Chicago Red Stars 2-1 North Carolina Courage
BRIDGEVIEW, IL—Before the biggest soccer crowd of the year at SeatGeek Stadium (17,388), the US Women’s National Team players for both the Chicago Red Stars and North Carolina Courage returned to NWSL play. In the end, the Red Stars once again got the Courage’s number in a 2-1 victory on goals by Vanessa DiBernardo and Sam Kerr and big stops by Alyssa Naeher.
The crowd was the largest ever for a Red Stars match and largest this season outside of either Portland or Utah.
Naeher was credited with just two saves, but was assured coming out of her box to see off potential scoring threats in both Lynn Williams and Jessica McDonald. It wasn’t perfect, though, as a moment of indecisiveness that allowed Williams to beat her far post to give the visitors a 1-0 lead at the half hour mark.
That lead would last just seven minutes as Arin Wright sent a ball into the box that was met by DiBernardo who equalized for the hosts.
“It was just a great cross by [Wright] and the whole line was stepping up and no one really tracked me. Everyone was paying attention to Sam (Kerr). So it was kind of nice. I just had to tap it in.”
The Courage had three defenders marking Sam Kerr almost all the time given her propensity to spring an offside trap and go on breakaways. Kerr sprang one in the 58th minute and turned Abby Erceg and then put the ball past Stephanie Labbe to put the Red Stars ahead with her 10th goal of the year.
Red Stars Celebrate Kerr’s go-ahead goal. (Photo by Leslie Smith)
The Courage had 18 shots on the day, but just three on target. Kristen Hamilton would strike one off the post in the 82nd minute and Williams would be denied once more by Naeher coming out to beat her to another ball.
“The key to winning this game was getting the second goal,” said Naeher. “Getting the second goal and being able to close it out. If you watched any other games this weekend, you saw a lot of 90th minute equalizers or winners.
“Obviously, North Carolina is a team that can strike it at any moment and that was the challenge. Can we get that go-ahead goal and close out the game and play a full ninety minutes? Keep that concentration and keep that focus for the whole ninety minutes and I’m proud of the whole team for doing that tonight.”
The win for the Red Stars ends a three-match losing streak at home and puts them back above the red line in the NWSL table in third place based on goals scored over next Sunday’s opponent, Reign FC, and two points clear of fifth-place Washington. Red Stars head coach Rory Dames realizes that the road to the title still goes through North Carolina.
“If you’re going to win the league, you’re going to have to go through North Carolina and you probably have to go through North Carolina in North Carolina. We seem to do okay against them in the regular season, but we have to figure them out in the postseason. That’s why they’re so special…
“Nothing is going to get decided in the next two or three weeks. I think it will come down to the last eight games. It will be tight. It will be 6-7 teams fighting for four spots. So whoever can get in the healthiest and the fittest probably has the best chance to make a run [at the title]at that point.”
Meanwhile, Courage head coach Paul Riley rued the missed chances given that Sam Kerr sometime just needs one to punish them.
“They’re a dangerous team,” said Riley. “They came high-press on us in the first half, and we were unable to build as comfortable as we normally do, but we created some 6-7 fantastic chances, but we didn’t take them. You don’t take them at that top level, you get beat.
“I think we were the better team over the 90 minutes, but give Rory (Dames) credit. They had a great game plan and they stuck to it. Dropped a little deeper in the second half which made it difficult and we had them in transition in the first half a lot and created some great chances.
“We probably should have gone 2-0 up which would have iced the game. We give a stupid goal up before halftime which is not like us…You give Sam Kerr one chance, she buries it. We sometimes need six or seven chances to do what Sam Kerr can do with one.”
The Red Stars travel to Tacoma to take on Reign FC next Sunday at 3pm CT on NBC Sports Chicago. North Carolina travel to Utah on Saturday night at 9pm CT on ESPNEWS.
SCORING SUMMARY:
NC-Lynn Willams (Debinha) 30
CHI-Vanessa DiBernardo (Wright) 37
CHI-Sam Kerr (Johnson) 58
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Katie Naughton (caution, reckless tackle) 14
NC-Jessica McDonald (caution, dissent) 51
CHICAGO RED STARS (4-2-3-1): #1-Alyssa Naeher; #6-Casey Short, #5-Katie Naughton, #14-Sarah Gorden, #26-Tierna Davidson (#33-Katie Johnson); #8-Julie Ertz, #13-Morgan Brian; #12-Yuki Nagasato (#23-Brooke Elby 90), #10-Vanessa DiBernardo, #3-Arin Wright; #20-Sam Kerr
Subs not used: #21-Emily Boyd, #9-Savannah McCaskill, #28-Kayla Sharples, #32-Zoey Goralski, #33-Katie Johnson, #30-Hannah Davison
NORTH CAROLINA COURAGE (4-2-2-2): #1-Stephanie Labbe; #11-Merritt Mathias, #13-Abby Dahlkemper, #6-Abby Erceg, #15-Jaelene Hinkle, #8-Denise O’Sullivan, #5-Sam Mewis; #10-Debinha (#19-Crystal Dunn 62), #7-McCall Zerboni (#12-Leah Pruitt 81); #14-Jessica McDonald (#23-Kristen Hamilton 65), #9-Lynn Williams
Subs not used: #99-Katelyn Rowland, #3-Kaleigh Kurtz, #21-Cari Roccaro, #25-Meredith Speck
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 12-18 NC
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 4-3 NC
FOULS: CHI 7-9 NC
OFFSIDES: CHI 2-3 NC
CORNER KICKS: CHI 2-9 NC
SAVES: CHI 2-2 NC
Referee: Luis Guardia
Assistant Referees: Melissa Gonzalez, Rachel Smith
4th Official: Rebecca Pagan
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 72º
Attendance: 17,388
Woman of the Match: Alyssa Naeher (CHI)
Chicago Red Stars
North Carolina Courage
