Red Stars Open Regular Season with Victory

BRIDGEVIEW, IL–Chicago opened the regular season with a 2-1 victory over visiting Racing Louisville FC at SeatGeek Stadium on Saturday night. The match had an 85-minute weather delay in the 31st minute. It was also the Red Stars’ first home victory starting the regular season since 2015.

The Red Stars played without Mallory Pugh who was out with a concussion, Morgan Gautrat with a calf injury, and Yuki Nagasato was out with an illness just before the match started. But the club has been dealing with several other players not available to play as well such as Casey Kreuger (maternity leave), Rachel Hill (hip), and Kealia Watt (knee).

“Our team is working with a bunch of different players and young players,” Chicago Red Stars coach Chris Petrucelli said. “We’ve come accustomed to this a bit. We’ve lost players almost every game. I think our team is resilient and I think our team has developed a mindset that they want to play hard, no matter who we put out there. Honestly, if we didn’t think they could perform in the league than we wouldn’t put them on the roster.”

Chicago started the match off with an early goal just two minutes into the match. Ella Stevens scored on a header off a corner kick from Danielle Colaprico for a 1-0 lead.

“It was actually funny, so, Sarah (Griffith) and I had a conversation right before it happened,” Stevens said. “Sarah was in my spot and I thought so. I had mentioned that you’re in my spot and where am I supposed to go. I was just standing out there. Kayla (Sharples) went up and blocked a defender. I was able to get the ball to go in.”

Racing Louisville FC evened the match at a goal apiece in the 11th minute. Emily Fox received a pass from Cecelia Kizer and broke free in the box. The Red Stars’ Kayla Sharples tried to make a late run but had the shot deflect off of her and past keeper Alyssa Naeher. It was her first professional goal.

“I think we scored and tied (the match) and the momentum changed,” Fox said. “I thought we had some really good energy and really good high pressure. Unfortunately, (the Red Stars) scored another goal and we just couldn’t finish our chances. It was bittersweet, but there were some positives that we can take from this. In the moment, we needed to score but there really wasn’t much to celebrate. Stil, excited to score but I want the team to win.”

Bianca St. Georges put Chicago up 2-1 in the 26th minute after the ball was deflected off a Louisville defender, St. Georges put the ball into the back of the net near the back post.

However, a weather delay occurred about five minutes later and sent both teams under cover and they returned to play for the last 15 minutes in the first half. Then they took a 15-minute halftime break and played the second half.

“Credit to the players to get hydrated again and got ready to play again,” said Red Stars goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, who made five saves. “Everybody did what they needed to do. I thought the defense was good tonight. It was to bend and not break. (Louisville) put a lot of numbers forward and they got a goal. I give a lot of credit for everybody to stay focused for the full 90 minutes. They had to clear a lot of crosses and ball out of the area.”

The Red Stars with the victory got their first three points for the regular season and will next host Washington next Saturday 7 p.m. at SeatGeek Stadium depending on the status of the match with Washington vs OL Reign to be played on Wednesday night. If Washington would win, then they would play in the Challenge Cup final next weekend instead of coming to Chicago.

Racing Louisville lost its first match and will next play at OL Reign next Sunday depending on the result of the Challenge Cup semifinal on Wednesday.

“It’s difficult to explain the feelings right now” Racing Louisville FC head coach Kim Bjorkegen said. “One hand, we’re disappointed with the result but we had a good chance to win tonight. We started the game not so good and lost our concentration with the early goal. After that we got control and scored one. We got momentum and had a feeling to go up 2-1. But instead, (the Red Stars) score to go up 2-1. After that they start to defend. We tried to answer the questions, that we’re still doing things good, In the end it doesn’t matter, we still need to create more chances and we need to be hungrier inside the box.”