Sky Blue FC defender Estelle Johnson (24) kicks the ball away from Utah Royals FC forward Amy Rodriguez (8) as she works for a shot as the Utah Royals and Sky Blue play in the National Women’s Soccer League Challenge Cup at Zions Bank stadium in Herriman on Saturday, July 4, 2020. Utah won 1-0. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
HERRIMAN — It certainly wasn’t scripted, but it very well could have been.
Utah Royals FC forward Amy Rodriguez was fielding questions from media Saturday, after her team beat Sky Blue FC 1-0 at Zions Bank Stadium for its first win in the National Women’s Soccer League’s Challenge Cup. Speaking about teammate Vero Boquete, Rodriguez said, “How lucky am I as a forward to play in front of her?”
At that exact moment a bit in the distance Boquete appeared, walking behind Rodriguez.
Just as in that scene, Rodriguez will be front and center in the talk surrounding Saturday’s contest, as her goal in the 41st minute was the difference, but Boquete played a crucial role. Throughout Saturday’s first half, URFC was on the front foot and had essentially all the space it wanted to attack in the final third. And yet, the Royals couldn’t quite find the net, even as Boquete did her thing as a distributor and Rodriguez proved dangerous in creating scoring chances.
Finally in the 41st minute, the duo connected for a goal. Boquete got a pass from Brittany Ratcliffe in the middle of the field about 30 yards from goal, and at the same time, Rodriguez made a run with Sky Blue’s back line a bit high.
Boquete slotted a beautiful through ball right past the Sky Blue defense into the 18-yard box and Rodriguez got on the end of it, sending it past goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan into the right side of the net.
“I absolutely love playing with Vero,” Rodriguez said. “She’s one of the best midfielders in the world...she’s so dangerous and she makes my job very easy.”
Said Boquete of Rodriguez: “Amy is a fantastic (forward). I’m used to playing with her, and it’s just a really easy and special connection.”
The goal was the highlight of the day, but URFC dominated the match for the most part as Sky Blue’s attack never really got going. At halftime, URFC had seven shots to just two for Sky Blue, two shots on goal to zero. By game’s end, URFC had 14 total shots to Sky Blue’s four and four shots on goal compared to none by the opponent.
“I’m delighted for the group,” URFC head coach Craig Harrington said. “I think they earned it and I think the best team won today. From the last game I think we improved and that’s all that we’re asking for from this group. Second, I think there were several outstanding individual performances, but the hot take is right now that we won the game and we kept a clean sheet.”
Reflective of the 1-0 scoreline, both Rodriguez and Boquete noted that Saturday’s game was drastically different from Tuesday’s tournament opener against the Houston Dash, a 3-3 draw.
“I think we were more compact and more secure in defense,” Boquete said. “After conceding three goals in the last game, we knew we had to get better at that.”
While URFC was proud of its defensive performance Saturday, that was at least in good part due to the fact that Sky Blue’s attack never got on track for the second game in a row.
“We need a sense of urgency,” Sky Blue’s Midge Purce said, visibly annoyed with her team’s performance. “We need to be desperate, and I think we are desperate now. We know that we can play really high quality soccer, and I think when you’re capable of doing that it’s easy to get complacent on the ball.”
Halfway through the preliminary stage of the tournament, URFC is in second in the table with four points behind only the mighty North Carolina Courage. Next up for the tournament hosts is a Wednesday morning game against Washington-based OL Reign.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2YWFp5k
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario