Julie Ertz and Alex Morgan made major impacts for the USA in the 2018 concacaf Women’s Championship.  (Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports)

By Michael Lewis
FrontRowSoccer.com Editor

FRISCO, Texas — The United States enjoyed a bountiful final night at the 2018 concacaf Women’s Championship.

Not only did the Americans win gold medals after defeating Canada, 2-0, they also took home much of the hardware in postgame ceremoines at Toyota Stadium.

Midfielder Julie Ertz was awarded the Golden Ball as the best player of the competition by the confederation’s technical committee on Wednesday night.

Striker Alex Morgan, who tallied the insurance goal against Canada, was named winner of the Golden Boot as the top goal-scorer of the tournament with seven goals.

The USA also was named winner of the Fair Play Award.

Jamaica forward Jody Brown was selected as the best young player while Panama’s 17-year-old goalkeeper Yenith Bailey was chosen the Golden Glove winner.

The Americans placed eight players on the Best XI — defenders Kelley O’Hara, Abby Dahlkemper and Crystal Dunn (Rockville Centre, N.Y.), midfielders Lindsey Horan and Ertz and forwards Tobin Heath, Megan Rapinoe and Morgan.

Also selected were Bailey as the goalkeeper, Canada defender Rebecca Quinn and midfielder Jessie Fleming.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.