Eight games into the regular season that followed the Challenge Cup tournament, the Red Stars (2-4-2) are still struggling to find consistency.
Severe rain swept through Chicago Saturday afternoon ahead of the Red Stars 3-0 loss to Racing Lousiville and aside from a brief spot of sunshine it didn’t let up.
At one point it was coming down so hard it looked like it was challenging for players to see clearly. Field conditions were affected so significantly players found themselves sliding across the pitch on what otherwise would have been routine plays.
Operations staff assessed the field at the half attempting to determine where waterlogged sections of the field were. Ultimately, a full 90-minute game was finished and the Red Stars were once again outplayed.
Eight games into the regular season that followed the Challenge Cup tournament, the Red Stars (2-4-2) are still struggling to find consistency.
“For sure the most disappointing loss in my time with the club,” coach Rory Dames said. “So, where do we go from here? I don’t think it’s a secret we don’t have an out-and-out goal scorer. We’ll continue to search for one.”
Yuki Nagasato and Savannah McCaskill made their return to SeatGeek for the first time since being traded to Louisville in exchange for full roster protection in the 2020 expansion draft.
They received a warm welcome from the 2,626 fans that waited out the nearly three-hour rain delay and left with a goal each. Dames said it was poetic justice. The game originally slated to begin at 1 p.m. was postponed until 3:30 after a tornado warning was issued in Chicago and a severe thunderstorm moved through the area.
The rain picked back up shortly after the game’s 3:30 start time.
“We had to play a little different,” Vanessa DiBernardo said. “Play a little bit more safe.”
Casey Krueger said as a defender she was worried about slipping and it was unavoidable despite wearing studs.
The first goal of the match came from Ebony Salmon on a right-footed shot inside the box in the 38th minute off an assist from Cecelia Kizer. A result of poor transition defense from the Red Stars.
They came out in the second half with a different level of intensity but it was quickly stifled after Danny Colaprico was shown her second yellow card and subsequent red card leading to her removal from the game.
The Red Stars were forced to finish the match with 10 players and Louisville capitalized.
Nagasato’s left-footed goal came in the 56th minute of play after she was given a free kick following Colaprico’s red card. McCaskill would score Louisville’s third and final goal of the match six minutes later from nearly the same corner of the box that Nagasato scored from.
The Red Stars outshot Racing Louisville 17-11 but had only three shots on goal and eight shots blocked. They also controlled 50.4% of the possessions.
With this loss, the Red Stars move to seventh place in NWSL standings. It was their last match before Alyssa Naeher, Tierna Davidson, Julie Ertz and Krueger leave for the Olympic send-off series in East Hartford Connecticut July 1 and 5. The team’s next match is July 2 on the road against the Washington Spirit.
“One of our strengths is the depth of our roster,” DiBernardo said. “During these next few weeks while we have these key players gone that’s what we need to show. We’re capable of changing our season. These next few weeks are going to be huge for us.”
from Chicago Sun-Times - All https://ift.tt/3A2gCNT
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