By StarCityFan
If you wanted to see fireworks on Sunday night at the SoccerPlex, you had to stick around for the pyrotechnic kind because there weren’t any during the game, as neither the Washington Freedom nor the Chicago Red Stars could put the ball in the net.
The Freedom’s problem was that they seldom seemed to be able to get their attack organized enough to make a serious threat. I can only remember a handful of exciting moments that weren’t from set pieces. In the seventh minute, Lene Mykjåland got the ball and headed for the back line. She passed the ball over to Abby Wambach then got it back right as she passed through the line, but she wasn’t able to get a shot off before Chicago goalkeeper Jillian Loyden nabbed it. As the first half was winding down, Wambach got behind the defense but from a challenging angle on the left side, and her shot went just barely wide of the right post. In the 60th minute, Lene did a beautiful job of weaving through the defense in order to get off a centering pass, but Abby didn’t run onto it in time. Two minutes later, Abby and Sarah Huffman came charging downfield against a retreating defense. Abby’s centering pass was right to Sarah’s feet in front of goal, but Huffy was called offsides on the play. In the 77th minute, Nikki Marshall, now playing forward, had a two-on-one break with Abby, but Nikki’s cross from the left flank was off-target and cleared for a corner kick.
Chicago had far more chances, but either the Freedom back line or Erin McLeod came up with a big play, the shot was from such a distance that McLeod just gobbled it up, or the shot was taken by Ella Masar, who despite her two-goal game last week seemed unable to hit the broad side of a barn from three yards away.
In the very early going, a Red Stars player whose identity I didn’t catch made an acrobatic over-the-back kick off a throw-in that sprung Masar into the box just outside the left post, but her shot went wide left. Ella had the ball in front of goal in the 14th minute but was stripped from behind. Cristiane wasted an extended Chicago possession two minutes later by taking a shot from 25 yards out that went high. Two minutes after that, Chicago had a two-on-one break, but Masar’s shot went over the goal from about 10 yards out. In the 35th minute, Chicago took a free kick from 35 yards out that Erin tipped over the bar. The resulting corner kick provided a nice heading opportunity, but the ball went straight to Erin. Cristiane sprung Masar in the 37th minute, but Erin managed to save the shot. Four minutes later, Cristiane got through with only Marshall to beat, but Nikki managed to knock the ball out for a corner kick. The corner kick resulted in one of those heart-in-mouth sequences when the ball is being knocked around among a scrum of players right in front of goal. A Chicago player who couldn’t have been much more than a yard out knocked the ball toward goal, but somehow Sonia Bompastor managed to get in the way of it and clear it out of danger.
Three minutes into the second half, Cat Whitehill made a bad clearance to Cristiane, who took a quick shot trying to catch McLeod off her guard, but Erin was ready and managed to grab it. Megan Rapinoe wasted another Red Stars possession in the 54th minute by taking a low shot from about 20 yards out that went wide left. A free kick from 30 yards in the next minute went right to Erin, as did a long shot that concluded another passing sequence a minute later. I was beginning to wonder if Chicago had any other strategies in mind.
Shortly thereafter, Masar got in a footrace with Whitehill, but despite the speed differential, Ella was prevented from getting a shot off. In the 65th minute, Rapinoe sprung Cristiane behind the defense, but Marshall’s catch-up speed was just enough for her to slide-tackle the ball out-of-bounds cleanly before Cristiane could get a shot off. That corner kick resulted in an off-target header, as did another one a minute later, with Masar managing to head the ball wide from three yards out. She was almost immediately replaced by Casey Nogueira, a development I found worrying as Nogueira is a deadly finisher.
In the 73rd minute, Cristiane and Kosovare Asllani tried to do some clever passing in the box to get McLeod out-of-position, but they tried one pass too many, and Erin was able to get to the ball. Chicago took another long shot that went wide shortly thereafter. There was a scary moment for the Freedom in the 81st minute as Whitehill fell when trying to clear the ball, instead sending it rolling slowly towards Nogueira. But the Freedom defenders in the area quickly converged, and forced Nogueira to give up the ball to Karen Carney, who got off a good shot but one that McLeod managed to grab. In the 84th minute, Nogueira got her own breakaway. Erin came out to challenge her near the perimeter of the box, but missed. Fortunately for the Freedom, Casey’s shot trickled just wide of the right post. Chicago had one last chance on a good-looking cross in stoppage time, but the player in front of the goal couldn’t get her head to it before it went by.
All in all, the Freedom were fortunate to keep a clean sheet. Some of it was luck, some of it was poor finishing by Chicago, and a lot of it was hard work by the back line and McLeod. At the other end, it’s a bit of a mystery as to why the Freedom attack was so anemic. I wonder a bit if our young Norwegian is having problems adjusting to the scorching weather, as she seemed to disappear for long periods of time during the game.
Interesting developments include Marshall’s first minutes at forward and Brittany Klein’s first few minutes (starting at 87) for the Freedom, period. It will be interesting to see if there’s much more of either.
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