2018 Player Profiles: Desiree Scott

The day it was announced that we would be keeping Canadian international Desiree Scott was a great one. With a nickname like “The Destroyer,” everyone was pretty excited. She was one of the players we acquired in player allocation from FC Kansas City, and we knew from the beginning that she would be a huge part of this team.

Scott was one of the most consistent players and starters of this team. She would play nearly every minute of every match for the first 18 matches of the season. She only missed about 3 games of the season due to national team call-ups and a right quad injury.

She wasn’t necessarily crucial to the team because of her insane goal scoring like some players, but she was important to this team because of her steadiness. She is similar to Becky Sauerbrunn and Rachel Corsie in the way that a team can always count on her. Her mistakes were few and far between. She had an 81% success rate on her tackles, an 82% success rate on her passes, and especially in her own half, she was very confident with the ball at her feet. Throughout 2018, she had 88% passing accuracy in her own half. To put that in perspective, goalkeeper Abby Smith had just 78% passing accuracy in her own half, and Becky Sauerbrunn had 93%.

In addition to her impressive passing accuracy, Scott was pretty good at winning duels. Despite being just 5 foot 2, Scott had a 48.3% success rate on duels. That, in comparison to Rachel Corsie who is 5 foot 8 and had a 60% success rate, is pretty impressive.

There’s a reason she is named “The Destroyer.” Scott played one of the most consistent seasons on our team despite that she is small and played a very defensive position. She was able to destroy (no pun intended) on the pitch. It was incredible to watch another international player come to Utah and play like she did this season.