What Happens When Zookeepers Have Too Much Time On Their Hands

The U.S. Women’s National Team has done it again and earned a fourth star on their jerseys after defeating Netherlands 2-0 in the Women’s World Cup final. This year’s team was surrounded by a lot of criticism as to whether their defense would be strong enough, or whether Alyssa Naeher would be able to come up big when needed. Even throughout the tournament, they faced a lot of criticism, some possibly warranted in the way they chose to celebrate each goal in a 13-0 thrashing against Thailand in the tournament opener, and of course politics was brought into it too. There were also questionable calls throughout the tournament, which happens in every major tournament, but perhaps more scrutinized here because it was the first major tournament in which VAR was utilized. However, after all of it, team USA silenced everyone when they earned the trophy beating Spain, France, and England before finally defeating Netherlands.

Netherlands was able to keep USA off the board for the entire first half, which was the first time that had happened in this tournament. However, although the scoreline looked like the game was close, it was Netherlands’ goalie, Sari van Veenendaal who made some amazing saves and kept them in the game. Right before the end of the first half, there was a scary moment when Lieke Martens and Kelley O’Hara collided heads going for a ball. Both remained down for a few minutes and it looked like O’Hara got the worst of it, as she looked visibly shaken and possibly concussed. She was replaced after halftime by Ali Krieger, while Lieke Martens remained in the game until the 70′ when she was replaced by Jill Roord.

USA opened the scoring in the 61′ after Megan Rapinoe converted on a penalty kick after Stefanie van der Gragt made a horrible defensive error in the box trying to defend against an incoming run by Alex Morgan. 8 minutes later, Rose Lavelle scored a great goal to put the team up 2-0 and basically secured the win for the team. Netherlands is a young team that will continue to get better but they just weren’t able to sustain any pressure in this game, and USA showed how dominant they truly are in the sport.

The world is catching up but Team USA will continue to be one of the dominant teams and they proved that they are still the best in the world. Congratulations to Team USA and their fans on another World Cup win! 

Check out some of the pictures from the World Cup Final below!