Chicago Red Stars Vs Orlando Pride: Week 18 Preview

Staring down the possibility of no Sam Kerr, the Chicago Red Stars return home to face Marta and the Orlando Pride. Here is a full Week 18 preview.

Play it off like a bump in the road. The Chicago Red Stars are now moving past a loss in New Jersey and look to take three points at home against the Orlando Pride on Wednesday night. This has been a fairly easy task in the past, but nothing is ever easy until it’s done. And this may be a lot harder than it originally looked.

Towards the end of the defeat against Sky Blue FC, Sam Kerr stayed down with an injury to her foot. While she finished the game, pictures afterwards showed her being carried off the pitch by Julie Ertz with an insanely swollen foot. This doesn’t look good and I think that the club knows it since I have not seen any indication that she is good to play against Orlando.

From my knowledge of how she’s responded to injuries in the past, if she is good enough to practice, she will be good enough to play. On the other hand, this may be the right game to rest her, with Chicago likely having enough to win with Kerr on the sidelines. Other than that, there are no new injuries for the Chicago Red Stars, while the Orlando Pride will see the return of Marta after a suspension.

At present, the Orlando Pride are the most underwhelming team in North America. They have a roster with stars to rival European teams, to rival other teams in the NWSL, and yet winning seems to constantly evade them. If you only watched the World Cup, you would view Alex Morgan as one of the best goalscorers in the world. She scored five goals in one game! But in the NWSL, her fate has been very different. Last year she scored just four goals. She is also yet to score this season.

On the other hand, the Orlando Pride’s other major star pulls more than her own weight. Marta has absolutely flourished this season since coming back from the World Cup. She has scored four times in her last five games, missing the one this weekend against Utah with a suspension. She is on an absolute tear and will be hard for Chicago to contain.

That attacking force will be hard for the Chicago Red Stars to match if Kerr is unavailable. Once again, as of writing, I have not seen any confirmation about whether she will be good to go or not, so it may not be a problem. But if she’s not playing, that opens up the opposing defense to pay more attention to other Red Stars attackers. With Kerr out there, you have someone who has a gravitational pull for defenders. This opens up so much space for Chicago. If she’s not available, the defense will not be playing someone like Katie Johnson in the same way.

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Speaking of Johnson, that’s what the Red Stars have: depth. They’ve had this depth all season, and while it didn’t work out very well during the World Cup, it’s still there nonetheless. With players like Morgan Brian and Julie Ertz back, the midfield is much more complete and should allow the attack to finally find ways to work without Kerr.

Projected XI:

Chicago Red Stars (4-3-3): Alyssa Naeher; Tierna Davidson, Sarah Gorden, Katie Naughton, Casey Short; Morgan Brian, Julie Ertz, Vanessa DiBernardo; Yuki Nagasato, Katie Johnson, Arin Wright

Orlando Pride (4-3-3): Ashlyn Harris; Kristen Edmonds, Shelina Zadorsky, Ali Krieger, Erin Greening; Alanna Kennedy, Marta, Rachel Hill; Chioma Ubogagu, Alex Morgan, Claire Emslie

Next. Sky Blue FC Vs Chicago Red Stars: 3 things we learned. dark

How To Watch:

Wednesday, August 21st, 6:30 PM CDT; At SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, IL, on NBC Sportsnet Chicago, and online with the Yahoo Sports App

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