. The future is extremely bright. #TrueNorthStrong #Family #Sisterhood #TogetherWeRise

A photo posted by Lauren Sesselmann (@lsesselm) on Jun 28, 2015 at 11:46pm PDT

Sesselmann has been on the Canadian national team for four years and helped Canada win a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. In short, she has helped Canada get to where they are today.

This shouldn’t put a damper on what was a great tournament for women’s soccer in Canada. The team captured the attention of the country and particularly in the city of Vancouver where BC Place and the FIFA Fan Zone were completely packed to watch the quarter-final matchup on Saturday.

The future of women’s soccer is bright in Canada, and Lauren Sesselmann is a big part of that.

[am2_see_also]