Sky Blue FC traveled to the SoccerPlex on Saturday, May 16th to take on the Washington Spirit, who defeated Sky Blue for the first time n their history a few weeks ago.
Sky Blue came out hard and controlled much of the play in the first half of the game, but were unable to put any balls past goalkeeper Kelsey Wys.
The Spirit were also unable to put anything past Brittany Cameron until the waning moments of the match, despite the impressive speed of both Crystal Dunn and Francesca Ordega up top. Ordega had an injury scare in the first half, going down hard after a tackle by Cami Levin, but after being attended to by the trainer she was back up and played the entire game. After the game, she said, “It hurt so badly but I had to [stay in the game] because it was my last game before the World Cup. Just put my head down and make the sacrifice.”
Ordega and Dunn combined to create the lone goal of the match, in second half stoppage time, after Cameron came off her line, hesitated, and then decided to challenge Ordega. She got caught on the wrong side of Ordega, while Ordega was able to slip the ball past Cameron and put the ball into the empty net.
Dunn has been splitting time between the US Women’s National Team camp in Los Angeles, where she was filling in for an injured Tobin Heath, and the Spirit. When asked, she admitted that her legs were tired from all the flying she’s been doing. “It’s been rough. It’s great being in with the National Team, always, but it was a lot on my legs… I always feel like I miss a beat here and there… The [Spirit are] training and I jumped in Thursday and was like ‘Here I am!’ and I don’t think that’s enough time to really get acquainted with each other again and perform to the best of my ability… But I’m back, I’m really excited to be fully committed to my team this year.”
Spirit head coach Mark Parsons admitted that Sky Blue’s direct style took him by surprise. “I’ve never seen a team as direct as that,” he said. “Sky Blue have never been that direct. I don’t think I saw a pass from them under 50 yards, 40 yards, and that was a big change to deal with. …In two and a half years, I’ve never ever seen a team play like that and it was tough to deal with.”
Parsons was also critical of the way the Spirit played the entire game, saying, “I didn’t make more subs because I couldn’t decide who deserved to come off more. It was bad. Really bad, and they know it.”
Coach Jim Gabarra stated that the Sky Blue game plan was to play more direct, because “80 percent of [the Spirit’s] goals come from turnovers in the final third, so we wanted to start on the front foot.”
Jim Gabarra elected to start Nadia Nadim and Kim DeCesare as his two forwards after midfielder Sarah Killion was a late scratch due to a knee injury she suffered in practice on Friday. DeCesare took Maya Hayes’ typical spot, while Hayes played the entire game as a right back. Specifically, she was tasked with shadowing Crystal Dunn the entire game, and she did an admirable job of it.
“We have a player who’s never played right back in her life, probably one of the best performances from a right back the whole season,” Gabarra said. Crystal Dunn gave Hayes props as well, saying “I was joking with her, ‘It is so weird seeing you back here!’ but I think she did great, she’s really fast, really tenacious and it wasn’t easy getting around her. I think she did a good job on me.”
Nadim enjoyed having a partner up top that would go into the tackles and leave her free to make runs. “I felt it worked really well with Kim on the field, because I don’t have to do all the tackles, I can just run into space. I feel we had a lot of chances this night,” Nadim said.
Nadim had an opportunity early in the first half to give Sky Blue the lead, after Wys went down to make a save but didn’t corral the ball. Nadim had fallen down and was unable to regain her footing before Spirit defender Tori Huster was able to clear the ball away.
Sky Blue is back in action in Boston on Friday, May 22nd at 7 p.m. The Breakers had their own stoppage time goal on Saturday night when a late strike from Kristie Mewis defeated the Portland Thorns 1-0. Boston is now sitting in sixth place with six points in five games, while Sky Blue is in eighth place with five points in six games.
