June 28 (2019)

The United States defeats host France, 2-1, in the Women’s World Cup quarterfinals in what one major sports media outlet will call “a match for the ages.” While Megan Rapinoe scores both goals for the winners, St. Louis native Becky Sauerbrunn (pictured) comes up big on defense, so much so that “Becky Sauerbrunn made a strong case as the best defender in the world,” Graham Hays will write for espnW.com. Sauerbrunn credits the team play of the U.S. women, saying, “The pressure we absorbed, we played a defensive formation. When you do that, you hold a lower block closer to your own goal to make it harder for them to break down, denying crosses and nice shots from in front . . . Their outside backs and their center backs had the ball a lot, and that’s just something that we wanted them to have as opposed to their attacking players.” A measure of the tight lid that Sauerbrunn and teammates put on the U.S. goal is that France manages few good offensive chances during the run of play. France’s goal comes on a header off a free kick in the second half. Sauerbrunn will earn her fourth National Women’s Soccer League Defender of the Year Award later in 2019. Her cap total, already the highest among all players, male and female, in St. Louis soccer history, will reach 216 before an injury prevents the 38-year-old defender from playing in her fourth World Cup in 2023.