Lyon’s Catarina Macario makes this spin turn and goal look easy. But Macario is coming on to the ball at a full sprint and is able to spin and get the ball out in front of her and score in what is almost one touch. Just a brilliant goal from Macario. Using the inside of her foot she’s spin and turns to score. There’s just a genius awareness from her in seeing how she could score in this moment.
Macario realizes before she gets to the ball what she wants to do and almost uses the Juventus defender’s body on her to spin into the open space. Again though, she’s coming on to the ball at full speed and then stops on a dime to control and turn with the soccer ball.
A confident goal from Lyon’s Catarina Macario. Lyon earned a place in the UEFA Women’s Champions League semifinal with the win over Juventus.
Catarina Macario is out of this world 🤯
(via @DAZNFootball) pic.twitter.com/HBWvU6q8sm
— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 31, 2022
The Brazilian born Macario is really the future of the women’s national team for the United States. She’s now scoring more goal and starting to feel more and more confident playing for both the United States and Lyon.
Macario grew up playing soccer with her brothers and on boys teams. But girls playing soccer in Brazil isn’t all that common even now. From the NY Times:
“Sadly, I was often the only girl at that time,” said Macario, whose first forays in the sport were games with classmates in a futsal league and on boys’ teams. “It was very much so shamed upon to be a girl and playing soccer.”
She added: “I knew I loved soccer and I wanted to be a professional soccer player, but I would question whether it would even be possible just because of that.”
Less than a decade later, Macario, 21, has carved out a place for herself alongside the top players in the world.