Chicago Red Stars vs Washington Spirit: Close Enough

Sometimes it’s easy to lose faith in a soccer team. Recently, most of my analysis around the Chicago Red Stars has been focused on the team’s failures. And while that criticism is warranted, it doesn’t negate the positives that are still regularly seen from them. And those positives were still on display in this 1-0 win over the Washington Spirit. Let’s check how it went down.

The first half was largely uneventful, with most of the play taking place far away from either team’s area. Washington Spirit players took various shots from outside the box, but none of them troubled Cassie Miller, and the Mallory Pugh attempted to generate some sort of attack for the Chicago Red Stars, but no one wanted to get on the end of anything. There would be a breakthrough in the 33rd minute when a Chicago corner kick smacked Red Stars defender Kayla Sharples in the face. The ball bounced between her and Aubrey Bledsoe until Sharples finally landed and finished it to the back of the net. Though that goal was later ruled an own goal, Sharples attempted to get on the scoresheet for real with a 41st minute shot as a corner dropped in front of her again.

In the second half, things were hot early on, but fizzled out later. The Washington Spirit got their first real shot on goal when Trinity Rodman, while quadruple-covered, took a shot from outside the box in the 47th minute. That one was turned away, same with the 49th minute chip from Kealia Watt that almost caught Aubrey Bledsoe off-guard. The only other big chance in the second half was a 74th minute play that ended with Watt chipping it over Bledsoe once again, only this time it was the crossbar that was in the way. However, on closer inspection the ball clearly bounced into the goal and beyond the line, but no goal was called. Without VAR, the official’s decision would stand. And so would the score, at a 1-0 victory for the Red Stars

Here are three things we learned from this match.

Definitely Not Pog

One of the bigger complaints that have been thrown at the NWSL as a whole this season have been the fact that certain games have been broadcast on Twitch. In general, as a streaming platform, Twitch is a solid site for watching streamers play games or interact with their audience. A thing that Twitch isn’t built for is live sports. Not only the quality of the video, but the quality of the stream is impacted. The use of a chat just makes the entire set-up amateur.

As someone who has attempted to follow other sports through Twitch (mostly the NWHL), using the site to stream feels somewhat unprofessional. And the varying broadcast schedules can cause a lot of confusion for fanbases. If the NWSL wants to start getting taken seriously, they need to start making real local broadcast deals so the Twitch stream only needs to be used for foreign markets like it was probably originally intended.

Staying Sharp

Despite the game resulting in a win for the Chicago Red Stars, there really wasn’t much to talk about in this game. It was fairly boring and really messy at times. But, the one bright spot in the game was Player of the Match, Kayla Sharples. Sharples was not only originally credited with the only goal in the game, she has provided something to the Red Stars’ attack that hasn’t been there possibly ever: a target in set piece situations.

Sharples’ first half heroics may not have been that flashy, but they were enough to get the goal that got the W. And while she wasn’t officially awarded the goal, she was the sole reason that goal was scored and would’ve finished it even if it stopped at the goalline. Chicago has had issues throughout the years at finishing on set pieces and this season they’ve already got three goals off of corner-kicks in all competitions.

Combined with her solid work on the defensive end, Kayla Sharples has proven that she might be deserving of a more regular starting spot.

NWSL Refs Ain’t Too Smart

Earlier I said that “one of the bigger complaints” has been the streaming/broadcast schedule, but the real complaint has consistently been about the officiating in the league. There has been no greater rallying cry than when earlier in the season, Portland Thorns wing-back Meghan Klingenberg and Chicago Red Stars coach Rory Dames both spoke out about their issues with officiating in the league. This problem was on full display in this game, with the controversial no-goal in the 74th minute, which wasn’t even the first time this season that officiating seemed to dislike Kealia Watt.

There is no real way to fix this issue definitively. Referees will always be criticized no matter what, so it’s hard to know where the line is for when change is needed. But when we’ve spent a season where almost every team has spoken about issues with officiating, something needs to be done. Although, officiating in CONCACAF in general doesn’t have a good track record either, even in the men’s game.

In the end, just remove the own goal and award the goal to Kealia Watt. Keep the score 1-0.