Seattle Reign FC 5
Sky Blue FC 4
July 22, 2017 – NWSL Regular Season
Seattle, WA – Memorial Stadium
Seattle Reign FC and Sky Blue FC entered Saturday night’s match fighting for position as the final third of the NWSL season approaches. For Sky Blue, holding position and grabbing any points in Seattle would be a victory, especially given that the New Jersey side has already played one more match. For Seattle, points at home are something in short supply, with more road matches than home matches down the stretch.
Seattle Reign vs Sky Blue FC
The first half was played with a constant and quick pace. Both sides pressed early. Seattle played Merritt Mathias in the defense as opposed to her sometimes forward spot. Rumi Utsugi continued her holding midfield role with the injury to Jessica Fishlock. Sky Blue had injuries in defense, but firepower in Samantha Kerr and Kelley O’Hara among others.
First goals for Seattle at home have proven to be essential in the past, but not recently. Megan Rapinoe’s tenth goal on the set piece in the 27th took the two sides into the break only a goal apart. Leads have not been safe for any side, including the home side, at Memorial Stadium in 2017. Despite being unbeaten at home, Seattle has dropped points through a few draws when having a lead.
Seattle Reign vs Sky Blue FC
The second half started briskly. Bev Yanez would draw a penalty and Rapinoe would convert in the 47th minute. Yanez would get her head on a Naho Kawasumi cross just moments later for a sudden 3 goal lead merely four minutes into the half. When a Rapinoe cross was deflected into the goal by a Sky Blue defender in the 56th minute, the match seemed all but over.
Sky Blue was not done. The match was not over. In an amazing turn of events in a 16 minute stretch Sky Blue would erase the four goal deficit and have the 4,464 in Seattle in shock. The 60th minute penalty converted by Kelley O’Hara led to goals in the 64th, 72nd, and 76th minutes. Naho Kawasumi had a goal line tap in called back for offside in the 70th minute that could have made the match 5-2 at that point and perhaps very different, but dodging that bullet kept Sky Blue in it.
Suddenly, the Reign were no longer looking at three home points and jumping Sky Blue in the standings, but at two dropped points and looking up at the red line, with almost 15 minutes to go before stoppage time and the momentum clearly on the other bench. Seattle and Sky Blue have both proven to be resilient sides, the home side having pulled back points against Chicago and Kansas City in recent matches. Seattle would get the break though, as Rapinoe would complete the hat trick and negate the comeback with a left footed strike in the 87th to bring it to 5-4 as the Reign would see out the five minutes of stoppage and grab three essential points.
Seattle Reign vs Sky Blue FC
Sky Blue coach Christie Holly was still looking for the positives from the comeback, “I can’t speak more highly of the players as people, the desire and belief that they have that they will score goals and they will continue that. We scored 4 of them you could argue we could’ve had 6 or 7 that game. I think the goals that we did let in are things that we need to clean up a bit and work with out players but it is what it is. We expect players to go do their job and we believe things will improve if we keep cleaning up things we will get positive outcomes”
Dropping points at home against a side they were looking up the standings at with an upcoming schedule exclusively including the other teams in the top five at the moment could have been season defining in a negative way for the Reign. For Sky Blue, it was a massive opportunity lost, as the late goal meant the comeback was negated and the standings were very much not in their favor going into the final third of the season after the upcoming international break.
Laura Harvey knows Seattle faces tough tests over the next month, including a road match against Sky Blue after having already drawn and played the 5-4 slug fest against them Saturday night. When asked about what she can take from the two matches already played looking forward the Seattle coach said, “Two things. When we keep the ball, and move the ball, and be confident with the ball, we nullify their threat. When we give the ball away in silly areas of the field, we put ourselves under pressure. You can’t give players like Sam Kerr, Kelley O’Hara, whoever, space and time in the box. That’s the thing we have to learn from it. When we played them that first game, I think their pace was an issue for us, and I think we solved that tonight. And they’ve proven that they have other threats besides pace, which we knew, but we didn’t solve it quick enough. It’s different here than it is away because their field is huge. In some ways, their threat is a little bit different at home than it is here. We’ve got a huge five games. North Carolina twice, Chicago, Sky Blue, Portland. Can’t get much tougher than that. One off the chopping block, that was tonight.”
Seattle Reign vs Sky Blue FC
Photos by Matt Ferris
NWSL Match Report
Match: Seattle Reign FC (6-3-6, 24 pts) vs Sky Blue FC (7-7-2, 23 pts)
Date: July 22, 2017
Venue: Memorial Stadium
Kickoff: 7:00pm PT
Attendance: 4,464
Weather: Sunny
Scoring Summary:
SEA – Rapinoe 27’
SEA – Rapinoe (PK) 47’
SEA – Yanez (Kawasumi) 49’
SEA – Skroski (OG) 56’
NJ – O’Hara (PK) 60’
NJ – Galton 64’
NJ – Corboz 72’
NJ – Kerr (Corboz) 76’
SEA – Rapinoe (Johnson) 87’
Lineups:
Seattle Reign FC: Kopmeyer, Pickett, Barnes, McNabb, Mathias (Stott 69’), Nairn, Utsugi, Elston (Johnson 72’), Rapinoe, Yanez (Dallstream 82’), Kawasumi
Substitutes Not Used: Bauer, Crummer, Reed, Schiffel
Sky Blue FC: Sheridan, O’Hara, Pearce, Skroski, Rodriguez, Stanton (Galton 54’), Killion, Lytle (Tiernan 78’), Corboz, Kerr, Hayes (Meehan 58’)
Substitutes Not Used: Casey, Richardson, Mills, Kai
Stats Summary: SEA/NJ
Shots: 11 / 31
Shots on Goal: 4 / 12
Saves: 8 / 0
Corner Kicks: 5 / 8
Fouls: 14 / 9
Offside: 6 / 5
Misconduct Summary:
SEA – Mathias (Yellow) 30’
SEA – Rapinoe (Yellow) 80’
NJ – Tiernan (Yellow) 89’
Officials:
Referee: Greg Dopka
Assistant Referees: Brooke Mayo, Andrew Deuker
Fourth Official: Jeff Arthurholtz
