USWNT’s early scoring and brace from Catarina Macario lift team over Italy

The U.S women’s national team has recently made a habit of scoring early. The same was true Friday when the U.S. defeated Italy 3-0 at a chilly Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, Fla.

A ball from Rose Lavelle to Olivia Moultrie produced the opening goal in the second minute against Italy, a team the U.S. hadn’t played in 15 years. Lavelle, fresh off an MVP performance for Gotham FC at the NWSL championship last weekend, pulled the strings while Moultrie found a seam to run through and scored her fifth goal for the U.S. in 11 appearances for the team.

In total, the U.S. has scored in the opening two minutes of five games this year: Moultrie (two), Lavelle (one goal, one assist) and Catarina Macario (one goal, one assist). They have scored in the first 10 minutes of their last four matches. And Macario tallied two goals in the second half to boost the final score and record her second brace in two games.

But scoring early does not guarantee wins, as the U.S. showed last month, and the team needed to see out the game. It was Lavelle who scored in the opening minutes of the first of two games against Portugal in October. The U.S. eventually lost that match 2-1. Lavelle told reporters before the game that the loss to Portugal was an opportunity to “learn and grow” from their disappointment in what was one of the team’s worst performances under coach Emma Hayes.

Even with the Portugal performance fresh on the team’s mind and the following 3-1 bounce back a few days later, the U.S. once again stumbled on set pieces. An Italian corner and a free kick in quick succession showed shades of the first performance against Portugal.

On Friday, Italy’s corner came first when center back Elena Linari was left open at the back post. However, the London City Lionesses defender wasn’t able to settle the ball and instead hit it over the crossbar. The second nervy U.S. moment came less than a minute later when midfielder Claire Hutton conceded a free kick roughly 25 yards out from goal. Italian midfielder Manuela Giugliano sent a lofted ball in, but her teammate Michela Cambiaghi hit it the wrong way.

The U.S. found its way back in the second half, putting more pressure on Italy’s typically solid backline. The U.S. added to its 15 shots, including Macario’s two goals. The Chelsea forward now scored in six of the seven previous games and added to her 15-goal total, the highest of any U.S. player this year.

“I’m lucky enough that Emma (Hayes) knows me very well, and she knows what I can bring to the team. It has been a good year. It has been a year that I’ve tried to find some consistency,” Macario told the TNT broadcast. “I’m still trying to find my rhythm and whatnot, but it’s been good.”

Scoring early against Italy is not an easy feat. The 12th-ranked team likes to sit back and defend. In this summer’s European Championship, Le Azzurre reached the semifinals, holding all but Spain scoreless in the first half of four of the five matches they played.

However, the Americans also welcomed a key piece of their defense back with the return of defender Naomi Girma, who missed most of the year with the U.S. due to injury.

Hayes opted for one of her more veteran lineups Friday, with only three starters having fewer than 10 appearances. It marked Girma’s return to the backline for the first time in 149 games, which proved crucial. The 25-year-old donned the captain’s armband for the fourth time as a starter for the U.S.

Girma did not waste time showing why she is one of the best in the world at center back. In the 38th minute, Italy cleared a ball out of its defense, sending Chiara Beccari and Girma on a two-player footrace to the U.S. goal. Battling from midfield all the way into the U.S. 18-yard box, Girma got a foot in front of Beccari’s shot while the U.S. captain was falling off balance. The defensive moment helped the U.S. earn its ninth clean sheet this year.

Lavelle and Girma were the backbone of the U.S. performance against Italy, with Lavelle providing several chances in the first half and taking a few shots on goal herself. Like Girma, Lavelle missed the first half of the year, recovering from ankle surgery.

“It can be tough when you have injuries, and you have a lot of rotation, but at the same time, it allowed us to tap into our depth and allowed a lot of people to get experience in really good, hard games,” Lavelle told the TNT broadcast after the game. “We’ve had some performances where we thought we could do better, but when you face adversity early on, it is going to set you up for success in the long run. We can close out this year knowing we got all of that and then some.”

Despite the strength of her veteran players, Hayes continued her theme of testing out the depth of the U.S. player pool. She gave the 26th and 27th debuts of her two-year tenure to Chicago Stars forward Jameese Joseph and Washington Spirit defender Kate Wiesner in the second half.

The U.S. and Italy meet again Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. ET at Inter Miami’s Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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