Debinha stood for both goals when Pia Sundage's Brazil defeated the World Cup four-time England by 2-1 earlier this month. And there is no doubt that the Brazilian national team player is in great shape.

The midfielder is one of the American League's brightest stars and in the final against the Chicago Red Stars, Debinha was named the best player of the match for the home crowd of over 10,000.

In 2017 Debinha came to North Carolina, where Swedish Julia Spetsmark also plays (on the bench in the final), and the Brazilian is praised by coach Paul Riley.

- Directly when she came here she had a couple of months when she did not like to play on both sides of the ball. That didn't work, says Riley, who calls Debinha the best Brazilian player he's ever seen.

- But since then she has grown, taken responsibility.

Debinha scored the first goal in the final that ended North Carolina winning 4-0 - the biggest win ever in a NWSL final.

- I think you could see today how many times she came back behind the ball and defended for us, she is a complete player, the coach continues.

Debinha was surprisingly left out of the eleven players that NWSL picked out in their "best eleven" list for the season - but didn't seem bitter about it.

- I just want to help my team. I just want to develop every training and every match, she said after the match.

Australian Sam Kerr was named the league's best player, MVP, but then had to see himself snubbed on the title with his Chicago.

Archive: Report from NWSL on Portland's powerful audience average - higher than almost the whole Swedish (May 20, 2018).

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