The United States are world champions once again!

Dominating from start to finish, the United States women’s soccer team claimed its fourth Women’s World Cup title on Sunday, beating the Netherlands, 2-0, in Lyon, France, to repeat as world champions.

Led by Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle, the USWNT scored two goals in the second half to pull away from a Netherlands team that was making its first World Cup final appearance.

With the win, the USWNT captured its fourth World Cup title, marking the first time that the program has won back-to-back World Cup trophies.

Throughout the tournament, the Netherlands defense had been outstanding as it came into Sunday’s championship game having allowed just three goals. That defense was matched up against a potent USWNT offense that came in having scored a goal in every World Cup game this year in the first 12 minutes. While the Netherlands defense put a stop to USA’s streak, the defense couldn’t hold them off forever as the USWNT scored two goals in the second half.

Rapinoe broke the scoreless game in the 61st minute when she converted a penalty kick after Alex Morgan drew the foul after going down in the box. Lavelle then added an insurance goal in the 69th minute as she dribbled the ball down the middle of the field before unleashing a powerful left-footed kick that found the back of the net to put the United States up 2-0.

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Awards

Rapinoe won the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top scorer as well as the Golden Ball as its top player. Alex Morgan took home the Silver Boot. Both players tallied six goals and three assists, but Rapinoe played less minutes overall, the first tiebreaker to determine the winner of the Golden Boot. Rose Lavelle also took home the Bronze Ball for the U.S. as the tournament’s third best player. 

Most Goals In A Single Women’s World Cup 

The U.S. broke all sorts of records in this World Cup, including the tournament record for most goals overall, while continuing their streak of most consecutive World Cup wins and adding to their record amount of titles. 

1) United States – 26 (2019)

2) Germany – 25 (2003)

3) United States – 25 (1991)

4) Norway – 23 (1995)

World Cup Longest Winning Streak

1) USA – 2015-19 (12)

2) Norway – 1995-99 (10)

T-3rd) Germany – 2007-11 (7)

T-3rd) Germany – 2003-07 (7)

T-5th) Netherlands – 2019 (6)

T-5th) England – 2015-2019 (6)

Most FIFA Women’s World Cup Titles

1) USA (4)

2) Germany (2)

T-3rd) Japan (1)

T-3rd) Norway (1)

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The founder of Stadium Sportzz and the Sportzz with Spencer podcast, Spencer hopes to one day achieve his dream of working in the world of sports media after completing his Bachelor's degree. Spencer first gained experience in the field of sports writing as a high school senior, where he became the first intern to have a published byline writing for The Spectrum & Daily News in St. George, Utah. Later in the fall of 2017, he was the sports editor for independent campus news source Thunderground and the public address announcer for the women's soccer team at Southern Utah University. Since then, Spencer has worked as a high school sports reporter in St. George, writing for both St. George News and Southern Utah Now. Spencer is also an avid freelancer and has had works appear in the Deseret News, Standard-Examiner, RSL Soapbox, and Fansided's Venom Strikes. Currently, he is a regular contributor to Fan-Insider.com and the UK-based Tottenham site, SpursWeb. When he isn't playing, watching, writing about, or discussing sports, Spencer enjoys working as a part-time athletics PA voice at Utah Tech University and spending time with his amazing wife.