Stars complete club’s first 3-goal comeback
By Lesley Ryder
Alyssa Naeher scored her first NWSL goal on the last kick of the game to secure a 3-3 draw against Seattle Reign.
The late night match was a tale of two halves. The Stars went down early on the scoreboard, and on personnel. The Stars had to fight through trouble early on in the match. Seattle jumped to the lead just three minutes in the match on a goal by Jess Fishlock. Minutes later, the Stars lost Natalia Kuikka and Shea Groom to apparent leg injuries, forcing the team to make early changes on the pitch. Seattle added another goal in the 34th minute on a chaotic sequence in Chicago’s 18’ box that ended on a Jordyn Huitema bicycle kick.
Seattle stormed out of the halftime break and scored just seconds into the half. Emeri Adames capitalized on a defensive miscue by the Stars to put Reign up 3-0. A few minutes later, the Stars lost another player to injury when Jenna Bike appeared to roll her ankle on the Lumen Field turf. Jameese Joseph came on as the team’s final substitute of the game, and her first appearance for the club since May 24th.
The Stars held on to stabilize the score, and began their comeback. In the 73rd minute, Ally Schlegel found Ludmila open in Seattle’s end, and Ludmila buried a shot past Claudia Dickey. Five minutes later, Camryn Biegalski notched her first professional goal to bring the Stars in striking distance of a result.
Chicago earned a corner kick as the clock ticked past the minimum 7 minutes of stoppage time. Alyssa Naeher came downfield to participate in what would surely be the last kick of the game. Mana Hayashi swung the ball in and Julia Grosso won the header and forced Dickey to make an acrobatic save off the crossbar. Kathy Hendrich, Ally Schlegel and Alyssa Naeher all crashed the net to bury the rebound. Hendrich kept the ball alive, and Naeher guided the ball past the goal line to secure the draw.
It was another resilient finish for the Stars, who after going down by three goals, and three injured players had every reason to pack it in early. “Instead of doing that, I think you actually saw the level raise. And the team kind of came together even more,” Alyssa Naeher said after the match.
“It was just kind of that collective, you know, we've got nothing to lose at this point. Let's be us. Let's keep moving, keep going. Let's get it one goal at a time and again. There's nothing to lose at that point.”
Monday night’s match also marked a historic milestone for Naeher. She became the first goalie in the NWSL to make her 200th appearance. “I think for me to get to this milestone, it means a lot to me. It's always fun to be the first to do something, you know, that's something nobody can ever take away from you. I hope there's many more to come after me.”
Interim head coach Ella Masar was candid in her postmatch remarks. “At three-zero, my legs were shaking, and I'm thinking, excuse my French. ‘What the **** is going on?’ And then I brought them in and said, ‘Listen, let's smile. Let's have some fun. We got nothing to lose, and I would rather you go out [fighting], and if we lose five zero, that's on me.”
Masar lauded the club’s effort to complete the comeback. “I stood in front of them and I said, ‘Listen, I'm I'm so proud.’ And I got emotional. I'm so proud of them, because not about the results on the pitch, but just having that connection off of it, and finally seeing those girls shoulders back and going. Today, we could have crumbled. I crumbled a bit, but they didn’t, and they're resilient. This is their mission statement. They're resilient. They are gritty. And this is Chicago.”
The Stars remain undefeated since Masar took over as interim coach. The team’s work to come together and play with belief is evident in these last three matches.
“The group's digging deep. And I think you get that from the coaches, the veterans, the leaders of the group. And then you see some of that youthful energy and joy of kind of ignorance is bliss in a lot of ways as well,” said Naeher. “So I think the group has, we've chosen to stay together this whole time. We stuck together through it all.”
On Friday the Stars host the North Carolina Courage at home. It’ll be a quick turnaround for the team after a long ride home from Seattle.
Notes from the field
- Alyssa Naeher recorded her 200th appearance in the NWSL, and her 155th appearance for the Stars. She’s now tied for the lead in most club appearances with Vanessa Dibernardo.
- Naeher became the third goalkeeper to score in NWSL history.
- Ally Schlegel recorded her second assist in as many matches.
- Kathy Hendrich earned her first assist on Naeher’s goal.
- Natalia Kuikka, Shea Groom, and Jenna Bike left the match with injuries. They will be evaluated on their return to Chicago.
Photo credit: Kevin Ng/Chicago Stars FC