Morgan continues brilliant run
Watch out, world.
Alex Morgan will rejoin the U.S. national team playing arguably the best soccer of her life.
Two goals and an assist Sunday from the two-time World Cup champion lifted the expansionist Wave atop the 12-team National Women's Soccer League with a 3-0 victory in Harrison, N.J.
Morgan leads the NWSL with 11 goals in 10 games, already the best season mark in her seven years with at least nine contests.
At 32, she's shown both a youthful energy and a veteran striker's refinement.
She's outsprinting opponents and maintaining stamina. Her deft first touches, which have led to several goals, exhibit a trait that most opponents — including NJ/NY Gotham (3-4-0) Sunday — sorely lack. With each foot, she has pinpointed grounders and liners.
But, in her nearly full first half of the season with San Diego (5-2-3), what's most stood out is Morgan's savvy.
Seeing the game clearly enhances her physical advantages, such as Sunday when the Cal alum twice anticipated where the ball would go, zoomed toward the goal and knocked home dead-eye passes from her former Orlando Pride protege Taylor Kornieck and veteran Sofia Jakobsson to build a 2-0 lead late in the first half.
“Alex is so fun to play with; she works so well with all of us,” said NWSL veteran Makenzy Doniak, who one-touched Morgan's perfect pass for the game's final goal.
So among San Diegans, it's not only Manny Machado who's had an MVP first half to a 2022 season.
Morgan, who wears the same jersey No. 13 as the Padres' slugging third baseman, has led a Wave club that's far outperformed the dismal track records of the NWSL's prior four expansion clubs.
Dating to training camp, she built a rapport with teammates, sharing soccer wisdom accrued in more than 100 NWSL matches, three World Cup seasons and three Olympics. Then, on the field, she showed how to diversify the attack and cash checks.
“I've learned that she is a very good leader in terms of what she does on the pitch,” said coach Casey Stoney, a former Manchester United coach and English national team defender. “She goes about her leadership really quietly off the pitch, in terms of the different things she does that I don't always know about but supporting these younger players.
“I've learned that when she's happy and she's healthy (and) she's in a good spot, she performs well. I just want to keep her there.”
Next for the Wave comes life without Alex.
In three games starting with a July 3 home match, the Wave will lack Morgan and five other teammates — Kornieck (USA), Jakobsson (Sweden), defender Naomi Girma (USA), midfielder Emily van Egmond (Australia) and goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan (Canada) — who are headed to World Cup qualifiers before returning for the final nine games.
With Morgan scoring more than a goal a game, the 23-year-old Kornieck evolving into a two-way standout and Stoney's defense having posted four shutouts, the Wave (18 points) created a cushion in the race for one of six playoff berths.