United States beat Paraguay with Morgan hat trick, Lavelle assists

The United States women once again made short work of Paraguay in a 8-0 friendly win in Cincinnati on Tuesday night with Alex Morgan netting a hat trick and Rose Lavelle pulling the strings in the attack.

The U.S. beat Paraguay 9-0 in a friendly last Thursday and picked up right where it left off inside of five minutes when Lavelle's bullet header from a Casey Krueger cross beat goalkeeper Alicia Bobadilla.

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Twenty-one-year-old Sophia Smith doubled the lead minutes later with her first U.S. before Morgan headed home to give the Americans a 3-0 advantage with Lavelle, who is from Cincinnati, setting up both goals.

Morgan then scored her second and the fourth for the U.S. with a well struck volley and Catarina Macario made it 5-0 all inside of 15 minutes with a calm finish from another Lavelle assist.

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Paraguay was able to dig in and see out the half without allowing any more goals before the teams went to their dressing rooms for the break.

Morgan struck again for the U.S. early in the second half with a deft first-time shot to stake Vlatko Andonovski's side to a six-goal lead and complete here hat trick on the night.

The Americans made a host of substitutes on the hour mark, bringing on the retiring Carli Lloyd, who scored five in the previous win over Paraguay, to a rousing ovation from the crowd and she tapped home in the 78th minute before Macario added her second with a sweetly struck volley to make it 8-0.

The U.S. women next play in a pair of friendlies against South Korea on Oct. 21 and 25.