BRIDGEVIEW, IL—Entering the match on Sunday, both Washington and Chicago were riding two-game winning streaks and the expectation was that something had to give.
By the time the 90 minutes elapsed, Washington walked away with the a 2-0 victory over host Chicago at SeatGeek Stadium and the Spirit (4-1-1) moved up to the top of the National Women’s Soccer League table with the Utah Royals as each team has 13 points. The Red Stars (3-2-2) slipped back into a third place tie at 11 points with Portland.
The Spirit earned its first goal in the ninth minute off a corner kick and redirected towards \ goal by Samantha Staab. Chicago had problems clearing it off the line and the ball went off keeper Emily Boyd and over the goal line for the own goal.
Washington found its second goal courtesy of Ashley Hatch in the box after taking a feed from Arielle Ship in the 63rd minute for a 2-0 advantage.
“First half, we were OK,” Chicago Red Stars head coach Rory Dames said. “I thought we were a bit unlucky to be down. Second half, we did a good job on the adjustments that we talked about. They were able to get into a big enough shape and open us up a little bit. Then, we got caught chasing the ball, but we move on and move on to next week.”
However, Chicago had a total of 19 shots and with plenty of opportunities, but they couldn’t get one of them into the back of the net. Spirit keeper Aubrey Bledsoe made 7 saves in earning the clean sheet.
The Red Stars were without its leading scorer Sam Kerr, who was called up for the Australian National team with the upcoming Women’s World Cup in France next month. Kerr had been dominating over the last couple of weeks scoring goals and earning NWSL Player of the week honors.
Chicago will next be taking a road trip our to Portland next Sunday, June 2nd for a 5pmCT start, which will be their last game before the Women’s World Cup break until June 23rd. Washington will host the Utah Royals next Saturday at 7pm ET.
For photo recap of the match click here.
SCORING SUMMARY:
WAS- Emily Boyd (own goal) 9
WAS-Ashley Hatch (Arielle Ship) 63
BOOKING SUMMARY:
WAS-Meggie Daugherty Howard (yellow, unsporting behavior) 16
CHI-Katelyn Johnson (yellow, unsporting behavior) 93+
CHICAGO RED STARS (4-3-3): #21-Emily Boyd, #3-Arin Wright, #14-Sarah Gordon, #5-Katie Naughton (#31-Jenna Szczesny 75), #6-Casey Short, #2-Nikki Stanton, #23-Brooke Elby (#15-Maria Guadalupe Sanchez Morales 55), #7-Michele Vasconcelos (#32-Zoey Goralski 75), #10-Vanessa DeBernardo, #12-Yuki Nagasato, #33-Katie Johnson.
Subs not used: #24-Danielle Colaprico, #30-Hannah Davison, #16-Alison Jahansouz, #28-Kayla Sharples.
WASHINGTON SPIRIT (4-3-3): #1-Aubrey Bledsoe, #9-Teagen McGrady (#24-Carlin Hudson 77), #3-Samantha Staab, #14-Paige Nielsen, #23-Tori Huster, #8-Meggie Daugherty Howard, #17-Cali Farquharson (#19-Dorian Bailey 60), #12-Andi Sullivan, #4-Jordan Dibiasi, #2-Arielle Ship (#31-Crystal Elaine Thomas 74), #33-Ashley Hatch.
Subs not used: #18-McKenzie Berryhill, #5-Megan Crosson, #13-Bailey Feist, #30-Shay Yanez.
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 19-10 WAS
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 9-4 WAS
FOULS: CHI 12-11 WAS
OFFSIDES: CHI 2-2 WAS
CORNER KICKS: CHI 8-4 WAS
SAVES: CHI 2-7 WAS
Referee: Lukasz Szpala
Assistant Referees: Jennifer Garner, Tiffini Turpin
4th Official: Timothy Geis
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and 63º
Attendance: 3,447
Woman of the Match: Aubrey Bledsoe (WAS)
Chicago Red Stars
Washington Spirit
