A controversial 90th minute goal by Nadia Nadim led Sky Blue FC to pull off a 1 – 1 draw at home against the Seattle Reign on Saturday, May 9.
The goal was scored on a penalty kick which was brought about by a handball in the box by midfielder Jessica Fishlock of Seattle, who was sent off with a red card. There was a big scrum in front of the goal and Sky Blue had a couple of shots that were saved before the handball was called.
It was hard to tell what had happened and the referees were slow to make the call. The ball had gone into the goal and it looked like it may have been an own goal or there may have been a penalty in the box before the official call of handball was made.
“When the official raised his flag I thought the ball was in the goal,” Sky Blue FC Technical Director and Head Coach Jim Gabarra said. “I don’t know what the holdup was. Obviously it was handball so it’s got to be a card of some type.”
After the call was made, the referees were huddled together hashing out the situation. This left forward Nadia Nadim a lot of time to contemplate her upcoming penalty kick.
“I tried to concentrate and stay focused,” Nadim added. “You have to score the PK, I need the goal, and we need the point. I usually just look at the keeper and see what she does. I was actually just looking at her the entire time.”
Lauren Barnes of Seattle scored their only goal in the 76th minute. It ensued off of a corner kick, where Barnes got possession just outside the box and struck it on the ground through a number of bodies.
“It went right in the near post, and it did take a bounce at the end,” goalkeeper Brittany Cameron commented. “I should have gotten it. It’s the whole team, it went through. On the ground through 10, 15, people. We’ve got to do better as a team.”
Seattle was certainly the better team through the first half of the game and for a majority of the second half, putting eight shots on goal as opposed to Sky Blue’s two.
“They did really well in the first half at stopping us from creating,” Seattle Reign Head Coach Laura Harvey said. “We had a lot of possession and in the second half we had some good chances. As long as it was one goal, it was always going to be the way it ended up being.”
Sky Blue started to push late in the second half after a rather slow paced and possession-filled first half. The team only managed to get one shot in the first half, on an attempt that went wide right by midfielder Katy Freels.
Sky Blue made a tactical substitution in the 70th minute when they sent in forward Maya Hayes in exchange for midfielder Taylor Lytle. They needed another forward out there to push the attack and help Nadim create some scoring opportunities.
The team has struggled offensively thus far through the first five games of the season, only managing to put the ball in the net four times.
“You can build confidence off the fact that we did claw back and get a point out of the game after going a goal down,” said Gabarra. “But the way we’ve been playing and the lack of numerous scoring chances we’ve created, we’ve got to go and get clean sheets and get a goal and kill them off later in the game.”
The point is welcomed as Sky Blue went through a two-game losing streak, with losses against Washington and at Chicago. The team is now 1-2-2, with four of their five games being decided by one goal or ending in a draw.
The team is also going to have to make due without Captain Christie Rampone and Kelley O’Hara, who are both away on international duty for the upcoming Women’s World Cup in Canada.
“We don’t have the captain of the captain of the U.S. Women’s National Team, everybody’s responsibility change,” said Cameron. “Now other people have to step up, whether it’s me, or anybody else for that matter, the whole team.”
Sky Blue will play their next to games on the road at Washington and at Boston before returning home to Yurcak Field in Piscataway to face the Houston Dash on Sunday, May 31.
