LYON, France — The forwards on the USA girls’s nationwide crew have gotten a lot of the eye throughout the run to the Olympic gold medal recreation, however Naomi Girma — the ever-present pressure within the coronary heart of the crew’s protection — is perhaps the crew’s most essential participant.
With out Girma’s regular demeanor and always-on-time tackling previously two knockout video games, the People virtually absolutely would not have been in place to tug off their pair of dramatic victories.
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“Look, she’s the very best defender I’ve ever seen,” USWNT coach Emma Hayes mentioned after the crew’s 1-0 semifinal win over Germany on Tuesday. “I’ve by no means seen a participant pretty much as good as her on the again. She’s acquired every little thing, poise, composure, she will defend, she anticipates, she leads. [She’s] unbelievable.”
Towards Germany, Girma was in all places: clearing crosses from in entrance of objective, back-stopping when Crystal Dunn surged ahead, beginning offensive strikes (she started the sequence that led to Sophia Smith’s profitable objective) and tackling close to objective at any time when it was obligatory.
Girma and the USWNT protection have allowed simply two targets over 5 video games at these Olympics, with shutouts of their previous two matches.
Veteran goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher likened Girma to USWNT legend Becky Sauerbrunn, who made 219 appearances for the nationwide crew and was the rock of the crew’s again line.
“I feel the world of Naomi,” Naeher mentioned. “I feel she performs simply with a calmness and a steadiness and he or she jogs my memory plenty of Becky truthfully — simply [her] demeanor and the best way she goes about and carries herself and digs in deep and will get the job completed.”
Girma, who was a part of the crew that crashed out of the Girls’s World Cup a 12 months in the past, mentioned she’s most happy to see the USWNT returning to the degrees that she and her teammates know they need to attain.
“I feel final 12 months plenty of us had been transitioning in and now we have been on the nationwide crew,” Girma mentioned. “We performed at their worldwide degree for lots longer and perceive what it takes to win right here.
“I feel it is simply been us all working collectively, counting on one another to get so far.”
That type of humility is commonplace from Girma, however her teammates are much less hesitant to spotlight simply how essential she is to them.
Smith, who scored the profitable objective Tuesday, simply shrugged when requested about Girma.
“She’s insane,” Smith mentioned. “She’s the very best defender on the earth. Nobody can get previous her. She’s the glue to our crew. She actually locks it down. And I do know that everybody on the sphere feels so assured that at any time when the ball is in and across the field, we’ll get it out as a result of we’ve got Nae again there.”
The U.S. girls will tackle Brazil, which beat World Cup champions Spain 4-2 within the different semifinal, within the gold-medal match on Saturday.
