The U.S. Women’s National Team captured its second-consecutive World Cup title on Sunday and Rose Lavelle played a massive role in the 2-0 win over the Netherlands.
Lavelle came back into the starting lineup and scored the insurance goal in Lyon, earning SBI’s USWNT Woman of the Match honors.
Lavelle went the full 90 minutes since missing the semifinal match with a hamstring injury and put in a strong performance. Her individual brilliance capped the win for the USWNT, slicing through the Netherlands defense and beating Sari van Veenendaal to the bottom-right corner.
Lavelle also finished the match with three successful tackles, one interception, and two successful aerials won.
She also was given the Bronze Ball for the third-best player in the tournament, behind Megan Rapinoe and England’s Lucy Bronze.
Lavelle edged Crystal Dunn, Megan Rapinoe, and Sam Mewis for WOTM honors.
What did you think of Lavelle’s performance on Sunday? Do you see her playing a major role in this team’s future success?
Share your thoughts below.
Gotta recognize Ali Krieger. Maybe not a WOM-level performance, but she came in cold to replace an absolute defensive stud and did not put a foot wrong. She waited basically all Cup long for the call, and when it came she answered.
Honestly, you could pick any one of 8 players + Jill Ellis, and be arguably correct here. But Crystal Dunn and Abby Dahlkemper shut down anyone coming into their space, including The 22 year old Dutch girl who is already the country’s leading all-time scorer. Whenever you allow the opposition only 1 shot on goal in the W/C Final, some people back there have to be doing some kind of a job. I didn’t see one glitch in our end of the field. The Dutch had to play their best soccer to even get close to our penalty area.
I love the way Lavelle plays. But in all honesty, I thought she was mediocre much of the game. She made several unforced errors when the US had good chances to counter in the first half. Her defending was not very good. She gave a lot of space to the Dutch midfielders in the first half. I was wondering if she was tired or worried about aggravating the hamstring. She seemed to play better in the second half. One of the reasons she is a special player is that she is always capable of scoring a great goal at any moment. She should be our next superstar player. For WOTM, I’d argue the Dutch keeper. Without her, this isn’t a competitive match. The Netherlands tactics were excellent as long as the game was tied or if they would have taken a lead. But we all saw how exposed they were once they had to go after the game.
Becky Sauerbrunn – “Best defender in the world!”, gets my vote!!
Absolutely great defender.
Id put Ertz right there as well.
Ertz had a fantastic game under the radar. She is the glue. When Becky went out to get patched up, didnt miss a beat back there.
Great game. Dutch played well to contain and that tall attacker of theirs is going to break the goal womens gold record. Only 22!
This US team, wish they drop mic’ed the trophy. Although that dainty thing would have broken…
Jill Ellis. What a journey she led this group on, with her leadership, her tactics, her guidance. Earned her team’s belief and the team evolved. The team’s ability to solve the tactics to dictate tempo and execute on the fly, like today to have to counter punch to Wiegman’s early tactics and solve to execution, this is an evolved US team and great to see, could have had a few more goals really. Hats off to Jill and her coaching team, a wonderful ride to observe and share and experience. Thank you!!
Honestly, Lavelle was the Top US player in entire World a cup. Rapinoe won Golden Ball with 3 PKs and a botched free kick…..Lavelle was much more dangerous in run of play….very impressive!!!
Crystal Dunn is my pick. She bossed the entire left side.
Yeah, This was the best match Crystal ever played, IMHO. And when you factor in the significance of this match, you have to count her as a “Real Money Player”!!!!