Megan Rapinoe knew the country would be watching her on Friday.

They’d be watching the USWNT take on France in the World Cup quarterfinal, a huge match between the two best teams on Earth (one of which happened to be the host nation). But everyone would have an eye on Rapinoe.

Rapinoe had been thrust into the national spotlight after President Donald Trump sent out multiple tweets reacting to a months-old video of Rapinoe in which she said she wouldn’t visit the White House. Trump got mad, his followers got mad, everyone got mad. People earnestly suggested they would root for France in order to own the libs.

Rapinoe didn’t back down from her comments, and her teammate Ali Krieger (and others) came to her support. But she also knew that a lot of people out there would be rooting for her to fail.

So how did she react? Just by scoring both goals to clinch a 2-1 victory and send the United States through to the World Cup semifinal. Rapinoe has now scored the USWNT’s last four goals of the World Cup knockout stages.

Crystal Dunn also had a microscope on her on Friday, though it was much more in a purely soccer sense. The attacking midfielder has been re-fashioned into a left back by USWNT coach Jill Ellis over the last few years in anticipation for this tournament. A breathtaking attacking player, Dunn has taken on the challenge of playing defense admirably, but it’s not her natural position.

And France knew it.

For much of the match, France overloaded the right side, trying to get the ball into the feet of their talented right winger Diani. Again and again, they went at Dunn. For one stretch at the end of the first half, with the USWNT struggling to maintain any sort of possession, I counted six straight attacks down the right wing, aimed at taking advantage of Dunn’s inexperience.

Dunn answered. Every. Single. Time. Diani is one of the most talented attacking players in the world, and it didn’t matter. Dunn occasionally lost position, but fought back and stayed with Diani. She made clearance after clearance. It wasn’t always textbook defending, but it didn’t matter. Dunn wasn’t getting beaten.

The U.S. held on. In the second half, France sent on Delphine Cascarino and had her try to get in on Dunn. Again, Dunn answered the call. Arguably the second best team in the tournament built an entire game plan on attacking Dunn, who was playing out of position … with the world watching. And she didn’t break.

Dunn was bolstered by support from a back line of Becky Sauerbrunn, Julie Ertz, Abby Dahlkemper, and Kelley O’Hara, who had their best collective game of their lives, all at the right time.

But Dunn had to do that job. And she did it.

Rapinoe and Dunn both knew they needed to perform on Saturday. Rapinoe had plenty of her own countrymen, including possibly the President, rooting against her. Dunn was the target of France’s on-field game plan. Both answered the call, and they did it beautifully.