Yesterday afternoon, Alyssa Naeher performed her a hundred and fifteenth and ultimate sport as a goalkeeper for the U.S. ladies’s soccer staff.
Quietly, she put herself in a pantheon with different nice goalkeepers who’ve worn the U.S. shirt — Mary Harvey, Briana Scurry, and Hope Solo.
Naeher, numerically, might have been higher than all of them. She had 69 shutouts, of which two create a singular distinction. With clear sheets within the 2019 World Cup ultimate and the 2024 Olympics, she is the one goalkeeper to have ever stored opponents goalless in each main competitions over the course of championship video games.
Naeher additionally grew to become a part of U.S. lore in 2024 when she saved three penalty kicks in opposition to Canada in a driving rainstorm within the semifinal of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup. As well as, Naeher took the fourth kick to beat the Leafs within the match. A month later, within the SheBelieves Cup, Naeher did it once more. She stopped three Canadian kicks and scored on a penalty because the States would win within the seventh spherical of the shootout.
How particular is that feat? Because the outdated soccer saying goes, “If you happen to save one penalty kick, you’re completed nicely. If you happen to save two, you’re a hero. If you happen to save three, they may make a statue of you in your hometown.”
Let’s concentrate on that once more: Naeher did it twice. In a global match in opposition to a continental rival.
That’s unbelievable.
Naeher’s efficiency yesterday in opposition to Holland, through which she pulled off some fairly superb saves, showes that maybe she has the sort of expertise to maintain carrying the U.S. equipment. Nevertheless, she could be pushing 39 for the subsequent main worldwide match, the 2027 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup in Brazil.
Which is why, with Naeher’s retirement, the U.S. selectors are wanting right into a void relating to worldwide expertise. In the newest camp, the USA goalkeepers apart from Naeher had precisely one cap.
It’s going to be an attention-grabbing few years to see which goalkeeper will step up. Will it’s Casey Murphy, who’s already sixth in shutouts in U.S. historical past? Will it’s Aubrey Kingsbury, who had her personal three-save penalty shootout win within the NWSL playoffs this 12 months? May it’s Phallon Tullis-Joyce, who performs her soccer for the Manchester United ladies’s staff? May it’s Jane Campbell, who was on the Paris Olympic roster as an alternate? Or is it going to be veteran Adrianna Franch, who has completed nice work within the NWSL for the Portland Thorns, profitable the league’s high goalie award in 2017 and 2018?
If Franch is ready to keep wholesome and get again to the shape she had when she was the CONCACAF Goalkeeper of the Yr in 2017, be careful.
