Sky Blue FC battled the Seattle Reign to a 0-0 draw on Sunday, June 19th at Yurcak Field in New Jersey. This was Sky Blue’s third consecutive draw, while Seattle was coming off of a 1-0 win at home over the Houston Dash.
Both teams had their opportunities to score; each team was denied by the crossbar in the first half and the goalkeepers stood tall in the second half, turning away multiple shots to keep the game scoreless.
Sky Blue put together one of their all-around best efforts of the season despite being unable to score. Defender Christie Rampone made a particularly spectacular goal line clearance in the second half to deny the Reign.
Sky Blue forward Leah Galton got her first start of the season and looked dangerous, running up and down the pitch and creating chance after chance that unfortunately went unfinished. “I’ve not really been here that long, only been three and a half weeks,” Galton said postgame. “Getting the chemistry with the girls is what I’ve been working on the hardest. …I’m pretty sure, give me another week or two and we’ll be there with crosses and finishes.”
Galton also received a bit of an injury scare late in the match when she was involved in a hard tackle and had to be replaced in the 87th minute by Shauna Gordon. Galton was down on the pitch for multiple minutes, but after the game Sky Blue head coach Christy Holly was quick to assure the assembled media that she was fine.
Seattle Reign head coach Laura Harvey spoke of her disappointment with the outcome, even though she said that the game wasn’t about results but about performances. “We’re disappointed that we didn’t put on a performance that we were happy with. I think we created enough chances to win the game. …One week we do really well and the next week we drop our standard a little bit.”
When asked about the status of midfielder Megan Rapinoe, who is returning from a torn ACL suffered in December 2015 while with the National Team, Harvey stated that expects to see Rapinoe on the roster for the USA at the Rio Olympics in August and wouldn’t be surprised to see Rapinoe see playing time when the USA takes on Japan in July. Rapinoe will not play for the Reign prior to the Olympics.
Up next, Sky Blue (2-3-4, 9 points) travels to Boyds, Maryland to take on the surging Washington Spirit (5-1-2, 17 points), which will surely be a tough test. Sky Blue have not beaten the Spirit since August of 2014, when they won five consecutive games to end the season.
