Rose Lavelle, a midfielder for the United States, has great memories of defeating the Netherlands in the Women’s World Cup final four years ago, but she will be approaching the rematch in Wellington on Thursday with a very different perspective.
With a brilliant solo effort in the 2019 championship game that capitalised on teammate Megan Rapinoe’s previous penalty, Lavelle shot to new heights of fame in American soccer.
But against the Netherlands, which will undoubtedly be the Americans’ biggest challenge in the group round, Lavelle stated that with a new coach and 14 World Cup rookies on her side, she will have a different perspective.
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“I don’t think we ever look back and feel we’re defending something,” Lavelle told reporters.
“We have the mindset that we’re attacking something and that’s how we feel … (2019 is) a fun memory, but I think we just have to take it one game at a time and kind of be present – don’t look too far in the past, don’t look too far forward.”
To the relief of the crowd, the OL Reign regular who had missed the tournament due to a knee injury returned as a second-half replacement in the United States’ 3-0 victory over Vietnam on Saturday.
The team hopes to improve on that performance after they missed multiple scoring opportunities against the tournament rookies, and Lavelle claimed she is healthy and ready to play.
“When maybe you’re not hitting the back of the net, you feel like you have to like capitalise on every single moment,” Lavelle said.
“The more patient we can be, the more probing we can be, it’s going to stretch them a little more.”
The ninth-ranked Netherlands, who defeated Portugal in their opening match of Group E, are playing without their all-time leading scorer Vivianne Miedema because she tore her ACL last year.
However, Lavelle and her colleagues anticipate that the hardy Dutch team, whom the Americans defeated on penalties in the Tokyo Olympic quarterfinals, will be just as deadly.
“Every time we play them, it’s a very physical, intense match,” she said.
“They’re technical, good on set pieces.
“So I think it’s going to be a tough game, but I think we’re really excited for it.”