Sky Blue FC won their third consecutive game on Saturday, July 23rd, defeating the Washington Spirit 1-0. It was the Spirit’s first loss since June 25th, when they suffered a 2-0 defeat to Sky Blue. At the end of the day, Sky Blue had moved into fourth place in the league.
Sky Blue was missing multiple key players due to injury and international duty. Aside from the players already departed for the Olympics, Raquel Rodriguez didn’t dress due to playing 90 minutes the day before with the Costa Rican national team and fellow midfielder Sarah Killion was out with a quad strain. Head coach Christy Holly said that Killion was planning to play but he decided to err on the side of caution and leave her on the bench this week.
Once again the hero of the match was rookie Leah Galton. Her goal in the 24th minute proved to be the difference, although Tasha Kai had a golden opportunity a few minutes later but was unable to convert.
The Spirit seemed to wake up after halftime and came out looking much more organized in the second half, but Sky Blue’s defense held firm.
The Spirit (8-3-2, 26 points) will have one last chance against Sky Blue (6-4-4, 22 points), as the teams will face off for the fourth and final time next weekend, Saturday, July 30th, at the SoccerPlex in Maryland. It will be the last game before the league takes a break for most of August due to the Olympics, although the Spirit will have a chance to pick up points on August 18th when they face the Dash in a game that was postponed earlier in the season because of weather in Houston.
