Chicago Red Stars 3-0 Houston Dash
BRIDGEVIEW, IL—The Houston Dash have become a bit of a tonic for whenever the Chicago Red Stars have been in a slump. Back in July, the Red Stars beat the Dash after having lost four of their last five. That was the first of a five-match win streak.
This time, the Red Stars snapped a three-match losing streak at the expense of the Dash with a 3-0 win that puts the hosts back into playoff position, though both Utah and Reign FC have a match in hand and will have each two after the Red Stars play Orlando on Wednesday (6pm CT, ESPNEWS).
It was all Red Stars in the match as they got on the board after just seven minutes when Morgan Brian sent Sam Kerr on her way to beat Jane Campbell near post for her 14th goal of the season. Kerr’s 15th of the season came before halftime scoring from the top of the box after a feed from Yuki Nagasato.
Savannah McCaskill would get her first goal in a Red Stars kit in the 65th minute to complete the scoring after beating Amber Brooks to a long ball and toe-poking it past an oncoming Campbell.
“It was huge,” said Red Stars defender Julie Ertz. “Definitely important just points alone. It’s fighting for those top four spots. Coming off of three losses is never good, so to come out was important for us to get a win. We talked about it this whole week.”
Houston rarely got any chances for most of the match. The closest they got was a header off a corner from Kristie Mewis that Alyssa Naeher was able to parry over the bar in the 32nd minute. The loss dims the Dash’s playoff hopes (small to begin with) even further.
“The first half we were outperformed. We didn’t play well enough and put ourselves in a really big hole, said Dash coach James Clarkson. “I felt if we got to halftime at one-nil, we’d have had a chance, but once we gave away the second goal it killed the game for us. Yeah, really disappointed.”
It helped the Red Stars had Julie Ertz at center back with Tierna Davidson while Brian partnered with Danielle Colaprico and Vanessa DiBernardo in midfield and do so for all 90 minutes according to Red Stars head coach Rory Dames.
“We’ve waited a while to line up like that to get everybody healthy,” said Dames. “We’ve wanted to have (Davidson and Ertz) back there for a while. Due to people being hurt in the midfield or people being hurt on the outside backs not having 7’s and 11’s and having to put (Arin Wright) there, it just hasn’t worked out. This is the first game we’ve had where Vanessa, Dani and Morgan were all able to go 90 minutes if need be, all three of them at the same time, so it was the first game we could push them back there.”
The Red Stars have a quick turnaround and travel to Orlando for a Wednesday night match at 6pm CT on ESPNEWS. The Dash host Utah on Friday at 7:30pm CT.
SCORING SUMMARY
CHI-Sam Kerr (Brian) 7
CHI-Sam Kerr (Nagasato) 44
CHI-Savannah McCaskill (Short) 65
BOOKING SUMMARY
HOU-Lindsay Agnew (caution, tactical foul) 40
CHI-Yuki Nagasato (caution, reckless foul) 90
CHICAGO RED STARS (4-2-3-1): #1-Alyssa Naeher; #6-Casey Short, #8-Julie Ertz, #14-Sarah Gorden, #26-Tierna Davidson; #24-Danielle Colaprico, #13-Morgan Brian (#2-Nikki Stanton 74); #10-Vanessa DiBernardo, #9-Savannah McCaskill (#33-Katie Johnson 79), #12-Yuki Nagasato; #20-Sam Kerr (#23-Brooke Elby 68)
Subs not used: #21-Emily Boyd, #15-Maria Sanchez, #32-Zoey Goralski, #33-Katie Johnson
HOUSTON DASH (4-2-3-1): #1-Jane Campbell; #9-Haley Hanson, #23-Ally Prisock, #22-Amber Brooks, #44-Satara Murray (#2-Ari Romero 46); #19-Kristie Mewis, #13-Sophie Schmidt; #20-Lindsay Agnew (#10-Christine Nairn 46), #11-Sofia Huerta, #7-Kealia Ohai (#15-Cece Kizer 67); #3-Rachel Daly
Subs not used: #30-Bianca Henninger, #28-Cami Privett, #24-Jamia Fields, #25-Ariana Calderon
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 11-5 HOU
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 7-2 HOU
FOULS: CHI 9-12 HOU
OFFSIDES: CHI 8-3 HOU
CORNER KICKS: CHI 5-2 HOU
SAVES: CHI 2-2 HOU
Referee: Tori Penso
Assistant Referees: Salma Perez, Katarzyna Wasiak
4th Official: Youssef Elmessoussi
Weather: Cloudy and 65º
Attendance: 3,345
Woman of the Match: Sam Kerr (CHI)
Chicago Red Stars
Houston Dash
