Swanson plays, gets hurt again in Stars goalless draw

Chicago Stars FC 0-0 Bay FC

EVANSTON, IL–Trying to get back on track has been on the minds of Chicago Stars FC. The club has been on a slide of its last four matches.

The Stars needed to find a point somehow and someway. They managed to get one of them with a scoreless 0-0 draw with visiting Bay FC Sunday evening at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium.

They battled through 90 minutes of soccer. The Stars had some chances of scoring and saw Mallory Swanson play about 30 minutes in the second half before she left the game with a leg injury.

“It was competitive with the score,” Chicago Stars FC coach Martin Sjogren said. “We also had some restrictions with some of the players. That was the plan.”

The Stars are now at 4-14-1 and 13 points, while Bay FC are now at 5-9-4 and 19 points.

“The team like we do every week to be sucessful you have to work hard,” Sjogren said. “Today, I thought we did. From the start, we were compact. We played a team that wants to possess the ball. I knew it would be hard on our center midfielders. I thought they did a really good job to win the ball a few times to earn the attack at times.”

One of the Stars midfielders, Manaka Hayashi has been a great addition in the midfield and sees what’s going on with the club in the right direction.

“We’ve been trying to work hard for each other,” Hayashi said. “Try to progress or building the foundation. We haven’t scored that much this season. We’re trying to improve and breaking their line. We still need to improve better in our scoring. We did have a lot of opportunities but didn’t get a goal in this one.”

Chicago returns back into action Friday night on the road at Seattle Reign FC at 9 p.m. CT. While Bay FC will travel to play the Utah Royals, Friday, 7 p.m. PT.

Photos by Len Cederholm

SCORING SUMMARY:
None

BOOKING SUMMARY:
BAY FC-Hutton (yellow, unsporting behavior) 50
BAY FC-Collins (yellow, unsporting behavior) 75

Starting Lineups:
CHICAGO STARS FC: #27-Atkinson, #25-Farmer, #14-Wood (#23-Johnson 57), #34-Dellarose, #29-Quahobi, #77-Maitane Lopez, #8-Joseph (#9-Swanson 56, #4-Bike 89), #11-Gomes, #16-Hayashi, #31-Gasper (#3-Staab 46), #10-Pinto (#20-Franklin 75).

BAY FC: #28-Silkowicz, #10-Girelli (#7-Huff 60), #21-Cometti, #18-Anderson (#2-Gilchrist 72), #24-Moreau, #8-Hutton, #41-Bebar, #17-Pfeiffer (#23-Conti 78), #19-Bailey, #47-Fuller, #27-Barry (#5-Lerna 78).

TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 13-14 BAY
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 1-5 BAY
FOULS: CHI 12-12 BAY
OFFSIDES: CHI 2-7 BAY
CORNER KICKS: CHI 6-5 BAY
SAVES: CHI 5-1 BAY

Referee: Iryna Petrunok
Assistant Referees: Tom Felice and Matthew Schwartz
Fourth Official: Ryan Homik
VAR: Abdou Ndiaye
Assistant VAR: Brian Marshall
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and 72.
Attendance: 4,954