Bianca St Georges and Rachel Hill scored early and the Chicago Red Stars held off determined Sky Blue 3-2 on Wednesday night to earn a spot in the Challenge Cup final.
The Red Stars, who played last year in the National Women’s Soccer League championship game but fell to the North Carolina, will meet the Houston Dash on Sunday in the tournament’s title game.
The Dash, who had never made the playoffs in seven seasons in the league, defeated the Portland Thorns, 1-0, in the earlier semi-final.
The sixth-seeded Red Stars built a 3-0 lead in the game but No 7 Sky Blue scored a pair of goals late.
The match had looked like it could be a battle of the goalkeepers after both teams went scoreless in the quarterfinals and advanced to the semis on penalty shootouts.
Sky Blue goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan went into the game leading the field with 20 saves in the tournament. Chicago counterpart Alyssa Naeher had 18 saves, but rested for a game during the group stage.
St Georges got past Sheridan early, finding her out of place with a shot to the far post in the eighth minute. It was her first professional goal.
Bianca St. Georges scores her first @NWSL goal early to put @chiredstarsPR on the board and in a 1-0 lead over Sky Blue FC 👏 pic.twitter.com/vhdwQd7msp
— CBS Sports Soccer (@CBSSportsSoccer) July 23, 2020
Some three minutes later Hill, who was traded to Chicago from the Orlando Pride in the offseason, scored.
Savannah McCaskill scored on the counter to pad the Red Stars’ lead in the 60th minute.
But Sky Blue closed the gap on rookie Evelyne Viens’ header in the 72nd minute, and some five minutes later an own goal got the New Jersey team closer.
The Red Stars did not start Casey Short, who had one of the Chicago’s two goals heading into Wednesday night’s semi-final. The team announced shortly before kickoff that she had picked up an injury in training the day before.
Earlier Wednesday, England international Rachel Daly’s diving header lifted the Houston Dash to a 1-0 win over the Portland Thorns in the last four of the NWSL Challenge Cup on Wednesday afternoon in Sandy, Utah.
The fourth-seeded Dash, the highest remaining seed in the field, advance to Sunday’s final against either Sky Blue or the Chicago Red Stars, who face off in the second semi-final later Wednesday at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Eighth-seeded Portland entered on a head of steam after Friday’s upset of the undefeated North Carolina Courage, but failed to record a shot on goal against the resolute defense of Houston, who opened the competition with five goals in their first two matches but had failed to score in their previous three.
Rachel Daly is from another planet 😳
— CBS Sports Soccer (@CBSSportsSoccer) July 22, 2020
She gets her 3rd goal of the tournament for @HoustonDash. pic.twitter.com/Zo7UW9AxJd
Nichelle Prince broke away in a sprint toward Portland’s goal in the opening half but she was caught by defender Emily Menges. Daly, the Houston captain, had the lone shot on goal for the Dash in the scoreless half.
Prince had another great opportunity in the 62nd minute but Portland keeper Britt Eckerstrom punched it away.
But Kristen Mewis’s corner kick in the 69th minute was headed across the mouth of the goal by Sophie Schmidt, where Daly was there to head it in for her third goal of the tournament, breaking the Dash’s scoreless drought.
“We’ve had a lot of chances in the last few games and we haven’t converted them,” said Daly, who has scored three goals in 29 international appearances for England. “I needed to put a goal away today for myself and for the team.
“It was an unbelievable set piece. Kristi’s ball was excellent, Sophie’s header across goal was excellent. All I had to do was pick up the scraps. They did the hard work.”
The Thorns, who won NWSL titles in 2013 and 2017, were hampered by injuries during the Challenge Cup.
Starting goalkeeper Adrianna Franch didn’t play because of a knee injury and defender Becky Sauerbrunn hadn’t played since the opener due to a hip ailment. The Thorns on Wednesday were also without midfielder Lindsey Horan, who was questionable going into the game with a hip injury.
Portland were also down to the team’s third goalkeeper. Eckerstrom started the last two games after Bella Bixby sustained an ACL injury and headed home. As a result, goalkeeping coach Nadine Angerer, the former German national team goalkeeper and Fifa player of the year, was on Portland’s bench as an emergency backup.
