Boston Legacy FC earned its third win of the season after beating the Chicago Stars 2-0 at Centreville Bank Stadium in Rhode Island.
The team now has a total of 13 points, placing Boston 14th in league standings and ahead of the Stars and Racing Louisville FC.
Head coach Filipa Patão opted for a 3-5-2 formation. Casey Murphy started in goal with Emerson Elgin, Jorelyn Carabalí, and Bianca St-Georges in the back line. The midfield consisted of Annie Karich, Bárbara Olivieri, and Alba Caño, as well as Lilly Reale and Nichelle Prince on the wings. Amanda Gutierres and Aïssata Traoré earned another start up top.
Gutierres gave Boston the lead after converting a penalty kick in the 22nd minute, and Prince stole the ball from Chicago’s defense and stepped around the goalkeeper in the 58th minute to get her second goal of the season.
Here are three thoughts from the game.
“A Little Bit Better”
Friday’s match marked the second time the Legacy faced Chicago since the teams’ first encounter at the end of April. Boston lost 2-0 in the previous game despite recording 27 shots over Chicago’s six.
The Legacy took 19 shots on Friday, and Chicago took nine.
Stars head coach Martin Sjögren acknowledged in a postgame presser that BLFC was “a little bit better” than his team Friday. Chicago had better chances this time around, but the execution was less efficient, he said.
Both Patão and Sjögren spoke about how the number of goal-scoring opportunities is a moot point until the ball hits the back of the net.
“Even if one team is dominating, in this league, the game can go either way,” Sjögren said after the match.
When comparing the two games, Patão said her team’s process remained the same, but the players’ maturity contributed to the winning result. The squad’s motivation and improved emotional control led to scoring earlier and maintaining the lead.
“We found [chances] every time, outside, inside, or long with Aïssata. In this variability, this switching of outside, deep, or inside [makes] the other teams [not] know what they need to close,” she said postgame.
Even so, Patão expressed frustration over the Legacy’s inability to score more goals.
“We cannot fail so many goals in the box when we have situations that [are the] clearest chance of a goal,” she said. “We need to have more killer instincts inside the box because we need to make these goals.”
Next on Patão’s list of things to improve on: Scoring first.
Friday’s match was the second time this season in which BLFC opened the scoring. Within the starting 15 seconds, both Traoré and Prince were up by the box trying for a goal, and even more chances were created before the end of the first minute.
The team needs more experience getting on the scoreboard first in order to understand how much easier it is to manage a game after netting the first goal, said the coach.
