Seattle Reign 0, Chicago Red Stars 0: First Thoughts

Seattle Reign 0

Chicago Red Stars 0

• Lineups are here!
• Pregame thought 1: I’d prefer to start Yuki but otherwise our lineup is probably fine.
• Pregame thought 2: I don’t think we’re going to win. I do think we can get a point if we don’t make any glaring mistakes.
• Pregame thought 3: I’m going to level with you all, I competed in a chess tournament today and my brain is still mush. I can’t vouch for the quality of this post. I apologize in advance. (Do come back later tonight for Claire’s recap though.)
• Let’s goooooooooooooooooooooooo
• 2’ lol Colaprico out here wrecking fools already, let’s fucking get it
• 7’ Oooof, close call there as Utsugi (I think?) is allowed to traipse into the box. But the offside flag goes up so we would’ve been fine either way. Still though.
• 10’ That aside, Chicago’s got some good attacking pressure going in the opening minutes.
• 14’ Apropos of nothing, the camera is really shaky and it’s making it hard to follow the game.
• 17’ Rapinoe waltzed through several defenders and shot from close range. Naeher blocks, but she never should’ve gotten that close.
• 24’ Momentum’s definitely shifted to Seattle. Our backline is just letting them in to do whatever. This is going to go badly.
• 26’ Stanton picks up a yellow for a foul on Fishlock.
• 28’ Kerr with an excellent run, drawing defenders onto her to open up teammates as pass options. God, I’m so happy Kerr is in Chicago.
• 35’ Ooh, Fishlock is down. Looks like she got hurt after colliding with Colaprico. She’s up now and hanging out on the touchline for a minute.
• 42’ Some ping pong in the box from a Red Stars corner kick and Lydia Williams has to dig deep to keep Chicago off the scoreboard. Wow, we really should’ve scored there.
• 45’ We’ve had some promising corner kicks, at least. We’ve definitely got that going for us.
• Halftime! SEA 0-0 CHI
• Halftime thought 1: Not a great half from Chicago. We really need to do better about dictating tempo in the second half.
• Halftime thought 2: Ending this at 0-0 wouldn’t be the worst thing either, honestly.
• Halftime thought 3: Chicago posted 40% possession and 58% pass accuracy in the first half. Yikes.
• Second half is underway!
• 47’ And already Chicago gets another yellow. This one goes to Katie Naughton.
• 51’ Chicago’s doing okay about getting the ball into or near the box. We just don’t know what to do with it when we’re there.
• 53’ GOODNESS Huerta hit a free kick and Williams barely saved it. That would’ve been beautiful if that worked.
• 57’ Gorden goes down after McNabb elbows her in the face. There’s blood all over her face. Fuck.
• 61’ Seattle’s just beating up on Red Stars players and the ref seems pretty okay with it. Cool.
• 68’ Chicago defenders trip over themselves trying to stop Rapinoe’s run, allowing her to hit a shot from outside the box. Naeher’s tipover save was a thing of beauty though.
• 75’ Yuki comes in for Ertz.
• 79’ This is just... not good soccer tonight.
• 86’ The ref FINALLY calls a foul against a Red Stars player and all it does is prevent Kerr from the playing the advantage. Thanks, ref.
• 87’ Huerta shoots from outside the box but it’s wide of the post.
• 90’ Ok I have no fucking idea what just happened. Taylor was offside when she collected the ball, the ref allowed play to go on, the ball hit her elbow in the box and still no call, Naeher had to dive to recover a loose ball, somehow got kicked in the face as she let the ball go, and THEN the play was whistled dead. I don’t even know anymore. Whatever. Three minutes of stoppage time.
• 92’ The players have long since checked out. This is what happens when you have bad officiating.
• Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! Final Score: SEA 0-0 CHI
• Final Whistle Thought: Well that was a big wet turd of a game.

Stay tuned for more postgame coverage and a full recap here on Hot Time In Old Town. In the meantime, join the conversation in the comments or on social media.