Lynn Williams of the NC Courage tries to drive past Red Star defender Danielle Colaprico (Photo Credit: Don Mac Gregor).
BRIDGEVIEW, IL–After losing three on the bounce at home, the Red Stars eventually found their tonic in the form of the North Carolina Courage whom they have beaten twice already this season. The third time came in the form of a second half comeback for a 2-1 win to close the home portion of the regular season.
The Red Stars finish 7-3-2 at home and the average attendance at 3,198, up from the 3,005 average last season. As for the table, the Red Stars reclaim third place on head-to-head over Orlando and are five points clear of fifth-place Seattle who defeated Houston on Sunday.
North Carolina dominated the first half and were rewarded in the 15th minute when McCall Zerboni stripped Christen Press of the ball and fed Jessica McDonald who then fed Lynn Williams who beat Alyssa Naeher far post. The Courage almost had a second goal in the 32nd minute, but that was disallowed for offside after a mad scramble in the area.
The Red Stars inserted Yuki Nagasato as a sub at halftime and she would make quite the impact as would Julie Ertz who started. Ertz stripped Samantha Mewis who then fed Christen Press who then fed Nagasato for a tap-in equalizer.
In the 76th minute, Naeher seemed to have escaped a penalty decision after taking down Ashley Hatch in the box after fumbling a shot by Kristen Hamilton.
Six minutes from time, Nagasato found Ertz in the box and she headed in for the match winner and to complete a sweep of the Courage this season.
Red Stars captain Julie Ertz praised the team’s resiliency from going a goal down to come from behind once again.
“I don’t think there’s any reason to worry if you go down a goal in the first half,” said Ertz. “It sucks, but one goal is one goal and you can definitely come back from that. This team has proven that time and time again. We’ve gone down a lot this year which sucks, but at the same time it makes us more resilient in the end because we’ve gone through it before.
“I wasn’t too worried. I thought that we had good opportunities and good things coming. We just had to focus defensively first and finish out the (first half) staying at 1-0 and regroup and come back out with a new game plan.”
Red Stars head coach Rory Dames admitted his Red Stars might have stolen the three points on Sunday, especially after a slow start.
Chicago Red Star Yuki Nagasato causes trouble for NC Courage forward Kristen Hamilton (Photo Credit: Don Mac Gregor).
“The first fifteen minutes was probably the angriest I’ve ever been in the five years I’ve been in the league with what we talked about and what we set out to do,” said Dames. “We really didn’t do anything that we talked about to do and they put us on our heels and had us pinned for a majority of the first half. We were extremely fortunate to get out of the first half only down a goal.
“I though we found our way a bit in the second half. Yuki is a quality change. A little bit force so we could hold the ball more. Julie moving into the #10 role gave us a bigger physical presence. We probably got a little bit fortunate at the end to be honest. But for the games that we dropped here two weeks ago, where we probably deserved to get something out of. At the end of the year, the table doesn’t lie over a 24-game season. You give some that we shouldn’t and take some that we shouldn’t and tonight, we took three that we didn’t deserve, but we don’t complain about it. We’ll just move on and try to improve against Kansas City next week.”
That match against FC Kansas City will be next Saturday at 2:30pm on Lifetime.
SCORING SUMMARY:
NC-Lynn Williams (McDonald) 15
CHI-Yuki Nagasato (Press) 52
CHI-Julie Ertz (Nagasato) 84
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Danielle Colaprico (caution, tactical foul) 40
CHI-Julie Ertz (caution, persistent infringement) 73
NC-McCall Zerboni (caution, reckless tackle) 77
CHICAGO RED STARS (4-3-1-2): #1-Alyssa Naeher; #3-Arin Gilliand, #5-Katie Naughton, #16-Sam Johnson, #6-Casey Short; #7-Taylor Comeau (#13-Morgan Brian 64), #24-Danielle Colaprico, #4-Alyssa Mautz (#12-Yuki Nagasato 46); #8-Julie Ertz; #11-Sofia Huerta, #23-Christen Press
Subs not used: #18-Michele Dalton, #14-Sarah Gorden, #30-Lauren Kaskie, #9-Stephanie McCaffrey, #2-Jen Hoy
NORTH CAROLINA COURAGE (4-2-3-1): #0-Katelyn Rowland; #11-Taylor Smith, #13-Abby Dahlkemper, #6-Abby Erceg, #15-Jaelene Hinkle; #5-Samantha Mewis, #7-McCall Zerboni; #14-Jessica McDonald (#12-Ashley Hatch 72), #8-Denise O’Sullivan (#10-Debinha 78), #23-Kristen Hamilton; #9-Lynn Williams
Subs not used: #1-Sabirna D’Angelo, #3-Makenzy Doniak, #4-Elizabeth Eddy, #25-Meredith Speck, #26-Sam Witteman
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 7-22 NC
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 3-6 NC
FOULS: CHI 12-9 NC
OFFSIDES: CHI 4-1 NC
CORNER KICKS: CHI 0-8 NC
SAVES: CHI 5-1 NC
Referee: Lukas Szpala
Assistant Referees: Adrienne McDonald, Amilcar Sicaju
Fourth Official: Carlos Rodriguez
Weather: Sunny and 81º
Attendance: 3,745
Woman of the Match: Yuki Nagasato (CHI)
Chicago Red Stars
