After missing the semifinal match vs. England, icon Megan Rapinoe returned from her hamstring injury to score one last goal (another successful penalty kick) that turned out to be the game-winner on the way to the double award sweep of the Golden Ball (best player) and Golden Boot (top scorer with 6 goals and 3 assists). At 34, this more than likely was her last World Cup match (same for Carli Lloyd who came on for the last 3 minutes as a substitute) so what a way to go out after an absolutely brilliant stay in France. Midfielder Rose Lavelle had the highlight of what was truthfully a rather boring Final as she blasted in the insurance goal for a 2-0 U.S. lead after one of the best goals of the tournament.
Coming into this matchup, I felt like there was a good chance that the Netherlands wouldn't be ready for this type of moment and what do you know, I was right! Let's not forgot that although they won the 2017 Euros, this was only their second ever appearance in the World Cup following 2015's loss in the Round of 16. They also had never trailed in France and held the U.S. scoreless in the first half thanks to some incredible saves by their goalkeeper Sar Van Veendendaal. The Dutch surprisingly made it this far playing in low-scoring, defensive struggles but that is not exactly the recipe to defeat a true juggernaut like the U.S.
Possession was relatively even (54%-46% in favor of the Americans) but the U.S. outshot them 17-5 with 10 times as many (!) of those on goal (10-1). Van Veendendaal (who won the Golden Glove) was forced to make eight saves while U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher might as well have taken a nap since she only had to make a lone save in over 90 minutes of "action." Finally, the U.S. had four times as many corner kicks (8-2) so it is probably an upset that the Netherlands were able to hold the line at 0-0 for that long.
The first half wasn't a classic by any means (much like the match itself) but the U.S. should have been up by at least a goal or two if it wasn't for Van Veendendaal's heroics. She knocked away Julie Ertz's quick turnaround shot that came from a loose ball in the box, a header by Samantha Mewis hit her in the ribs, she stopped a shot from Alex Morgan that also hit the post and yet again she stoned Morgan who took a curling shot from outside the box. The Americans also suffered an injury to defender Kelley O'Hara in the closing minutes of the opening 45 minutes: she went up for a header and hit her head very hard against her Dutch opponent. She lay on the field barely moving (knocked out?) but eventually got up and walked off so it wasn't shocking to see Ali Krieger replace her to start the second half since she undoubtedly had to have concussion-like symptoms.
Like Rapinoe, Morgan finished with six goals and three assists (in more time so I guess that was the tiebreaker) in France and you could make a valid case that she worked harder for those numbers since she seemed to get physically beat up during every single game. Haha well maybe not against Thailand where she scored a whopping five goals but that's besides the point. She drew the penalty kick that was taken by Rapinoe in the 61st minute and Lavelle put this to bed eight minutes later after an assist from Mewis. Rapinoe's goal was the 50th of her U.S. career and I'm comfortable saying that Lavelle has never scored a bigger goal in her life.
It's easy to acknowledge it now after the fact but France, England and even Sweden (you could argue) all gave the U.S. a tougher test than the Netherlands. It was clear from the beginning today that the Dutch were probably just happy to be here and knew in their heart of hearts that they didn't have a true shot to win the crown barring something crazy going down. That's not to say that they didn't deserve to be here or that they weren't a worthy opponent, just that the Final was not close to the most exciting of the seven matches that the Americans had in the past month.
Finally the hard truth for U.S. soccer fans: just like in 2015, this World Cup journey for the USWNT has been an utter joy to witness on many levels. However, we can't bury our collective heads in the sand and pretend that all that matters for women's soccer is this event which only happens every four years. Nope, for the sport to continue to build off of this incredible momentum, they need the NWSL (National Women's Soccer League) to be way more relevant.
That means that if you liked what you saw at the World Cup, you should check out the league that many of these players compete in. ESPN picked up many of its games to broadcast for the remainder of the season culminating with the playoffs. The NWSL has lost money for years, hence why so many of the top players (Americans and beyond) have gone to play in Europe to rightfully earn bigger paychecks. We have to do a better job of supporting this product day-to-day rather than year-to-year, otherwise we'll be stuck in purgatory having these same frustrating conversations about wage inequality forever.
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