SANDY — The way Utah Royals FC has started the 2019 season might not result in the best long-term effects on head coach Laura Harvey's health, but for now she's certainly fine with it.
Thanks to an 84th-minute goal from Amy Rodriguez on Friday night against the Chicago Red Stars at Rio Tinto Stadium, URFC came away with another 1-0 victory, its third such result in three games on the season.
The win came in the first game URFC was without United States women's national team stars Becky Sauerbrunn, Christen Press and Kelley O'Hara, as they have begun preparations for the summer's World Cup and won't be back for at least two months.
Harvey and company are once again atop the NWSL table entering Saturday.
"Just gives me heart attacks," Harvey said of the 1-0 scorelines. "They're great after the game. They're horrendous in it because you're always on edge, but I'll take (them) all year if we get where we want to be."
Unlike the first two games of the season when URFC got on the board early, it had to fight until the night was nearly over before it found the net on Friday.
Finally in the 84th minute with Harvey's side pressing and the Red Stars down a player after Katie Johnson was shown a red card in the 42nd minute for elbowing URFC's Vero Boquete in the face following an aerial challenge, Erika Tymrak took a pass from Desiree Scott at midfield and forwarded the ball to a charging Gunny Jonsdottir on the right side of the field just outside URFC's 18-yard box.
Jonsdottir was met there by a Red Stars defender, but she was able to cross the ball to Rodriguez in the box as she fell to the ground. Rodriguez, her defender and Chicago goalkeeper Emily Boyd were all on the right side of the goal, and Rodriguez slid the ball to Boyd's left and into the net.
"All that excitement, you kind of black out a little bit afterward, but I just know that in that moment … I really just wanted to be that player for my team," Rodriguez said. "The ball came in cross, excellent, right on the ground and I was able to kind of cut in front of my defender and basically touch it back post."
“I think we’re just slowly getting in rhythm and just figuring out how we want to play. I don’t think we’re too stressed about scoring too many goals. We’re winning, so that’s what matters.”
Utah Royals FC's Gunny Jonsdottir
Jonsdottir felt her cross wasn't the best, but she trusted that Rodriguez could get to it and make something happen.
"I knew she was going to get there," Jonsdottir said. "She's fast, so I was very happy that she was there. It was a bad cross, I'm not going to lie, but she did well."
Harvey felt relief, as not only did the goal break the draw, but it came in a second half the coach felt her team was performing worse than it did the first 45 minutes despite having a player advantage because of the red card.
"They make it really difficult for you," Harvey said of the Red Stars' defense. "I actually thought in the first half we made really good work of that, but I thought in the second half they got the better of us at times defensively from their press. Got to give them credit, but we need to be better. We need to be better at that."
Although URFC has struggled to score goals coming out of the gate for the second year in a row, it has once again been stingy in not yet allowing a score. That was particularly notable Friday given that Sauerbrunn, the USWNT's leader at center back, was not in the lineup and URFC was facing one of the best goal scorers in the world in Australia's Sam Kerr.
But Sam Johnson performed admirably in Sauerbrunn's absence, and goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart was once again phenomenal, as she had to save a number of shots from Kerr.
"If we don't concede goals, you at least don't lose, so that's a good thing," Jonsdottir said. "I think we're just slowly getting in rhythm and just figuring out how we want to play. I don't think we're too stressed about scoring too many goals. We're winning, so that's what matters."
from Deseret News http://bit.ly/2DP0xPY
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