CLEVELAND — The United States Women’s National Soccer Team is playing multiple home games in the Buckeye State, and catching the eye of some young players. 

Thursday night, the USWNT played Paraguay at Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium, winning 9-0. Players with Team Challenger FC were in the stands watching every second. 

Isola Barzacchini takes soccer seriously. 

“I just like to attack more than I like to defend,” she said. “Cause I think I’m better at attacking.”

Barzacchini, 12, and her teammates strengthened their skills with some drills preparing for their own games. 

“I play, like, behind the forward,” Barzacchini said. “And then, like, I usually help them out. Going up and then coming back.”

But all that running with the midfield positions isn’t Lizzie Godlewski’s speed.

“I wasn’t as fast as all the girls,” she said. “So, I decided to try goalie and I kinda, I don’t know, I kinda picked it up.”

She started playing with Team Challenger FC this summer. 

“All your teammates are like your sisters,” she said. 

But, when they start kicking ball after ball toward the goal during practice, they can be more like enemies. 

“Most people think goalies kind of just sit in goal, but it’s more like this drill,” Godlewski said. “It’s like rapid fire. You have to always be on your toes.”

Godlewski, 11, said she’s been on the field since she was 3 years old, and wanted to join the other kids. 

“I would watch everyone and think, ‘Oh, they look so cool,’” she said. “They just looked so professional. It was fun to watch. I was like, maybe I can do that when I’m older.”

Now, she’s doing it and putting in the practice. 

“It’s a lot of pressure,” she said. “Cause it almost looks like it’s your fault sometimes when you don’t stop the ball.”

She said she hoped to get some tips from seeing the USWNT in action.

“I think their goalie’s really cool,” she said. “She can make a lot of cool saves. And I hope to be like her one day.”

Thursday’s game was the fifth game the USWNT played in Cleveland, winning all of them.