When a victor claims a moral victory, what is it called?

A friend asked me, "scrooster, when a victor claims a moral victory, what is it called? Is there a name for it?"

I didn't know how to answer. In all of my many years I had never heard of it before.

So my friend explained: "scrooster, let's say a highly ranked winner of a particular game, playing at home in front of their home crowd, had a particularly tough time beating another team who has a losing record, a team that can't finish, a team that has been struggling for years ... when a team beats that far inferior team and then claims what sounds a lot like a moral victory ... even though they won the game ... What is that called?"

So, still confused, I asked, "you mean the team that won claims a moral victory even after they were the actual victors?"

"Yes," he replied.

Damn, I was confused. The thought had never crossed my mind. It was like he was saying the winning team was making excuses for winning.

He went on to give another example. He said, "let's say the team that won, their coach for example, claims that his team was not in shape, had dead legs, etc., etc., explaining why his team played down to the competition ... all of that on top of their fans touting how close the loses (sic Moral Victories) their opponent has had."

"Ohhhhh, yeah ... well, I dunno," I said. "I guess you're right. If I ever noticed someone doing that, I dunno, I guess we could call them 'moral victors'?"

It's a new thing, rarely seen before.

Moral Victors.

Should we get used to seeing this sort of thing more frequently?

If it were added to the Webster Dictionary, what sort of example, how would it be defined? Moral Victors?

By comparison:

quote:

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Moral Victory

noun
a defeat that can be interpreted as a victory on moral terms, for example because the defeated party defended their principles or gave their all in an effort to be victorious - yet failed in the process.

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So this new thing, Moral Victors, would be as .... ?