USA Women's Soccer vs. Costa Rica: Score, Highlights and Grades

There is little doubt that the United States women are the best soccer team in the world, and a 8-0 win over Costa Rica on Saturday resoundingly confirmed this.

There were never any questions over the result of this game, and the United States dominated from the opening whistle.

The team is sending out coach Pia Sundhage in style, as it is playing a series of friendlies on a post-Olympics "Fan Tribute Tour" before Sundhage returns to Sweden and resigns her post.

Here are the highlights and grades from the dominating performance.

Highlights

Abby Wambach shows why she is the best player in the world when the ball is in the air. A perfectly placed corner kick from Megan Rapinoe meant danger for the Costa Ricans, and Wambach went up and over her marker in the 31st minute for the United States' third goal.

Grades

Megan Rapinoe: A

Rapinoe established herself as one of the best women’s soccer players in the world at the Olympics. She is incredibly crafty on the ball and capable of producing blissful attacking moments that lead to incredible goals.

She opened up the scoring in the 14th minute with a wonderful curling free kick that took a slight deflection and bounced off the bottom of the crossbar into the goal. She then earned her second of the game with a shot from distance that was too much for Costa Rican keeper Erica Miranda.

Abby Wambach: A

Wambach also went for a double and showed off her ability to dominate defenders in the penalty area. She notched USA’s second and third goals of this game.

The 32-year-old is still a physically dominating presence, and she proved that in every minute that she spent on the pitch today.

  

Sydney Leroux: A

There is a pattern with the grades here, but when a player scores a goal, they must also make a massive error to earn anything less than an A. There were no glaring mistakes for the United States in this game, and Leroux came off the bench to extend the team’s lead in the second half.

The scrappy striker was first to nearly every ball and scored the team’s sixth goal of the game. The 22-year-old is yet another rising star for the Americans.

Alex Morgan: B+

Morgan played an excellent match, but her teammates set a high standard and I am grading on a curve. If she had scored two goals, she would have earned an A.

Morgan was all over the attacking third of the field, getting her name on the scoresheet in the first half and continuing to play piercing passes to get her teammates in threatening positions.

Costa Rica Defense: C+ 

Giving up eight goals would seem like an easy way to earn an F, but the Costa Ricans did put up a noteworthy effort, especially in the opening part of the game.

It was well into the first half before the game truly got out of hand, thanks to few nice saves from Miranda. The Costa Ricans rank 40th in the world, and they were drastically overmatched.