Sky Blue FC lost 3-1 tonight against Chicago Red Stars and Sam Kerr continued her dominance from last year as she scored a hat trick against her former team.
There were some differences from last week’s 3-1 defeat compared to this week’s: Sky Blue were more aggressive in possession and didn’t sit back as they have in the past, but Sam Kerr’s natural talent as a target forward put the Sky Blue defense to shame. The Sky Blue back-line’s weakness in defending through balls was put to the test, and they failed. Kerr was able to beat the Sky Blue back-line, and get herself one-on-one opportunities against Sky Blue goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, 8 times. The only defender able to stand up to her was Mandy Freeman, but if Kerr was defended by Domi Richardson, Erica Skroski, Madison Tiernan, or a combination, she could easily bypass the defenders.
Despite only having 2 shots, and 2 on goal, in the first half, Sky Blue looked more aggressive. There were significant changes to their line-up, including moving Carli Lloyd from center midfield to forward and changing their formation to a 4-4-2. I see more positive notes from their play, but this wasn’t enough to counteract Sam Kerr.
Let’s get to the goals:
The scoring started in the 40th minute when Red Star Alyssa Mautz crossed the ball to Sam Kerr, who hit the ball low at the top of the 18-yard box, bouncing past Sheridan.
Then, in the first minute of the second half, Yuki Nagasato popped the ball over the top of the back-line for Kerr to run on. Kerr beats Tiernan, nutmegging the midfielder-turned-defender, and inevitably beats Sheridan as well. Sheridan gets unlucky on these two goals with two difficult balls to read: bouncing and through traffic.
The last Chicago goal came in the 63rd minute when, with another assist by Nagasato, Kerr once again beats the Sky Blue back-line, winding up one-on-one with Sheridan. Kerr blasts the ball past Sheridan with ease. Though upon replay, Kerr seems to be offsides, regardless she made a statement against her former team.
Sky Blue FC’s only goal came too little too late in the 73rd minute starting from a sequence of short passes between Lloyd and Savannah McCaskill. McCaskill gives the ball to Imani Dorsey, who slots the ball past Red Stars keeper, Alyssa Naeher.
Sky Blue FC is finally starting to make effective changes to their line-up. Putting Carli Lloyd up top will make her become the productive contributor that everyone has expected of her, once she stops tracking back to support in defense, of course. Lloyd’s trying to do too much for this team, playing box-to-box isn’t what people want or expect of Lloyd, they want her to score and she can’t do that if she’s trying to clear balls at the 18.
