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THREAD: How @catarinamacario's brilliant soccer play lead to the #USWNT’s 4th goal last night (demonstrating why she MUST be on the @NBCOlympics roster, no matter who has to be cut to make space). #USAvsCOL @USWNT
First the video:
First the video:
To start, Macario finds a great spot between the defenders and shows for Julie Ertz to make the pass.
Ertz pass is behind her though, so Macario knows she’s going to have to receive it with her back to the defense. She smartly takes a quick glance over her shoulder to confirm she’s got space and makes a quick spin move upon receiving the ball.
She’s ready to attack right away. She could have kicked a through ball for Lloyd right away, but Lloyd is closely covered (and also not the fastest player on the pitch).
So Macario wisely takes an additional touch, forcing the defender guarding Lloyd to let Lloyd go.
With this touch, Macario also gets away from the nearer defender to her right and forces Lloyds defender to pay even more attention to her. Meanwhile, Mewis (off screen) and others are given time to push up and join the attack.
Having kept the ball, Macario’s now drawn 3 defenders to her. And a 4th defender (#16) is so concerned about her she cuts behind the others to back them up. Lloyd sees she’s now been freed to make an even deeper run and Lloyd’s defender is in a serious pickle now.
Macario continues her run and she's now given Lloyd a ridiculous amount of space.
Recognizing she’s done enough, Macario makes the pass. Lloyd’s defender finally sprints to Lloyd, but the distance is too great.
Macario passes the ball with perfect pace to where she knows Lloyd wants to go (not where she is). How is it possible that this is Macario's first cap with the USWNT???
Macario gave Lloyd so much space that Lloyd’s defender (#2) has to give up and just rotate behind #16 to back her up. Lloyd now has the ball, space, a 1-on-1 situation and tons of teammates in the box waiting for her cross.
Because the defenders that had to guard Macario are so far behind the play, Lloyd can move either left or right to take the cross.
Lloyd makes a nice fake and heads left toward the endline.
Lloyd’s original defender still hasn’t caught up to the play, so now another defender (#3) steps in toward Lloyd to try to contain her if necessary. (Macario heads over toward some nice open space in the box.)
Because #3 had to step up to contain Lloyd, Mewis is now wide open for the cross. Lloyd nicely threads the needle- getting her cross off before #2 can get there and before #3 can close the lane to Mewis.
Mewis makes a nice volley into the goal. The focus is on Mewis as the goal scorer, and Lloyd for her assist, but none of this would have happened without Macario's quick attack, her drawing the defense to her and then making the perfect pass. She makes players around her better.
For the record, Macario probably should have also had an assist on this wall pass to Horan last night. She gave Horan the ball in the box with a lot of space to shoot. Her teammates will be more ready to take advantage of her brilliant passing as she gets more caps. /end
Addendum. This is a good example of why Columbia's defenders felt the need to try to contain Catarina Macario as a dribbler on the 4th goal, as discussed above. #USWNT #USAvCOL https://twitter.com/joeclowery/status/1351613721718603776?s=20
Addendum #2. Here's a close-up view of the #USWNT's 4th goal. You can really see Macario's confidence on the ball. If she can display that same confidence against top 10 teams next month in @shebelievescup, I think she'll earn her spot in the Olympics. https://twitter.com/USWNT/status/1351632483163516928?s=20
