Red Stars defeated by elite team in the end.
On Sunday, the Chicago Red Stars were thrashed, 4-0, by the North Carolina Courage. It’s a bad end to what was a terrific season for the Red Stars that saw the team finally reach the NWSL Championship match after four straight losses in the semifinal.
The 2019 Chicago Red Stars season should go down as the best this club has had since its inception in 2009. They recorded an NWSL high for points with 41. Their average attendance went up 36% to 5,451 and included a crowd of 17,388 after the Women’s World Cup for a match against the Courage. It also helped that their matches were televised locally on NBC Sports Chicago. Sam Kerr set a single-season record with 18 goals and Yuki Nagasato led the league in assists with eight.
We can speculate whether Kerr will return to the Red Stars with the offers pouring in from the likes of Paris St. Germain, Lyon, Chelsea, and Bayern Munich. Obviously, we in Chicago hope she stays if anything to help get the Red Stars back into the Championship match and win it in 2020. Only time will tell.
Indeed, Kerr was very frustrated out there as shown by her outburst at Savannah McCaskill after a bad pass. The North Carolina defense, led one more time by Heather O’Reilly, marked Sam Kerr well and the pair of two-headed monsters up front—forwards Jessica McDonald and Lynn Williams and midfielders Debinha and Crystal Dunn—did the rest. Kerr declined to be interviewed after the match.
For the Red Stars, things simply went downhill after Stephanie Labbe made a brilliant save on Vanessa DiBernardo in the third minute and then Debinha scoring a minute later. Maybe it was the fact it was in the 80s in Cary this afternoon. Maybe it was the inexperience of being in the final compared to North Carolina, or it was the fact that the Courage showed why they are one of the elite teams in women’s club soccer and it’s a level that the Red Stars are not quite at yet.
Yes, the Red Stars went 2-0-1 against the Courage in the regular season, but the Courage have never known a season without reaching the NWSL Championship as of yet. They were certainly in their element this afternoon while the Red Stars clearly were not in theirs.
Still, it does not take away what was a terrific season for the Red Stars from the record crowds to the semifinal win and atmosphere not seen at SeatGeek Stadium for a local team for a long time. The Red Stars will have it all to themselves next season. How much of the talent stays and/or add remains to be seen, but it does give hope that Red Stars can shine bright in the Chicago sporting landscape and one day be mentioned as an elite club like the Courage.
