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Midfielder Catarina Macario has long been seen as a future star of the US Women’s National Team.
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In the third match of the 2022 SheBelieves Cup, she showed the world that she’s a star right now.
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Macario scored two stellar goals and added an assist to help the USWNT win the tournament.
The US Women’s National Team’s next superstar is here.
Catarina Macario — the Brazilian-born attacking midfielder who waged a fight with FIFA for eligibility to play on the USWNT — has found her stride a year into her tenure with the Stars and Stripes.
The 22-year-old Stanford standout had massive expectations placed on her shoulders well before she even stepped foot on the pitch for the USWNT. And since earning her first cap in January 2021, she’s shown flashes of brilliance that left fans lusting for what’s to come.
But on Wednesday, during the reigning World Cup champions’ third of three games in the 2022 SheBelieves Cup, Macario made an indisputable statement that she is no longer the future of the national team.
She is the now.
Macario scored two unbelievable, mind-boggling goals and added an assist in the USWNT’s 5-0 rout of Iceland in Frisco, Texas. She earned SheBelieves Cup MVP honors after leading the US to its third straight title at the annual tournament and its fifth win since 2016.
Let’s take a look at the golazos, shall we?
Macario — who played as a false 9, or a center forward positioned just in front of the midfield throughout the match — opened up the scoring in the 37th minute. She dribbled into the top left corner of the 18-yard box, juked out her defender, then launched a rocket towards the far side of the goal.
The ball ricocheted hard off the right post and bounced into the back of the net.
Goal. 1-0 United States.
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Somehow, the slow motion is even better:
“I knew as soon as I hit it that that was some good contact on the ball,” Macario said of the shot after the game. “It was kind of far away, and there were a lot of players in front of me, so I was peeking over to see if it was going in.”
Just seven minutes later, she did it again. Forward Mallory Pugh sent a dribbling pass across the box and past her teammates. Macario ran on the ball, twisted her hips, and chipped the ball over the goalkeeper’s head and into the side netting of the goal.
2-0 United States.
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The USWNT did not have its next match scheduled as of the end of the SheBelieves Cup. But fans can watch Macario compete on the club level as she returns to France to rejoin Olympique Lyonnais — better known as Lyon — amidst a remarkable rookie season with the European powerhouse.
She’ll play her first Champions League game of 2022 against Italian side Juventus on March 23.
Read the original article on Insider