We often overlook defenders in soccer.

It’s easy to understand why. Goals win soccer matches. They’re more exciting. And who scores goals? Well, not defenders — otherwise their job title would be nonsensical. 

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Defending requires dirty work. Chasing after opposition attackers, nudging them off the ball and committing to tackles in tricky situations. Even when defenders do have the ball at their feet, only a select few shine with their passing range or dribbling skill. 

Even the best defenders in the world — the ones who should command the most attention and the highest price tags — usually tend to fly under the radar because they make the game look too easy. Who do we talk about more these days, Virgil Van Dijk or Harry Maguire? 

I write all this to say: Naomi Girma doesn’t get enough attention. 

In a lackluster World Cup campaign, Girma was one of the United States Women’s National Team’s only players to carry their weight in the tournament. Defense decidedly wasn’t the USWNT’s problem, conceding just one goal in four games. 

Not to mention, Girma was playing with a somewhat unorthodox center back partner: Julie Ertz. The Ertz-Girma duo worked surprisingly well considering that A) Ertz hadn’t played center back consistently since 2017 and B) Ertz had only played three international games before the 2023 World Cup Down Under since the Tokyo Olympics. 

The latter point is especially relevant because Ertz’s sabbatical began before Girma became a national team mainstay. The two had just three friendlies to figure each other out before the most important football tournament in the world — and Ertz didn’t even play center back in those matches. The ability to adapt to a new partner on the fly and immediately forge one of the tournament’s most fruitful partnerships deserves everlasting praise. 

So if we learned anything from the USWNT’s putrid performance at the World Cup, it’s that Girma will absolutely become one of the team’s next legends. Funnily enough, Sophia Smith — the other player from whom the soccer media had predicted a breakout tournament — played college soccer with Girma. 

Girma, Smith and fellow USWNT teammate Catarina Macario all contributed to the Stanford team of 2019 that won the College Cup over the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. That will surely go down as one of the most talented college soccer teams of all time, having produced three core future USWNT players. Girma won the Pac-12 Player of the Year that season, while Macario posted a truly absurd 32 goals and 23 assists and Smith became the number one overall pick in the National Women’s Soccer League draft. 

At the club level, Girma has a stellar resume as well. 

Girma’s San Diego Wave has a real shot at becoming NWSL Champions in the team’s second-ever season. The Wave, who selected Girma with the first overall pick in 2022, will play the OL Reign Nov. 5 for a berth in the final. 

Since the NWSL added its additional club, no true expansion team has won the Championship. Technically, the North Carolina Courage, who won a season after their 2017 founding, had moved the Western New York Flash franchise to the Tri-Cities. A trophy this season would put the Wave in rarified air, and Girma will have played a huge part in that.

She started 19 of 22 regular-season games. Girma doesn’t get stuck into many tackles or intercept the ball with frequency — just 2.25 combined per 90 minutes played — because she doesn’t have to. The Wave tend to control the ball, with 51% average possession in the NWSL. Unusually, that number actually improves on the road, from 49% at home to 54% on other clubs’ grounds. That possession style explains why Girma attempts over 57 passes per game.

Girma doesn’t just pass with frequency, but with accuracy as well, posting 88.2% completion percentage — the second-highest in the league. This becomes even more impressive when you see that Girma has variation in her passing range and doesn’t just rely on short taps between her fellow defenders. 

In the 2023 season, Girma completed 63.7% of her long passes — fifth-best among players who attempted 100 or more passes of 30-plus yards. With medium passes (15-30 yards), she was automatic, with a 94.2% completion rate, the second-best among defenders. 

Part of what worked so well at the World Cup was the balance Girma provided to Ertz’s aggression and defensive midfielder instincts. It alludes to a widespread idea about defensive partnerships: You need a cat and a dog.

Ertz was the dog: stepping forward, pressing, trying to win the ball as high up the field as possible. 

Girma is the perfect cat: calm, cool, collected and able to clean up any mistake at the back.

Get used to that ease and that suaveness. We’ll be seeing it for club and country for a long time. 

Jack Hallinan is a junior writing about the top wunderkinds in men’s and women’s soccer in his column, “Rising Ballers,” which runs every other Thursday.