Congratulations to Midfielder Lauren Holiday for winning the USWNT Famale Player of the Year award.
Lauren Holiday has been one of the most underrated players on the USWNT roster, so it is good to see that her contributions are finally being recognized by winning the USWNT Female Player of the Year award.
#USWNT Midfielder @laurenholiday12 has been voted the U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year. pic.twitter.com/NFLgmXFgnT (@ussoccer_wnt)
— WSN247.com (@WSN247) December 6, 2014
Other candidates for the award were forwards Abby Wambach, Sydney Leroux, Christen Press and Carli Lloyd. Wambach struggled with injuries throughout the year, while Leroux had trouble with consistency. Press had a breakout year for the U.S., but still didn’t feel like it was worthy of player of the year honors. The two it really came down to were Lloyd and Holiday, who are both highly underrated players on the team.
In the end, it was Holiday’s ability to change her role on the team and, not only handle the change, but excel at it that made her achieve player of the year honors.
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Holiday’s traditional position is at central attacking midfield, which was the position she played as a UCLA standout player and that won her U.S. Young Female Athlete of the Year back in 2007. However, the USWNT were faced with difficult situation of finding someone to replace an aging Shannon Boxx. Head Coach Jill Ellis decided to try Holiday in Boxx’s position at center defensive midfield, even though Holiday had been in an attacking position throughout her entire career. Holiday exceeded expectations and excelled at her new role.
She was transformed from an attacking player to a savvy play-maker for the team, while her superb positioning helped her excel in the defensive aspects of the game as well.
It was for these efforts that she was awarded the USWNT Female Player of the Year award.