How USWNT's Rose Lavelle makes a big impact this World Cup

There is a commonly uttered, glass-half-full assurance regarding the injury woes faced by the U.S. women’s national soccer team: If there’s any squad at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand with the talent to cope with such a quandary, it’s the Americans.

To some extent, that proved true in the U.S. team’s 3-0 win over Vietnam to open the group stage Saturday in Auckland, New Zealand. Forced to leave defensive anchor Becky Sauerbrunn at home because a lingering ankle injury? Plug in Julie Ertz and watch her lead the team with 11 clearances and 24 line-breaking passes out of central defense. Lose dynamic winger Mallory Swanson to a torn patellar tendon three months before the tournament? Turn to 21-year-old Trinity Rodman for defense-stretching runs and audacious dribbling (to the tune of a team-high eight ball progressions).

But U.S. Coach Vlatko Andonovski did learn one hard truth about his roster: There’s simply no replacing Rose Lavelle.

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That’s not to say the United States can’t win its third straight World Cup if Lavelle suffers a setback with the knee injury that sidelined her from April until the U.S. squad’s 3-0 win over Vietnam, when she logged 27 minutes off the bench in the Group E opener. But the Americans would certainly have a tougher time — and be considerably less fun to watch doing it.

Before Lavelle entered, the U.S. attack — a front line of Sophia Smith, Alex Morgan and Rodman in front of advanced midfielders Lindsey Horan and Savannah DeMelo — was solid but stagnant. The result never seemed in doubt, thanks to a pair of first-half strikes from Smith, Rodman’s and Morgan’s clever runs, and Horan’s performance pulling the strings. But as the United States struggled to bolster its goal differential (the first group stage tiebreaker) against a Vietnamese team that lost, 9-0, to Spain earlier this month, the tempo on the ball was too sluggish and the movement in midfield too predictable.

As a 63rd-minute substitute for DeMelo, the 25-year-old making her first international start and second appearance, Lavelle slotted into the right side of central midfield and instantly invigorated the U.S. attack.

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A look at the advanced metrics, as documented in FIFA’s technical report from the match, emphasize Lavelle’s impact. When it comes to line breaks — a telling statistic that tracks the number of times a player advances the ball past the opposition’s defensive, midfield or forward lines — Lavelle completed 8 of 8 attempts in her limited minutes, compared to DeMelo’s 4-for-5 afternoon. Lavelle also connected on more passes than DeMelo (14-13) and won more battles for possession (4-0), despite logging less than half as many minutes.

That’s not to say DeMelo underwhelmed — the Racing Louisville standout acquitted herself nicely on the global stage, and Lavelle capitalized on a more open second half as Vietnam loosened up its defensive discipline. But whether it’s DeMelo, Ashley Sanchez, Kristie Mewis or anyone else filling Lavelle’s shoes, there is no straight swap for the OL Reign spark plug’s combination of proactive vision, silky skill and finishing menace.

The Netherlands, the Americans’ opponent Thursday (Wednesday night Eastern) in Wellington, knows that all too well: Lavelle sealed the 2019 World Cup title with an emphatic left-footed finish after carrying the ball through midfield and putting the Dutch defense on its heels with a clever cut. The teams’ next encounter won’t decide which nation goes through — both are all but assured of advancing — but could prove critical to knockout-round seeding, because the Group E winner probably won’t face another team ranked in FIFA’s top 15 until the semifinals. But the Group E runner-up? In all likelihood, a clash with third-ranked Sweden looms in the round of 16.

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So while Andonovski will want to build Lavelle through the group stage, in hopes that she’ll be 90-minutes fit by the time the knockout round rolls around, the U.S. squad could sure use her influence against the Netherlands. As Lavelle showed against Vietnam, she doesn’t need much time to illustrate why she’s one of the world’s premier playmakers.

Graphics and illustration by Artur Galocha with photo by Hannah Peters/FIFA. This story has updated to reflect changes in FIFA statistics.

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