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USWNT blank Netherlands to claim second straight World Cup title

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The U.S. Women’s National Team are top of the Women’s footballing world once again.

Jill Ellis’ side used a pair of second-half goals to down the Netherlands 2-0 on Sunday, to win its second-consecutive World Cup and fourth all-time. Megan Rapinoe’s penalty kick and Rose Lavelle’s insurance goal gave the USWNT its seventh-consecutive win in the tournament.

Both sides were level at halftime, as the Netherlands frustrated the USWNT in the opening half. Dutch goalkeeper and captain Sari Van Veenendaal made an important double save on Sam Mewis and Alex Morgan for the headlining moment of the first 45 minutes.

Rapinoe stepped up and broke the deadlock in the 61st-minute after video review ruled in favor of the USWNT. Stefanie van der Gragt was whistled for a high boot on Morgan, allowing Rapinoe to score her sixth goal of the tournament.

Lavelle’s terrific individual effort sealed the win for the U.S., eight minutes later. After dribbling through midfield, the midfielder opened up for a left-footed shot before rifling one into the bottom-right corner.

Crystal Dunn created space for a close-range chance later in the half, but her shot was punched away by Van Veenendaal. Christen Press and Morgan both had chances to add to the USWNT’s lead, but could not beat the Dutch captain inside of the box.

Rapinoe would win the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball for the USWNT while Alyssa Naeher made one save to earn the clean sheet. Lavelle won the Bronze Ball, finishing as the third-best player in the World Cup behind Rapinoe and England’s Lucy Bronze.

It was also the first defeat in a major tournament for Dutch head coach Sarina Wiegman, in the first meeting between the two sides since 2016.

Comments

  1. IMHO, our U. S. team was simply too quick for the bigger Dutch girls. They were never able to get close enough to the goal to put their power game into effect, before their pockets were picked by our back line. Their only shot on goal came in the 75 minute and it was easily saved by Alyssa N.

    There were 4 areas of the competition where we dominated the tournament.

    1) Our team members whose greatest collective strength was in the fact they had no weaknesses.

    2) Our coaching staff which made all the right moves in every match.

    3) The fans who came to France in such numbers, that you would have thought the venue was in St. Louis based on the cheering our USA side received.

    4) The number 2 which was the number of goals we scored in each of the 5 matches which counted for anything. BTW, no team had ever gone thru the knockout rounds in the W/C and won the W/C without scoring more than 2 goals in any round.

    While every team member contributed, I still believe that the Back Line for the U. S. is the strongest part of their game. What team do you ever remember winning the W/C and not allowing more than 1 goal per match?

    As a side note, the U. S. defeat of France in the quarter-finals was actually 2 defeats in one. Because France losing that match knocked them out of the Olympics next year as well. Defending Olympic Champion Germany also met the same fate. Only England, Sweden and the Netherlands will represent Europe next year at Tokyo. The U. S. should qualify in the CONCACAF Tourney easily, along with Canada, for the 2 spots allocated to CONCACAF.
    Brazil has also qualified in S/A, as has Japan as the host country. There are only 12 spots at the Olympics vs 24 at the W/C. 3 Groups of 4 will advance 8 teams to 3 rounds of knockout competition as before.

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