Red Stars Sidebar: Red Stars in Attack Mode!
BRIDGEVIEW, IL–The Chicago Red Stars are trying to find consistency on the field. It’s something that’s been a problem between the lack of offense or playing enough defense to stay in matches.
Finally, the Red Stars have taken their best foot forward and the signs are showing up ars Chicago got past San Diego 1-0 at SeatGeek Stadium on Saturday night.
“It did feel a little bit different,” Chicago head coach Chris Petrucelli said. “We’ve been trying to get the front group to have the confidence to go after people.
What Chicago had to offer was getting some of its attack moving forward and being dangerous more going forward.
“We now have seen Bianca (St, Georges) grow into that with that type of freedom,” Petrucelli said. “We also are starting to see what Ella (Stevens) is capable of. In the past we haven’t gotten the ball up front that much. We haven’t seen what these players can do. Ava (Cook) does what she does just pulls effort, digs the ball out, and really works hard. Sarah (Griffith) has real skill when she gets on the ball. Jenna (Bike) when she came on caused problems and almost scored a goal.”
The biggest pieces are right there for the Red Stars if they can make it work together with these players.
“It’s there and we know they are capable,” Petrucelli said. “We’ve had problems getting the ball up to them. Early in the game, we had the ball but couldn’t keep it forward, we got better as the game went on.”
For Stevens, she was a big part of what was going on in the final third of the field and noticed how much the match was going in the favor of the Red Stars in creating chances to score.
“Getting into the game and not settling down made a difference,” Stevens said. “Making a one-time pass or two, we realized that we had more time than we thought. I think we were able to settle down and we were able to numbers around to help each other. When we work together, we were able to get angles for each other.”
The Red Stars had the ability to keep this match in their own favor and were able to find three points in helping grow and move on to their next match.