Orlando City Stadium was the setting for the first match of August 27th, pitting the Pride against Los Angeles. Orlando was in need of a win if they wished to still be alive for the Eastern Conference title at the end of the day, while the Olympias sought to keep some distance between them and Chicago for the top spot in the West. Ashlyn Harris kept the Pride in the game with a series of highlight-reel saves, with the LA eenter back pairing of Shelina Zadorsky and Sam Johnson keeping Alex Morgan and Lindsey Horan off the scoreboard. Desperate for a goal, Orlando lifted Alanna Kennedy and McCall Zerboni for Rachel Hill and Jamia Fields, slipping Horan back to play center midfield alongside Ashley Sanchez. The moves paid off as Sanchez took a Steph Catley pass and shed Johnson before firing a left-footed strike past Katelyn Rowland's left hand, accounting for the lone goal in a 1-0 win for Orlando that temporarily narrowed the gap to Boston to five points and denied the Olympias a chance to clinch a playoff spot.
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The Boston Breakers came into Yurcak Field riding a ten-game unbeaten streak and Stephanie Labbe having last given up a goal in the run of play on June 4th against Seattle. Sky Blue, playing its first home match since Christie's funeral, came out inspired but couldn't breach the impenetrable defensive core of Sam Mewis, Abby Dahlkemper, and Megan Oyster. Caitlyn DiSarcina put the Eastern Conference leaders ahead in the 28th minute with a turn-and-shoot following a pass from Rose Lavelle. Ten minutes later, a goal kick from Labbe cleared the midfield stripe. DiSarcina and Sky Blue defender Mandy Freeman went up to head it and made contact with one another. The referee blew her whistle and summoned both team's trainers onto the field to check out their player. After a couple of minutes, Freeman got to her feet and walked to the sidelines for a run through some concussion testing while DiSarcina was still down. John Herdman told Dani Rhodes to warm up in preparation for entering the match in place of the second-year forward, who was taken directly to the locker room for testing and assessment.
The second half was a fight between the Rhodes/Midge Purce partnership and Sky Blue's center back tandem of Freeman and Erica Skroski with neither side giving an inch. Purce was replaced in the 68th minute by Sarah Troccoli and the 5'11" midfielder's insertion resulted in two goals over the next ten minutes, with Troccoli heading home a Jessie Fleming cross to make it 2-0 and Rhodes re-directing a Troccoli header past Kailen Sheridan to close out the scoring. Labbe picked up her ninth shutout of the season and lowered her goals-against average to 0.41. At the conclusion of the match, Yael and Steph walked over to Jill and Carli and the four spent several minutes together before the Sky Blue coaches needed to leave to handle their post-match press responsibilities. DiSarcina was found to have sustained a grade 3 concussion as she had lost consciousness on the field and was going to be monitored overnight by one of the trainers to make sure she would be able to fly back to Boston tomorrow.
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All four Western Conference contenders closed the gap to Los Angeles with wins. Chicago got goals from Stephanie McCaffrey and Arin Gilliland to defeat the Atlanta Storm, 2-0. Sophie Schmidt's goal and assist led the Legacy to a 3-1 win over Houston, while Portland and Seattle picked up 2-0 wins over Philadelphia and Kansas City, respectively. Meanwhile, in Cary, Marta and Michaela Hahn's goals were enough for the Courage to sew up a 2-1 win over Washington and take sole possession of fourth place in the East.
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Orlando 1 Los Angeles 0 (Sanchez/Catley)
Sky Blue 0 Boston 3 (DiSarcina/Lavelle, Troccoli/Fleming, Rhodes/Troccoli)
Chicago 2 Atlanta 0 (McCaffrey/Mewis, Gilliland)
North Carolina 2 Washington 1 (Marta/Doniak, Hahn/Hamilton; Jordan/Ship)
Vancouver 3 Houston 1 (Rose/Schmidt, Leon/Andressa, Schmidt pk; Daly/Turnbow)
Portland 2 Philadelphia 0 (Heath/Corboz, Nadim/Long)
Seattle 2 Kansas City 0 (Johnson/Yanez, Fishlock pk)
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The Wait Is Over
FanfictionThe 2022 NWSL season will hopefully bring to an end the search for a title for the two oldest franchises in US women's professional soccer, the Boston Breakers and the Chicago Red Stars. Twelve other teams will have their say on whether either franc...
