Sophia Smith looks ready to dominate the World Cup for the USWNT

Note to the world: It’s bad to play against Sophia Smith

If Sophia Smith brings her current form to the World Cup, the rest of the world should be on the high alert.

Smith, projected to start for the U.S. women’s national team in New Zealand and Australia, bolstered her NWSL MVP candidacy with a jaw-dropping hat trick as her Portland Thorns won 4-2 in a top-of-the-table clash with the Washington Spirit.

It took something special: the Spirit came into the match with one of the league’s best defensive records, and walked away feeling like they’d largely played well. In an electric 90 minutes that could serve as a calling card for the NWSL as a league, no one had more wattage than Smith.

“[I] thought we turned up and we were fantastic in being brave, and making this more like a game that we wanted to control,” said Washington head coach Mark Parsons.

“But, we played against Sophia Smith.”

Smith’s first goal was a masterpiece. Picking up a smart pass from Sam Coffey, it seemed like the job was to hold onto the ball and wait for support. There were five Spirit players in proximity, and Smith’s angle to her closest teammate Crystal Dunn was blocked.

Normally this isn’t a huge problem for opposition defenses. Best case, you make a tackle. Worst, you contain and win the ball later.

Against Smith? Seven seconds later, she’s celebrating one of the best goals anyone will score this season.

The Spirit equalized within two minutes after Ashley Sanchez — who was one of several players to put in a top-tier performance in this game, only for all to be overshadowed by Smith going supernova — delivered a spectacular backheel to Ashley Hatch on the doorstep.

Washington has been good all year at turning these potential momentum-swing moments to their advantage. But, again, they played Sophia Smith.

The 22-year-old got a bit lucky after blocking USWNT teammate Andi Sullivan’s attempt to flick an awkward bounce out of danger. Instead, the ball fell kindly for Smith, and in a flash, it was 2-1.

“When I’m dribbling towards the goal, if I see a sliver of an open net, I’m taking a shot,” Smith told reporters after the game before adding a casual remark that may read as a terrifying threat to the other 31 teams at this World Cup. “Recently, I’ve had some good luck with shots from distance. So, I’m gonna keep doing that.”

Sanchez would equalize seconds after the halftime break ended, but once again, Smith had the immediate answer. This time, she ran into an improvisational toe-poke from Hina Sugita that caught the Spirit back line stepping up. Smith’s finish was a little easier this time around, but no less clinical.

“Obviously, Sophia Smith’s a great player,” said Sanchez after the match. “When you give her time on the ball, you know bad things are gonna happen.”

Smith ‘the one percent tonight’

Following the game, Parsons acknowledged that his team were punished for some very small mistakes by a very special player.

“Let’s be honest: In those moments, I think 99%, you don’t concede a goal,” said Parsons. “And Sophia Smith decided that she was gonna be the 1% tonight.”

“I have to go into this tournament feeling like my best self, feeling like my most confident self, and I knew this game was important in doing that,” said Smith in evaluating her own performance. “Because if I were to leave this field and feel like I didn’t do what I needed to do, and I wasn’t myself, it’d be a stressful time.”

It seems like she’ll be completely relaxed, then, as her second hat trick in a season that has only seen 13 rounds of games was possibly her best showing as a professional. Even Christine Sinclair, her club teammate and playful banter target, was left wondering if playing a USWNT with Smith would be a good or bad thing at the World Cup.

“I believe the path [for both teams] would mean we’d be playing in the World Cup final, so why not? Let’s go for it,” reasoned the most prolific international goalscorer on the planet, before having a second thought. “Maybe not if she’s in the form that she was in tonight.”

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