Sky Blue FC and Houston Dash Battle to a 1-1 Draw
In an early season match up of unbeaten teams, the Sky Blue FC and Houston Dash played to a 1-1 draw last night at Yurcak field in Piscataway NJ.
Katy Freels notched her first goal of the season in the games’ fourteenth minute, while Forward Jessica McDonald’s first goal of the season tied it up for the visiting Dash in the fifty-second minute.
Both teams played an aggressive, tough game, with the Dash really turning things up in the games’ second half.
Sky Blue created an early opportunity fifteen seconds in, when Maya Hayes found Forward Nadia Nadim streaking through the middle, only to be dragged down by the Houston defense. Seconds later, Freels’ header sailed wide of the net, as the Sky Blue continued to press. However, Houston soon pressed back, as Defender Meghan Klingenberg sent a shot on net, but it was headed away. Midfielder Morgan Brian then sent a rocket towards the net, but it sailed harmlessly over and out of bounds. Moments later, Klingenberg set up Midfielder Carli Lloyd with a nice cross, only to have the ball headed away by Sky Blue Captain Christie Rampone.
More from Playing for 90
- Barcelona kick off Champions League against Royal Antwerp
- Alexia Putellas reaches 400 games with Barcelona
- Everything you need to know ahead of the 250th ‘Super Clásico’
- Barcelona put five past Real Betis
- Manchester City suffer but come away with win over West Ham
Klingenberg was all over the pitch for Houston, both setting up and taking shots, and playing both Maya Hayes and Nadia Nadim tough. For the Sky Blue, the defensive trio of Rampone, Lindsi Cutshall and Cami Levin kept the Houston attack at bay, and bailed out Goalie Brittany Cameron when she aggressively came out to play a ball and was caught out of position. The Houston shot was sent squarely towards goal by Carli Lloyd, but the alert Kristen Grubka knocked the blast away.
Live Feed
Skyscraper Blues
Finally, in the games’ fourteenth minute, Nadim collected a pass and fed a streaking Kelley O’Hara who sent a perfect ball from the left into the front of the box where it was knocked home by Freels. Freels, Nadim and Freels are displaying nice chemistry through these first two games, a point which Freels commented on after the game : “Nadia is so awesome, she’s so savy and so fun to play with, she makes my job look easy.” In the twentieth minute, rookie Sarah Killion set up Nadim, but the defense cut off the attempt. Towards the end of the first half, Nadim again found herself open in the midfield and was poised to make a run, however, four Dash defenders closed on her, negating her charge.
As the half drew to a close, both sides had opportunities, but both sides were turned away. Lloyd stole a pass, but her shot on goal went over the net and her second shot on goal was stopped by Cameron. Lloyd had another opportunity when Klingenberg intercepted a pass from Rampone to Hayes and set a pass to Lloyd, but the pass was too wide of the hard charging midfielder. For the Sky Blue, Cami Levin’s rebound of a Maya Hayes attempt was turned away to end the furious final minutes of the half.
The second half began with both teams making substitutions as Houston sent on Stephanie Ochs to replace Lauren Sesselman and the Sky Blue sending on the versatile Meg Morris to replace Nadim, in a surprise move. However, after the game, Head Coach Jim Gabarra explained the switch: “She (Nadim) had a bit of a groin issue, it happened at practice yesterday and we didn’t want to push it.”
The second half was dominated by Houston as they kept attacking the Sky Blue net and tightened their defense. For the New Jersey side, their best opportunity came in the fifty-seventh minute when Midfielder Shawna Gordon set up Hayes, only to be denied by Goalie Erin McLeod.
The Dash tied the score in the fifty second minute when Brian collected the ball on the right flank and fed a racing Jessica McDonald who sent the ball past the outstretched Cameron for the equalizer. McDonald played a spirited second half, and had scoring chances in the games’ seventy-third and eighty-fifth minute, but the first attempt went wide and the latter was knocked away. Forward Tiffany McCarty also sent a rocket on goal, but her shot was too high.Forward Kealie Ohai was also dangerous in the second half for the Dash, as the Sky Blue seemed to be wearing down at times. Cameron kept sharp however, and kept Houston from scoring the game winner.
When asked if removing Nadim had any effect on his team’s second half, Gabarra had this to say : “I just don’t think we had a good energy level, we lost the midfield battle, we just weren’t good in the transition. You can’t defend for long stretches of time.” Regarding her teams’ second half performance, Freels added: “ Once they put a little more pressure on us, we resorted to the long ball or trying to play against them out of the back. When they are pressing, that’s a time we can expose them if we have some good passes through the midfield and up to the front. It’s good that we are not getting complacent early in the season and can see both the positives and negatives. However, we do need to get better if we want to truly become the team we want to be.”
For the Sky Blue, they will next take on the Washington Spirit at home next Sunday, while the Dash travel to face the Boston Breakers also on Sunday.With the draw, a franchise-record six-game winning streak comes to close for Sky Blue FC. While the one streak ends, the New Jersey side has now gone seven matches without a loss, a new team record.
Sky Blue FC vs. Houston Dash
April 18, 2015 – Yurcak Field
Piscataway, New Jersey
Scoring Summary
Sky Blue FC: 1-0-1
Houston Dash: 1-0-1
Sky Blue FC 14 K.Freels (K.O’Hara)
Houston Dash 52 J.McDonald (M.Brian)
Lineups:
Sky Blue FC – B.Cameron, C.Rampone (L.LaBonta-68), K.Grubka, L.Cutshall, C.Levin, K.O’Hara, K.Freels, S.Killion, S.Gordon (K.DeCesare-78), M.Hayes, N.Nadim (M.Morris-46)
Substitutes Not Used: A.Bledsoe, N.Stanton, T.Diederich
Houston Dash: E.McLeod, L.Sesselmann (S.Ochs-46), M.Brian, K.Ohai, C.Lloyd, J.McDonald, A.Chapman (T.McCarty-80), A.Nick, N.Cross, M.Henderson (E.Masar-56), M.Klingenberg
Substitutes Not Used: B.Henninger, R.Axon
Misconduct Summary:
SBFC 90 K.Freels (Yellow Card)