Catarina Macario poised for breakout in second year with US

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Catarina Macario is looking to make more of an impact in her sophomore year with the U.S. national team.

So far, she's off to a fine start.

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Macario started all three games of the team's SheBelieves Cup tournament at center forward, scoring a pair of goals in the final match against Iceland on Wednesday for the tournament title. She was named the SheBelieves MVP.

"We saw in the three games, from game one to game three, how Cat grew," U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski said. "But mostly, we saw how the team grew around Cat, and understanding her movements, understanding her positioning, the angles, the balls that she’s playing. That’s where we grew the most."

Going into the tournament, that growth was the 22-year-old's top goal.

"I’ve had my rookie year essentially, I’ve had my time for mistakes, and by no means is it over but I do feel like it’s been a great year of just learning new things, having more experience," Macario said. "So I just hope that I can come in and implement that into my game now with the national team."

Macario is coming off a year during which she also embarked on a professional career with French club Lyon. She's played in 13 games this season for Lyon, with 11 starts and a team-leading nine goals. She said she's fallen in love with the game playing in France.

"Biggest thing I have learned from Lyon has been I think just the speed of play, the intelligence of having more awareness of the opponent and my teammates," she said. "And also I have really enjoyed just coming back to the fundamentals."

Born in Brazil, Macario grew up in San Diego. She was a two-time winner of the MAC