On August 19, the Women’s U.S. National team, also the World Cup champions, played a friendly international match against Costa Rica at Finley Stadium.

“I think our team can learn a lot from watching these women play,” Central’s assistant coach, Ashley Harper stated.

“You guys could learn how to get better as a whole by watching them,” Austin Rosenzweig commented, “They move together on the field the way you guys should. They play as a team.”

At 6:30, over 20, 500 fans gathered in the stadium to watch the game. The crowd at Finley that night was the largest for a stand-alone WNT friendly match in the southeastern region of the United States.

Both teams rushed at the ball with high intensity, but not even seven minutes into the game, Carli Lloyd on the Women’s U.S. team fired the ball from 31 yards off a direct free kick. The ball deflected off a Costa Rican defender in the wall, hit the bottom of the crossbar, and bounced into the goal, giving WNT an early lead. Five minutes following, Heather O’ Reilly sunk the ball in with an assist from Carli Lloyd.

Costa Rica’s team grew more aggressive as the score went up, and after two more goals by Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd, Mariana Benavides from Costa Rica pushed a little too hard. After a nasty foul, she was cautioned by the referee and given a yellow card.

About a quarter of the way through the game, a massive storm broke out, and the entire stadium was evacuated to the Tennessee Pavilion across the street. The thunderstorm hovered over the area for around an hour and a half, and to everybody’s surprise, the stadium remained packed full of ecstatic soccer fans. Of the 20,000-plus people, only about 100 of them left due to the rain.

“I was so excited to see them play, just being near them! There was no way I was leaving! Even in the rain, it was great,” Jared Eddy expressed

The game was called back on, despite the raging storm, and everybody returned to their seats. As soon as the game began again, Abby Wambach dribbled powerfully down the field. O’Reilly made a run to the near post and met Wambach’s cross with a powerful header directly into the net, scoring her second goal of the game.

With a score of 6-0, Costa Rica suddenly became goal-hungry, and Karla Villalobos and Cristin Granados from Costa Rica sent two shots past the legendary Golden Glove winner Hope Solo.

After the substitute goalkeeper Yolian Sala made a lovely save, Costa Rica poorly cleared the ball away, and Amy Rodriguez picked it up. She took a good, solid first touch, cut around a defender and sent a cross to Alex Morgan. Morgan chested the ball into the net for U.S.A.’s seventh and final goal of the game.

“You must not have competitiveness, but the ability, regardless of the circumstances you face, to never quit,” Wambach once said.

Both teams fought hard and played a great game with a final score of 7-2. The U.S. will continue their well- deserved victory tour on September 17, 2015, when they face Australia at Ford Field, Detroit, Michigan.