In addition to her excellent goal, Smith’s full skill set was on display today. Her hold up play was fantastic, enabled by her world class first touch. She also came back to help on defense, covering multiple times for the undermanned and lethargic midfield. She had two other 1-on-1 chances with the keeper that we’d have liked to see her convert, but when you score a brilliant match winner in extra time you get two thumbs way up.

She looked very tired in extra time, alternately making excellent plays followed by terrible giveaways. We’ll forgive  her though because she ran her ass off for the first 90 minutes. She was fantastic again, beating her defender 1-on-1 at least 4 times and often actually drawing a double team from German defenders. She also came back to win the ball multiple times. Our favorite play of hers though was when she flattened Hegering (Germany’s CB) after Hegering took a cheap shot going through Dunn’s back on a loose ball. Way to have your teammate’s back.

Side note…how refreshing is it to watch this clip and no one rolls around on the ground acting like they’ve been broken 17 bones?  

The Trident was 3-for-3 today, all having excellent games. Swanson was quiet for the first 75 minutes in our view, but sprang to life late on and looked like one of the only players who still had extra gas in the tank in stoppage time. Was very effective dropping into midfield to find space and then run at the German back line, like she did on the assist for Smith’s goal. Given we’ve had difficulty advancing the ball through midfield a few games in a row now, we’d like to see her (and Smith) do this more often going forward.

Like Smith, Girma demonstrated the full breadth of her talent today, again staking a claim as the best defender in the world. In fact, we thought she was both our best defender and best midfielder in the same match. She won every ball in her area, covered up mistakes by Sonnett/the midfield, and hit a gorgeous through ball to Smith, the type of ball our midfield could only dream of. She went the full 120 again, remaining the only US outfield player to play every minute of every match.

We’ve already covered this above, so we won’t belabor the point, but they were played off the pitch by Germany today. Coffey was at least good on the ball when she was able to win it, but she and Horan just looked so slow compared to Germany, getting beat far too easily and leaving the back 4 exposed. We finally made some subs at the start of extra time, bringing on Nighswonger for Dunn (who also had been pushing up into midfield when we were in possession) and Albert on for Horan, and proceeded to dominate extra time.

We’ll let you pick which of these stats you find most persuasive on just how bad our starting midfield was:

1) Trinity Rodman had more defensive actions (interceptions, tackles, clearances) today than Coffey, Horan, and Lavelle combined.

2) Korbin Albert had as many defensive actions as the 3 of them combined despite having only 30 minutes of action.

3) Naomi Girma and Jenna Nighswonger both created more “big chances” from defense (1 each) than the starting midfield did (0)

Hayes needs to figure out midfield. It has been several games in a row we’ve left that area of the field undermanned and had to pass the ball around the back all game. When she pushes Lavelle and Horan up so high in attack that they are as high as the front 3, then Lavelle and Horan are basically wasted by standing next to Smith, Swanson, and/or Williams (as shown in the picture above). There’s not enough space for them to all operate, and then we are exposed in defense because they are already behind the play any time our opponent wins the ball.