Chicago Red Stars Fall 3-2 in Season Opener

The Chicago Red Stars played a hard-fought match against San Diego Wave FC, but were unable to take home points, as the team fell 3-2.  

KEY MOMENTS: 

17’ The Red Stars started the match winning a series of calls for corner kicks. In the 17th minute the team was finally able to convert, after a ball from Mallory Swanson ricocheted around the box until Yuki Nagasato was able to blast it into the net giving the Red Stars the early lead 

21’ Four minutes after Chicago’s goal, San Deigo was able to take a strike from outside the Red Stars’ 18-yard box that found the hands of Alyssa Naeher, but the keeper was unable to wrangle the shot and the ball fell into the goal with help from Jaedyn Shaw 

31’ San Diego whipped a ball into Chicago’s 18-yard box that was quickly pushed out by the head of a Red Stars player, but unfortunately landed at the feet of Shaw whose strike from outside the box got past Naeher putting the Wave up 2-1 

41+3’ Three minutes into the eight minutes of added time of the first half, the Red Stars were awarded a penalty attempt. Swanson stepped up to take the shot and was able to convert to tie the game 2-2.  

88’ The second half was back and forth between the two teams until an unintentional handball by the Red Stars in their own 18-yard box gave the Wave a penalty attempt, which was converted by Alex Morgan to give San Diego the 3-2 lead.  

GAME NOTES: 

• Despite being separated by five months, last year’s quarterfinals match and this year’s season opener shared some similarities. In both matches Mallory Swanson had a chance to score with a penalty attempt. The forward unfortunately missed in the quarterfinals, but changed her luck in the season opener when she tied the game with her penalty attempt late in the first half. The quarterfinals match ended with a goal by Morgan against Alyssa Naeher. To open the season this year, Morgan’s penalty attempt against Naeher put the Wave up 3-2 and earned them the win. As in the previous three meetings, the two teams were separated by only one goal again tonight.   

• This match marked the first professional appearance and start for Penelope Hocking, the Red Stars’ first-round draft pick. Jenna Bike, Sami Feller, Cheyna Matthews and Cari Roccaro all made their first appearances for the Red Stars, with Feller making her first professional appearance in the league. The match also marked the return of Casey Krueger and Tierna Davidson, both of whom missed the 2022 season due to maternity leave and injury, respectively.  

• To underscore the Red Stars’ efforts, the team had more shots (15 to 9), more shots inside the box (11 to 6), more passes (444 to 394) and passes in the final third (111 to 97) than San Diego. 

Next Game 

Chicago Red Stars vs. Houston Dash April 1, 2023, 1:00 p.m. CT at SeatGeek Stadium 

Goals by Half  

         1 2 F 

CHI 2 0 2 

SD 2 1 3 

Scoring Summary: 

CHI: 17’ Nagasato, 45+3’ Swanson (penalty) 

SD: 21’ Ali, 32’ Shaw, 89’ Morgan 

Disciplinary Report 

CHI: 49’ Tierna Davidson, 88’ Arin Wright 

SD: 58’ Kornieck 

Lineups 

CHI: Alyssa Naeher, Casey Krueger (Jenna Bike) (Cheyna Matthews), Tierna Davidson (Sami Feller), Tatumn Milazzo, Cari Roccaro, Yuki Nagasato, Sarah Griffith (Jill Aguilera), Arin Wright, Ella Stevens (Ava Cook), Penelope Hocking, Mallory Swanson 

SD: Kailen Sheridan, Christen Westphal, Kaleigh Riehl, Naomi Girma, Kristen McNabb, Emily van Egmond, Danielle Colaprico (Kelsey Turnbow), Maggie Dougherty Howard (Taylor Kornieck), Jaedyn Shaw (Sofia Jakobsson), Amirah Ali (Makenzy Doniak), Alex Morgan 

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