Brilliant Brazil star leads Women's World Cup Team of the Round
The Women’s World Cup action down under is in full swing and the first round of fixtures are complete. There have already been some thrillers, with Japan putting five past Zambia, Germany hitting Morocco for six and USA and Spain recording comfortable 3-0 victories in their openers.
With game one done, we take a look at the best XI at the Women’s World Cup so far, which is dominated by Japan, Spain and the USA each with two representatives.
In between the sticks we have Daniela Solera of Costa Rica. The 26-Year-old’s side were on the receiving end of a Spanish masterclass and were defeated 3-0 in their Group C opener.
However, if it had not been for Solera then we could have been looking at a very different scoreline, particularly once Spain had gone 3-0 up inside half an hour. But, the Costa Rica stopper went on to make ten saves in the game a total that no other keeper has bettered so far in the tournament.
The first of a back four is Spain’s Ona Batlle who, of course, kept a clean sheet against Costa Rica. With a WhoScored.com rating of 8.56, it was a very assured performance from the Spaniard. Batlle completed 100% of her tackles and made three interceptions and one clearance.
On the front foot she made one successful dribble and won her one aerial battle, not only that but she supplied three key passes completing an all-round performance from Barcelona’s new arrival.
Group E got off to a very tight start with the Netherlands getting past Portugal in Dunedin with a 1-0 victory. Stefanie van der Gragt scored the only goal of the game when her header, after a lengthy VAR break, broke the deadlock in the 13th minute.
The Inter Milan defender also demonstrated a commanding defensive performance with a 100% win record in the air, completing a total of five aerial wins. She was also astute with the ball at her feet at recorded a pass accuracy of 77%. Deservedly, she was awarded the WhoScored player of the match for her performance.
Columbia got their campaign off to the perfect start with a 2-0 triumph over South Korea in Sydney. It was an all round defensive master class from Jorelyn Carabali who made a total of seven aerial wins, completed one tackle and made eight clearances.
Going forward, she made three successful dribbles and contributed one key pass. She completes the Centre-Back pairing with a WhoScored.com rating of 8.07.
Japan blew Zambia out of the water in their opener in Group C running out 5-0 winners. The star of the show was Jun Endo. She was awarded the WhoScored Player of the Match with a rating of 9.31, and for good reason. The left wing back managed to get herself on the scoresheet and also provided one assist. She completed more dribbles than any other player in the game, with three, and made two tackles in an all-round performance.
The second representative from Japan is Hinata Miyazawa. The 23-Year-Old had a game to remember after finding herself on the scoresheet either side of the break. She had a total of four shots in the game and completed her one attempted dribble.
In with a rating of 9.21 is Spain’s Abelleira. She was outstanding in Spain’s win against Costa Rica and made a total of 10 key passes, which is at least double any other player so far in the World Cup. Not only that, but it’s also more than over half of the teams have managed so far!
Impressively, she made a total of 121 touches, with a pass accuracy of 88%. She also won a total of nine aerial duels and is more than deserving of her inclusion in this XI.
The first American inclusion is Lindsey Horan who makes the cut with a WhoScored.com rating of 9.12 for her performance against Vietnam. The tricky midfielder made seven successful dribbles in the opener and won a total of five aerial duels.
She had five shots, of which one found the back of the net in the 77th minute, to round off an excellent ninety minutes for the Lyon star.
The first of our front three for the first round of games is Brazil’s hattrick hero Ary Borges. Her World Cup is off to an absolute flyer after she was involved in all four of the South American side’s goals against Panama.
She also made a total of five key passes and completed 95% of her total passes on her way to receiving the first WhoScored.com perfect 10 of the competition, and is well worthy of the Player of the Round award.
Alexandra Popp just missed out on a perfect ten but she was awarded Player of the Match for her efforts and her inclusion here is well deserved. She scored two of Germany’s goals on their way to a 6-0 demolition job over Morocco, from her three shots on target.
She also won both of her aerial duels and completed one successful dribble.
Rounding off the strike force is another goal scorer to find the net multiple times in the first round of fixtures, Sophia Smith. The USA hit three past Vietnam, despite missing a penalty, and Smith was at the double with two first half goals.
Smith finishes the round as the second highest rated player with a rating of 9.86, and rightfully so. She made a total of six dribbles, contributed three key passes and had five attempts on goal.
