Kelley O’Hara and Sky Blue FC have defeated the Portland Thorns 1-0 at Yurcak Field in Piscataway, New Jersey. With the win Sky Blue improves to 5-7-6 with 21 points. With the loss the Thorns fall to 6-7-4 with 22 points. Prior to the game, it was announced the game was sold out to see this matchup of two great NWSL teams. The announced attendance was 5,547, which is the largest ever for a game at Yurcak field. It is the 2nd highest in franchise history the top one being, 6,053 at TD Bank Ballpark on August 5th 2009.
Sky Blue scored the only goal of the match in the 19th minute when Sam Kerr found space and sent the ball to U.S. international O’Hara who then found a wide open Nadia Nadim for the match’s opening goal. The Thorns had a great opportunity to tie the match up in the 87th minute when Christine Sinclair was taken down in the box by SBFC goalie Brittany Cameron. So Alex Morgan stepped up to take the penalty and Cameron stepped right back up and stopped the penalty. She gave up a rebound that Morgan tried to put on the entirely other side of the net, but Cameron came up big again hitting that ball away again.
After the game Cameron talked about the penalty saying, “I created the penalty, so the least I could do was help my team out, we wanted to win as a team, and I apologized to my teammates for it after it happened. We discussed it, and then they told me ‘Alright, go fix it now.’ That is what we do. We pump each other up and have trust in each other, from the bench to the players on the field to the coaching staff. That is the amazing part of the game of soccer.”
Jim Gabarra the Sky Blue FC head coach said “This was a really exciting game, in the end, there were a lot of goal scoring opportunities, and we were able to overcome some tough situations to get the win. I am really happy and gratified for the team, considering that these are the types of games that went against us in the first half of the season. In front of this crowd, it is very rewarding to show them such a quality product. Hopefully, this can go a long way to creating momentum for us off the field in the future.”
The win by Sky Blue FC was not enough to stay in the playoff chase as a few hours after this game concluded FC Kansas City took down the Boston Breakers 3-0 to officially knock out SBFC. In the NWSL standings Sky Blue FC is in 6th heading into their last away game of the season next weekend. The Portland Thorns are in 5th place heading into their last home game of the regular season.
