By Marilia Macedo
On Wednesday, September 21, at Red Bull Arena, OL Reign visited NJ/NY Gotham FC and won 0-1 in yet another NWSL regular season match.
The first half started with the Reign increasing speed and creating some chances with Tziarra King on the left side of the pitch but lacked a little more precision to open the scoreboard.
On the other side, Gotham barely threatened the posts defended by Tullis-Joyce and only had an opportunity with Purce, but the ball went over the crossbar.
Even so, the home team managed to keep possession of the ball to make the match more balanced.
The teams could have taken more advantage of spaces and struck from outside the area, as both have skilled players to attack. However, the tie-breaker came during the second half.
To make things more interesting, OL’s coach Laura Harvey put Megan Rapinoe and Jess Fishlock on the field, and they set up the move that would give them a penalty kick.
With a good pass, Megan found Jess, who was brought down in the area by Ali Krieger right after that. Then, in the 58′, Rapinoe made the run and scored the winning goal.
Although the Seattle team had more opportunities, they could block the opponents’ attempts and took three points for the season, aiming for the playoffs.
The next game for OL Reign will be against Houston Dash on Saturday, September 24, at 8:30 PM ET. On the same day, Gotham will face the Courage at 7 PM ET.