NFL
By: Zachary Draves
The Chicago Red Stars came back with a vengeance to triumph over OL Reign in their July 18 home contest before a crowd of 3,301.
In the beginning, they came out with an in-your-face defense relegating the game to midfield and to lessen as many chances for shots on goal as possible.
OL’s Bethany Balcer broke through to score the first goal of the game whereas the Red Stars for the most part struggled to get a shot on goal in the first half.
The second half kicked off with Chicago’s Mallory Pugh scoring in epic fashion from the left corner to even the game at one.
Then things turned dramatic as OL scored in their own net to give the Red Stars a 2-1 lead.
Mallory, who was a commanding presence on both ends of the field throughout, came through in the clutch again giving the Red Stars a commanding 3-1 advantage which sealed the deal from then on.
This marks the Red Stars third victory in a row and three out of their last five.
Also, 10,000-minute milestones were reached by two Red Stars Vanessa Dibernado and Kealia Watt.
The rundown of highlights are:
|
To sum up, the fans didn’t leave SeatGeek Stadium disappointed and Chicago got an always helpful boost that put them second place behind the Portland Thorns FC in the standings with 17 points after being in 7th for quite a while in a packed table.
But Head Coach Rory Dames is not looking at this with a sense of complacency and reminding his players of where they were earlier in the season to motivate them into being in a better position.
“We challenged this group starting with our Washington (Spirit) game and we simply said here’s where we are, I think it was 8th, where can we be at the end of five or six games.” he said.
“Wherever we are now I am more interested in the challenge we gave them.”
The Red Stars (5-4) play next Sunday, July 25 as they travel to take on NJ/NY Gotham at 5 p.m. C.T.
