Woman of the Match, Red Star Yuki Nagasato, causes trouble for Courage forward Kristen Hamilton (Photo Credit: Don Mac Gregor).
BRIDGEVIEW, IL–There’s one major thing that’s in favor of the Red Stars lately is finding a way to get three meaningful points. That was the most important thing for Chicago that has been struggling over the last few weeks. Maybe a scrappy way of doing it, but the club could be turning the corner at the right time with the NWSL playoffs approaching.
The Chicago Red Stars pulled out another come from behind effort over the visiting North Carolina Courage 2-1 at Toyota Park on Sunday afternoon. The victory has put the club into the third spot tied with Orlando in the standings with 35 points with three road matches remaining against FCKC, Houston and Portland.
“We probably don’t want to get caught up with it, because if you start thinking of points, math and results, you can lose your way,” Chicago Red Stars coach Rory Dames said. “So, we started with the Washington game, we started to put our focus into 90 minutes of the game and our performance.”
The Red Stars focus clearly in the second half was something the group had to pull together in grinding out a victory.
“We had more of that in this game theatrically,” Dames said. “We definitely looked like we were playing with a piano on our back and we had a lot of pressure on us. I thought we found a 15-20 minute window in the second half and settled in to play a bit. I thought we hung around long enough to steal a win. So, any points you get at this point of the season is valuable, but we control our own destiny in what we can do.”
As for the offense trying to pull together like it did during the long stretch of the summer and when the team was producing victories. It seems to still be there in some ways.
“I think our offense has been OK,” Christen Press said. “I don’t think it’s been great. I don’t think we’re playing great. The last two games have been the testament to our will. If you look at our form in the middle of the season and the later stages of the Spring and early Summer, that’s the type of offense we really have. Really dynamic, a lot of people scoring, a lot of people making runs in the box, transitioning and we would like a little bit more of possession and combination play to get us in front of the goal. I think we’ve fallen away from that, but the most important thing going into the playoffs is that we’re confident and that we can score.”
Finding the balance and the goals has been an issue here and there. But putting it together making it happen is another thing the Red Stars has been trying to do recently and looking ahead too.
“I think it was a multiple of things,” Julie Ertz said. “We were playing extremely well against teams for the first 30 minutes in games. We had most of the possession and passing the ball around and looked really good.
“At the end of the day it kind of a balance, because we need to win and in this league there’s times you have to be scrappy, you have to roll up your sleeves, you have to go out there and be more aggressive. The points are more important right now, because we want to make the playoffs. It really comes down to who’s winning the first and second balls and who’s scoring in the back of the net. Right now, we’re working on what works for us at this time of the season.”
One meaningful thing is that Chicago is in a good spot in the standings with three matches remaining. Playoffs are a good possibility at this point, but playing better soccer the rest of the way can lead them back to Toyota Park for the postseason.
Chicago Red Stars
