Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In soccer, we often find players taking notes on each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Similar was the case for Houston Dash star Paige Nielsen who revealed she mastered some defensive techniques of Naomi Girma. This comes at the heels of an emphatic display that the San Diego Waves star had exhibited for USWNT during their gold-winning campaign at the Paris Olympics,

Of course, what the American ladies, including Girma, achieved at the Summer Games is beyond praise. This, in turn, inspired Nielsen to adopt some of her national teammates’ and domestic rivals’ strategies to elevate her game against an NWSL rival. As compiled by journalist Theo Lloyd-Hughes on X, before the Houston Dash’s face-off against Orlando Pride, Nielsen admitted that she rewatched USWNT’s opening group stage fixture vs Zambia.

This was done to study Pride’s lethal center forward, Barbra Banda. The 24-year-old has scored 12 goals in NWSL this season, just one goal behind KC Current’s Temwa Chawinga for the Golden Boot. However, when facing USWNT in the Olympics, Banda remained silent throughout the game with mostly Girma denying the striker from finding the back at the net.

Eager to thread a similar performance like Naomi, Nielsen took her pen and paper and noted how patient the US veteran was choosing her defensive moments against Zambia and Banda. She wanted to try and bring that to her performance against Pride. Indeed, one may give it to Nielsen for the effort, only learning the fact that it worked out 50/50!

Though she managed to deny Bandra from scoring on Saturday’s NWSL clash, the unfortunate thing is that the Houston Dash endured a narrow defeat against Orlando Pride, courtesy of Summer Yates’ hour-mark strike. The three points helped the Florida-based club retain its place at the top with a tally of 47 points. On the other hand, the defeat keeps Dash in 13th place with just 14 points.

Regardless, this story must have brought a smile to Girma’s face, knowing that she was able to inspire one of her domestic rivals with her performance. But this brings up the question of what motivates Naomi herself to produce a top-notch performance.

Inspirational Naomi Girma reveals the secret of USWNT transformation during the Paris Olympics

Turning the fortunes of USWNT within 81 days in charge is no less than a magic trick by Emma Hayes. However, Naomi Girma has shared what secret spice was used to achieve such remarkable success. “I think she just came in and allowed us to be ourselves and play freely and express ourselves. I think we have such a good group and to just have that freedom helped us to gel quickly and be successful,” she said.

The 31-year-old claimed that Hayes effectively embraced the ‘work hard and rock harder’ philosophy in her training, and the results are clearly visible. Notably, it wasn’t just the attacking trio of Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson, and Sophia Smith who impressed by netting 12 goals alone; the defense too, including Girma, Tierna Davidson, and goalie Alyssa Naeher did their job quite well, conceding just two goals in six games.

Perhaps it’s not just Naomi Girma but even other players also serve as an example to learn the best any player can.