U.S. SHOULDN’T BE HAMSTRUNG
LAVELLE, RAPINOE READY TO GO IN WORLD CUP FINAL AGAINST NETHERLANDS
LYON, France — The World Cup final is not a game to be missed, and Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle don’t plan to. Lavelle said Friday that she’s “ready to go” after leaving the semifinal against England early in the second half with a hamstring injury. Rapinoe has already said she would be fine for Sunday’s final after not playing against England.
“I’m good,” Lavelle said. “It’s something I’m always paranoid about, but I’ll be fine.”
Lavelle’s paranoia is well-founded, given that she missed the better part of a year after injuring her hamstring in June 2017. She could be seen telling trainers, “It’s my hamstring,” after going down in the 65th minute against England, but she said Friday she was trying to be smart.
“I just didn’t want to be a liability on the field because I do know that with muscles, anything can happen,” Lavelle said. “It was a little bit more precautionary.”
That’s good news for the U.S. Though the Americans have the depth to replace pretty much anyone, Lavelle’s quickness, ballhandling skills and footwork — if you haven’t seen video of her nutmegging an England defender, check it out — will be particularly beneficial if the Netherlands bunkers in.
Rapinoe said she strained her hamstring late in the quarterfinal against France but played another 10 to 15 minutes on it. There was no indication she was injured, so her absence from the starting lineup against England on Tuesday night came as a surprise.
But it became clear something was amiss when she spent most of the warmups on the sideline.
“It was really nothing too serious, but obviously with such a short time between the games, I just wasn’t able to go,” Rapinoe said Wednesday. “And I felt like for myself and for the team it was best to not even try.”
The Americans have four days of rest between the semifinal and final, the longest stretch they’ve had since the second game in the group stage. The Netherlands, meanwhile, will play on three days of rest — which could be a factor with star midfielder Lieke Martens nursing a toe injury.
A teammate stepped on Martens’ foot after she converted a penalty kick — her second goal of the game — to lift the Netherlands over Japan in the round of 16. Martens played in the next two games but came out at halftime against Sweden.
“Didn’t feel good,” Martens said when asked about her foot after the semifinal.