Did U.S. Soccer Players Turn Their Back on a World War II Vet Playing the National Anthem?

Following an exhibition match between the U.S. women’s national soccer team and the Mexico women’s soccer team, claims that members of the U.S.team turned their back on 98-year-old World War II veteran Pete DuPré as he performed the national anthem went viral.

This claim has its roots in an article from the Post Millennial, which initially reported that members of the soccer team had turned away from DuPré as he performed the anthem. When team representatives and players  pointed out that they turned to face the American flag,  the Post Millennial changed its article to criticize the players who didn’t turn to face the flag and instead stood facing Dupré:

The Post Millennial later reported this information in a separate article and updated its original article to include the responses from the U.S. women’s soccer team, though the piece still maintains the misleading headline “US women’s soccer team members turned away from flag as 98-year-old WWII vet played the national anthem.”

Video shows that six of the women turned toward the American flag to their right, while five of them remained facing forward while the anthem was played. DuPré has performed the national anthem at U.S. women’s soccer games before and had previously met with the women’s team, and the women’s soccer Twitter account shared a video of the team greeting DuPré before the game began. The communications team for the U.S. soccer team said the women each thanked DuPré individually and shared a video of the team signing a ball for him after the game.

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