Jaedyn Shaw may be on the cusp of greatness

Whenever a young player begins to enter the consciousness of fans in football, it’s hard not to get excited over them. When Alex Morgan first burst onto the scene with the USWNT, there was real buzz of anticipation around her and she ended up fulfilling that potential. Mal Swanson was in a similar position when she earned her first senior cap but injuries have stalled her path to becoming one of the best players on the team.

Jaedyn Shaw is on a similar trajectory and her performance against Argentina shows that she is more than capable of not only becoming a star for her club, but also a star for the national team. Whether it’s at the No. 10 position or out wide, Shaw has the ability to break open a game and Argentina had no answer for her last night as she helped herself to two goals on the night.

The match could’ve started in a much different vein however. Early on, Mariana Larroquette noticed that Casey Murphy was off her line and she attempted an audacious shot from roughly 30 yards away. It beat Murphy all ends up and had it been a few inches lower, it would’ve been the opening goal for Argentina. Instead, it bounced off the frame of the goal and the USWNT breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The USWNT then went up the field and Shaw got the opening goal instead.

A quick set piece that Argentina were not prepared for, and remained unprepared for throughout the rest of the match, saw Lindsey Horan find Shaw in space just outside the penalty area. Shaw, with no one around her, decided to drive forward and as Argentina tried to cut off her passing lanes, decided to go for goal herself. The ball squeaked past Laurina Oliveros and the USWNT had the first goal of the game in the 10th minutes.

The quick thinking by both Horan and Shaw is what makes this goal so good. Horan, for seeing that Argentina weren’t ready for a quick free kick; and the awareness by Shaw to realise that she couldn’t get the ball to a teammate but she could score if her effort was accurate and powerful enough to bypass the goalkeeper’s dive.

Sometimes, when a potentially prodigious talent comes though, it’s easy to look at just their attacking output and say, “that’s it, that’s what makes them great” but in modern football, as a forward you can’t just be good in and around the box. You need to also have the ability to work hard and track back if required. Throughout the game, Shaw did all of the hard work you’d see in a midfielder, while also being creatively influential when going forward. So much so that Argentina began to bait her with a more physical approach and interim manager Twila Kilgore wisely chose to take Shaw off later on despite her being on a hat trick.

There’s nothing wrong with a little fire in your belly, but as Shaw develops as a player, she’ll realise that many teams will look to distract her with mire physical play or with cynical fouls, and the best way to bypass that is by not reacting to it all, and scoring goals. In a tournament like the CONCACAF W Gold Cup, many teams will look to do the same against her, so this will be learning curve, but one she seems ready to accept. While also scoring goals, of course.

The commentary team, made up of Kate Scott and Jordan Angeli, made note of how much hard work Jaedyn Shaw puts in defensively. It’s not the norm from attacking players to put in that much effort going back but to see someone so young be so willing to do the so-called “dirty work” shows just how much Shaw understands what it takes to succeed at the highest level.

Shaw isn’t just a goal scorer either. Even at 19 years old, she’s willing to show off a little. Come up with something in the spur of the moment to help out her teammates or put herself in better position in the final third. While most watch the ball, if you have time today, watch Jaedyn Shaw’s movement and overall play throughout her time on the pitch. It wasn’t just her goals that were impressive, it was her ability to read how Argentina were set up as a backline, and thus create dummy runs for her teammates, and it was her ability to produce the necessary footwork to create some space for herself when she was closed down.

More often than not with San Diego, Shaw is asked to play as No. 10, just behind Alex Morgan which lends well to how talented she is and her developing reading of the game. Against Argentina, with Rose Lavelle playing as the 10, Shaw was asked to play out wide and she didn’t skip a beat. Whether she was racing up the sidelines, or combining with Casey Krueger out wide, Shaw was influential throughout. She also did very well when she drifted inside, and occasionally swapped places with Lavelle, as the USWNT tried to break down Argentina’s defensive line. Throughout it all, Shaw showed an aptitude of knowing where the space was in the final third, and then exploiting it to either put herself in position to score, or to help a teammate score.

Her second goal showed as much when she drifted into the centre, with Trinity Rodman in her spot further to the right and with Lavelle outside on the left. Shaw realised that Lavelle had space and also has the ability to know which teammate is in the best position to score, so she raced forward and volleyed home a peach of a goal.

There was another moment in the second half, the 73rd minute to be exact, when Shaw could’ve tried to get her third goal but instead, decided to create an opportunity for Rodman. Unfortunately for them, Rodman was a step too slow and couldn’t capitalise on the moment but it showed once again, Shaw’s awareness of what’s going on around her. She could’ve tried to score there from Lavelle’s cross but she knew it’d be much harder for her than it would be for a wide open Rodman, who if she had anticipated Shaw’s dummy, would’ve had a tap in

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As time goes on with this young group of forwards for the USWNT, a moment like that will result in a goal as Rodman will understand Shaw’s overall play better and be ready for something like that. For now, we can only see it as a missed opportunity but a moment of clarity from a 19-year old in Shaw, who’s understand of the game continues to expand at a fast rate each year.

As time goes on, Shaw’s natural ability and her work rate will continue to meld into a player that anyone would want to have in their team. Her overall play will develop too, whether it be her touch, her efficiency in front of goal, her passing ability, whatever it is. She has time on her side to add on to the already solid foundation she has at this point in her career.

It remains to be seen where ultimately Shaw will play on the national team, be it out wide with license to roam, or as a No. 10. Either way, the excitement she brings as a different type of player than what the USWNT had seen in more recent times is something fans can anticipate every time she steps on the pitch. It’s a new era for the USWNT and it looks like Jaedyn Shaw is ready to embrace all of the opportunities the future has in store for her.