Sophia Smith’s star shoots even higher with an MVP performance in the NWSL championship game

WASHINGTON — Sophia Smith needs no introduction to the dedicated women’s soccer fans who’ve watched the 22-year-old electrify fields across the planet this year.

But if any casual fans tuned in to the NWSL championship game on Saturday because it was on CBS in prime time, they might not have known about her fast-rising stardom.

They should know now.

Two days after winning the league’s MVP award, Smith seized the league’s biggest spotlight of all. Her fourth-minute breakaway goal proved the winner in the Portland Thorns’ 2-0 victory over the Kansas City Current, and her performance on the whole earned her MVP honors.

» READ MORE: Sophia Smith dominates as Portland Thorns beat Kansas City Current, 2-0, in NWSL Championship

The total package performance included 57 touches, six shots, five chances created, 17-of-20 passing, and two defensive recoveries for good measure.

Oh, and a Michael Jordan-esque celebration of the goal that launched a slew of memes on Twitter in an instant.

The goal wasn’t even Smith’s best play. In the 27th, she received a pass in open space some 25 yards from goal, then danced past four Kansas City players and shot just wide of the far post.

“It was honestly just a fun game to play in,” the Colorado native said after the Thorns finished letting the champagne fly. “Not every game is that fun — some games are just a grind. This game was fun.”

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Praise from Smith came from all corners, starting with Thorns general manager (and original Independence goalkeeper) Karina LeBlanc.

“She plays so free,” LeBlanc said. “She trusts her instincts; her players know where she’s going to be when she has the ball at her feet. You don’t know what she’s going to do — she may go at you, she may lay it off, she may take the shot.”

LeBlanc also said that “what makes Sophia the most special is her mentality: Every single day she wants to be better, and she’s humble about it.”

That’s true only up to a point, though. Smith has every bit of a striker’s cockiness, and she isn’t afraid to show it on the field or at a microphone.

“There’s been a lot of people who don’t think that I deserved to win MVP,” she said Saturday night. “So that was a little bit of, you know — that’s that.”

» READ MORE: Sophia Smith’s killer scoring instincts makes her must-see TV

Veteran Kansas City defensive midfielder Desiree Scott couldn’t help being impressed, and she knows how to measure the best. In 13 years with Canada’s national team and various clubs, Scott has played against multiple eras of elite American attackers.

“Her pace, obviously, is lethal — you can’t grow that, that’s just natural talent there,” she said. “And I think the Portland Thorns have a great chemistry, knowing when to play her in behind — and the timing of her runs [is] quite good as well.”

Smith’s runs are indeed that good, whether up the middle with the Thorns or cutting in from the right with the U.S. national team. And she has no fear of charging into goalmouth traffic jams with or without the ball.

“You see her taking on three defenders, and we’re all used to seeing it,” Portland manager Rhian Wilkinson said. “It’s almost become an expectation that Soph will take on three people and get a shot off, which is insane. … You give her a snippet and she makes something out of nothing, and what a gift to have her on your team.”

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Wilkinson just wrapped up her first year leading a professional club’s bench, after some years assisting national teams and a distinguished playing career. But the 40-year-old knows how big of an asset she has in Smith.

“She can stop pushing now and she’ll still be a very good player, one of the best players this country’s produced,” Wilkinson said. “And my job is to keep pushing her and to make sure she’s the best player this country’s ever produced, because she has that in her right now.”

On Saturday, that potential took another step toward becoming reality.