Kristie Mewis and her teammates enduring a frustrating match. (Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports)
NJ/NY Gotham FC hit the woodwork, not once, not twice, but five times against Racing Louisville FC on Sunday night.
None of those shots went in and the team suffered a 1-0 defeat in a National Women’s Soccer League game at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J.
Gotham FC (3 points) dropped to 1-2-0.
“When we play forward and with pace and speed, we seem to cause teams more problem,” head coach Scott Parkinson said, adding that. Racing Louisville “is really good in transition and we were trying to overplay. Which means when we didn’t play it right, it led to chances for them.
“In the second half, we went a little bit longer. We turned them around a little bit more. We took a little more territory up the field and got further away from our goal.”
Parkinson said that hitting the crossbar five teams was “unfortunate, but what I told the team as corny as it sounds, is you make your own luck.”
Louisville (2-1-2, 8) turned an innocent looking play into a threat when a nice forwarding feed by Cece Kizer to Jessica McDonald, who quickly led it to Lauren Milliet, whose chip shot went off the bar down into the net in the 13th minute
Gotham FC went on the attack, creating many chances. In the 29th minute, Nahomi Kawasumi charged up the field and passed to a streaking Ifeoma Onumonu but she couldn’t quite settle the ball before goalkeeper Katie Lund pounced on it.
Kawasumi showed some creativity a minute later, off a bouncing ball off a corner kick. Her one-timer through the air was punched over the top by Lund, leading to another corner. Estelle Johnson then had a chance that went just wide.
Kristie Mewis had three great opportunities that were just a hair of the mark. A free kick from just outside the box was punched into the crossbar and out of play in the 43rd minute. On the restart, Mewis hit nearly the identical spot. In the 45th minute, Mewis made a slick pass to Onumonu, who dropped it back to Kawasumi from around the 18. Kawasumi fired one into the belly of Lund.
Seconds later, Mewis chased down a long pass from Caprice Dydasco and fired one last try up high.
Gotham FC continued to control most of the action in the second half. The hosts rang two more chances off the crossbar in the final 10 minutes.
FrontRowSoccer.com editor Michael Lewis has written a new book, ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. You can learn more about it or purchase it here:
