Chicago, 3 September 2017 – The Chicago Red Stars gutted out the 2-1 victory over the North Carolina Courage to sweep the season series, and pick up a very important three points. North Carolina dominated the entire match. Lynn Williams put the Courage up early in the first half and they continued to apply strong pressure. It was all the Red Stars could do to hold North Carolina to the one goal and get out of the half. In the second half, the Courage picked up where they left off, but Chicago’s Yuki Nagasato had other ideas. She got the equalizer for Chicago and had the assist on Julie Ertz’ late game-winner.
From the first touch, North Carolina put Chicago under relentless pressure. The Courage had a huge opportunity in the thirteenth minute when Denise O’Sullivan slipped a lovely ball through Chicago’s defense and into the penalty area. Jessica McDonald barely beat Chicago goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher to the ball to get her shot off. Naeher slid perfectly and blocked McDonald’s shot. Naeher’s timing wasn’t as good two minutes later when McDonald played Lynn Williams into the Red Stars penalty area. Williams calmly slotted the ball past Naeher for the 1-0 lead.
The Red Stars got the equalizer early in the first half. Julie Ertz won the ball in midfield, sending the ball into space behind the Courage’s back line. Christen Press tracked it down on the right side of NC’s penalty area, drawing the NC defense to her. Yuki Nagasato was all alone on the weak side. Press made a nice pass across to her and Nagasato easily passed the ball into the NC net to level the match at one apiece.
The match got ugly as both sides fought hard to get the go-ahead goal, committing fouls galore but neither side could make the resulting free kick count. Julie Ertz and McCall Zerboni each picked up yellow cards. This is Zerboni’s fifth of the season and she will have to sit out the Courage’s next match. Alyssa Naeher somehow escaped a yellow, or worse, in the 76th minute. Naeher bobbled a save and in the effort to chase it down, pulled Ashley Hatch down with essentially a horse-collar tackle. The play should have resulted in a penalty kick and Naeher should have had a card.
Chicago broke the deadlock in the 84th minute. Yuki Nagasato picked up a missed NC clearance on the left side of the NC penalty area. She quickly crossed the ball into Ertz who had her back to goal and a defender on her back. Falling away from goal, Ertz somehow managed to use her head to flick the ball back over her right shoulder and into the net for the go-ahead goal. The Red Stars hung on for the win in their final home match of the season.
Next matches:
Chicago (10-6-5, 3rd, 35 pts) travels to Kansas City to face the Blues (6-9-5, 7th, 23 pts) in Lifetime’s game of the week on Saturday, 9 September. Coverage starts at 2:30pm CDT.
North Carolina (14-6, 1st, 42 pts) return home and host the Houston Dash (7-11-2, 8th, 23 pts) on Saturday, 9 September. Kick off is at 7:30pm EDT.
Lineups
Chicago Red Stars
Naeher; Short, Johnson, Naughton, Gilliland; Colaprico, Ertz, Mautz, Huerta; Press (C), Comeau
Substitutes:
46’ Nagasato in for Mautz
64’ Brian in for Comeau
North Carolina Courage
Rowland; Hinkle, Erceg (C), Dahlkemper, Smith; Zerboni, Mewis, Hamilton, O’Sullivan, McDonald; Williams, Doniak
Substitutes:
72’ Hatch in for McDonald
78’ De Oliveira in for O’Sullivan
Misconduct:
40’ Yellow – Colaprico (CHI)
74’ Yellow – Ertz (CHI)
77’ Yellow – Zerboni (NC)
