Chicago Red Stars 3-1 Washington Spirit
BRIDGEVIEW, IL—For the fifth straight year, the Chicago Red Stars are heading to the playoffs. Their 3-1 win over Washington Spirit, plus Utah’s 3-0 home loss to North Carolina, clinched a playoff spot for the Red Stars.
The Red Stars got their fourth straight win thanks to two goals by Sam Kerr and one by Yuki Nagasato. For the Spirit, it is now just one win in their last seven and still five points below the red line (pending Reign FC’s result) with four matches to play.
Kerr’s first goal came in the ninth minute where she chipped keeper Audrey Bledsoe from an angle to give the Red Stars the advantage.
“I just do things, I guess,” Kerr said when asked about the chip. “I actually was laughing because I always try and do that on the ‘keepers in the warm-up and it never really comes off and that one came off.”
Kerr then turned provider when she collected a cheeky back-heel pass from Katie Johnson and then fed Yuki Nagasato for her seventh goal of the year.
The Spirit were given a brief lifeline in the 33rd minute when referee Mark Allatin adjudged Casey Short to have pushed down Chloe Logarzo in the box. Logarzo took the penalty, but Alyssa Naeher would make the save to keep the two-goal advantage.
“I just got a good read on it,” said Naeher on the penalty save. “Got a good push. I was fortunate enough to be able to get a hand on it.”
It became a three-goal advantage and a single-season record breaker just four minutes into the second half when Nagasato got her league leading eighth assist setting up Kerr who beat Bledsoe near post for her record-breaking 18th goal of the season.
The Spirit would get a consolation goal in the 80th minute through Mallory Pugh, but it was the Red Stars shinning as the rain came down in Bridgeview.
“Disappointing. I think we were outdone the better team tonight,” said Spirit head coach Richie Burke. “I think they were up for it and they were very, very good tonight. For us to get a result in this place against a team like that, then we had to have been a 9 or 10 out of 10, and we were not that 10.
After the home loss to Orlando last month, Red Stars head coach Rory Dames challenged his team to approach the remaining five at the time as playoff games and said they will either figure things out or they won’t. Their last four matches have shown evidence clearly in favor of the former.
“I don’t know that the mentality has changed as much as some of the personnel and just the confidence of the group,” said Dames. “As I said to you guys when we lost the three in a row, this is an experienced group. They’ve been here before. They’ll figure it out or they won’t. It’s been more them figuring it out than not figuring it out so far.”
One more regular season match for the Red Stars and that is at home next Saturday night against Utah (7pm, NBC Sports Chicago +). The Spirit have a quick turnaround and travel to Houston for a Wednesday night match at 7:30pm CT.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Sam Kerr (McCaskill) 9
CHI-Yuki Nagasato (Kerr) 24
CHI-Sam Kerr (Nagasato) 49
WAS-Mallory Pugh (Staab) 80
BOOKING SUMMARY:
WAS-Paige Nielsen (caution, reckless tackle) 53
WAS-Sam Staab (caution, tactical foul) 62
WAS-Meggie Dougherty-Howard (caution, reckless foul) 65
CHICAGO RED STARS (4-2-3-1): #1-Alyssa Naeher; #14-Sarah Gorden, #8-Julie Ertz, #26-Tierna Davidson, #6-Casey Short; #13-Morgan Brian, #24-Danielle Colaprico; #33-Katie Johnson (#23-Brooke Elby 86), #12-Yuki Nagasato (#32-Zoey Goralski 80), #9-Savannah McCaskill (#2-Nikki Stanton 72); #20-Sam Kerr
Subs not used: #21-Emily Boyd, #15-Maria Sanchez, #28-Kayla Sharples, #5-Katie Naughton
WASHINGTON SPIRIT (4-3-3): #1-Audrey Bledsoe; #23-Tori Huster, #14-Paige Nielsen, #3-Sam Staab, #17-Carli Farquharson; #12-Andi Sullivan, #6-Chloe Logarzo (#31-Crystal Thomas 65), #10-Rose Lavelle (#8-Meggie Dougherty-Howard 46); #11-Mallory Pugh, #33-Ashley Hatch, #20-Cheyna Matthews (#2-Ari Ship 76)
Subs not used: #30-Shae Yanez, #4-Jordan DiBiasi, #5-Meg Crosson, #7-Amy Harrison
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 11-8 WAS
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 4-7 WAS
FOULS: CHI 6-16 WAS
OFFSIDES: CHI 5-5 WAS
CORNER KICKS: CHI 1-3 WAS
SAVES: CHI 6-1 WAS
Referee: Mark Allatin
Assistant Referees: Maggie Short, Kaili Terry
4th Official: Zachary Bond
Weather: Rain and 76º
Attendance: 4,317
Woman of the Match: Sam Kerr (CHI)
