Chicago Red Stars vs OL Reign: Week 11 Preview
On Sunday, the Chicago Red Stars will continue their home stand with a game against what has been their toughest opponent this season, the OL Reign. Both teams have struggled outside of their matches, but whenever facing eachother it’s been the Red Stars who have struggled more. But this is their first match in Bridgeview this season, so let’s see who will all be there.
At this point, most Olympic rosters have all joined up together somewhere around the southern part of the Kanto region of Japan as they await the Tokyo Olympics. The only real roster news going into this one is Sarah Bouhaddi, who was sent off in their 2-0 win last week, has gotten her controversial red card rescinded.
Here are three things to consider before the match.
Unsustainable
Let’s face it, the Chicago Red Stars really shouldn’t be coming off of back-to-back wins. There are so many different reasons for why. In both matches, the Red Stars had the same lack of bite that they’ve been carrying all season. They went up against two teams that just didn’t look ready to play that day. And, most importantly, they haven’t actually scored a single goal in this time. All three goals were scored by the other team on their own net.
This isn’t to say that 3 points isn’t 3 points, but I don’t think that the Red Stars should be walking into their next game with the glow of two straight wins around them. They’ve been unimpressive and uninspiring for a large portion of the season and still need to work on turning things around. Otherwise the bottom is going to fall out again.
Dinkleberg…
Speaking of the bottom falling out, OL Reign is pretty much the team that the Chicago Red Stars have faced each time that has happened this season. After a stretch of mediocre performances, the Red Stars lose in convincing fashion to the Reign right before an even bigger loss right after. Earlier in the season, the loss in the final Challenge Cup game led into a 5-0 demolition against Portland and just last month another loss in Tacoma led to disappointment at home against Racing Louisville.
There are many ways to develop a rivalry, although I don’t really see this as a rivalry. I just see this as a team that has somehow found a way to demoralize another team enough to make it last a while. Then again, as I said, Chicago hasn’t exactly instilled any sort of confidence that they can get past yet another loss to the Reign, let alone prevent the Reign from winning in the first place.
What Works?
I’m being too negative at this point and that’s not normally the tone that I take for the Chicago Red Stars. Even in dark moments, I trust those in charge of the club to do the right things and build a team capable of contending. While the players in place at the club seem to have made things stale, there’s still some things that they can do to make them more viable again without too much change.
The big thing that I could see is simply playing with a much higher line of engagement. The attackers need to press much higher and while the defensive line doesn’t exactly need to push higher, the attackers need to create pressure on opposing backlines. This is the sort of thing that has worked consistently in the NWSL and if Makenzy Doniak and Kealia Watt can force those errors out of defenders it’s going to make it that much easier to score quick goals.
Projected XI
Chicago Red Stars (4-3-3): Cassie Miller; Bianca St Georges, Sarah Gorden, Kayla Sharples, Arin Wright; Morgan Gautrat, Vanessa DiBernardo, Danielle Colaprico; Kealia Watt, Makenzy Doniak, Mallory Pugh
OL Reign (4-3-3): Sarah Bouhaddi; Celia Jimenez, Alana Cook, Kristen McNabb, Lauren Barnes; Sofia Huerta, Jess Fishlock, Dzsenifer Marozsan; Tziarra King, Bethany Balcer, Eugenie Le Sommer
How To Watch
Sunday, July 18th, 5:00 PM CDT; At SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, IL, online on Paramount+