BRIDGEVIEW, IL—The Chicago Red Stars finished their grueling stretch of five matches in 16 days with a 1-0 win over Orlando Pride at SeatGeek Stadium. The Red Stars end their stretch at 2-0-3 and second in the NWSL table behind San Diego based on head-to-head.
The only goal of the match came in the tenth minute when Mallory Pugh got some spot and blasted a shot from 20 yards out into the upper 90 past Erin McLeod. However, the air was taken out of the match more than ten minutes later as defender Kayla Sharples went down with a knee injury. She will be evaluated later in the week according to Red Stars coach Chris Petrucelli.
Orlando managed just one shot on target all match and rarely threatened the Red Stars apart form a stretch in the first five minutes of the second half when they got four corner kicks. However, all the corners came to nothing and the Red Stars were able to maintain the advantage.
The advantage was nearly doubled two minutes after Pugh’s goal as Vanessa DiBernardo struck the crossbar and Pugh herself denied by McLeod late in the 75th minute.
The Red Stars made three changes to the lineup from Wednesday’s match, but any plans for further rotation were altered due to Sharples’s injury.
“I had a plan, but went out the window about 20 mintues,” said Petrucelli. “There was some plan to rest some players. The encouraging thing was we went to halftime and make even some more changes. Vanessa (DiBernardo) said, Let me go.’ Bianca (St. Georges) said, ‘Let me go.’ It was satisfying to see those guys said we need to get the points here.”
The results of this five match, 16-day stretch was encouraging for the Red Stars going unbeaten and going up to second place in the table. However, it’s not something the team would like to do on a regular basis in the future.
“I do think it needs to be addressed in the offseason,” said Red Stars goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher. “It’s not just us. It’s Washington and Orlando [having a big stretch of games]. As a league, as a front office, whoever is in charge of the schedule does need to come together and put together something that makes sense because this league should be the best league in the world. And unfortunately, you’re not getting to see the best out of teams, the best out of players, because it’s not just the games. There is no time to train.
“Players can’t get back from injury and get no time to build minutes in and you’re only getting minutes in a game. I do think it needs to be addressed and it’s not just us. It’s every team in this league. There are too many talented teams and talented players to see some of those things get hurt by such a condensed schedule when it doesn’t have to be that way.”
The Red Stars get six days rest before traveling to Kansas City to taking on the Current. Kickoff is at 7:30pm on Paramount+.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Mallory Pugh (St. Georges) 10
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Yuki Nagasato (caution, reckless tackle) 49
ORL-Toni Pressley (caution, tactical foul) 56
CHI-Danielle Colaprico (caution, reckless foul) 62
CHICAGO RED STARS (3-5-2): #1-Alyssa Naeher; #23-Tatumn Milazzo, #28-Kayla Sharples (#31-Amanda Kowalski 23), #20-Zoe Morse; #22-Bianca St. Georges (#4-Alyssa Mautz 76), #10-Vanessa DiBernardo, #7-Yuki Nagasato, #11-Sarah Luebbert (#5-Rachel Hill 63); #9-Mallory Pugh, #15-Sarah Griffith (#24-Danielle Colaprico 46); #27-Chelsie Dawber (#25-Ava Cook 46)
Subs Not Used: #21-Emily Boyd, #14-Jill Aguilera, #18-Sam Fisher, #8-Ella Stevens
ORLANDO PRIDE (4-2-3-1): #1-Erin McLeod; #23-Kylie Strom, #5-Megan Montefusco, #3-Toni Pressley, #17-Courtney Petersen; #8-Gunny Jonsdottir, #14-Viviana Villacorta (#28-Meggie Howard 71); #6-Angharad James (#34-Jordyn Listro 82), #20-Julie Doyle (#25-Kerry Abello 67), #19-Abi Kim (#15-Erika Tymrak 71); #11-Darian Jenkins (#30-Thais Reiss 82)
Subs Not Used: #21-Anna Moorhouse, #13-Celia, #22-Parker Roberts, #27-Chelsee Washington
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 10-8 ORL
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 4-1 ORL
FOULS: CHI 14-13 ORL
OFFSIDES: CHI 3-2 ORL
CORNER KICKS: CHI 3-6 ORL
SAVES: CHI 1-3 ORL
Referee: Calin Radosav
Assistant Referees: Rachel Smith, Art Arustamyan
Fourth Official: Rebecca Paga
Weather: Clear and 72º
Attendance: 3,881
Woman of the Match: Tatumn Milazzo (CHI)
