There’s nothing like a week-one overreaction. In 2021, much of the action was balanced enough that there wasn’t a ton that happened to warrant overreaction. Even the Red Stars, clearly the weakest performers from the first regular-season week of the National Women’s Soccer League regular season, are not subject to much overreaction because they were so bad it is almost impossible to quantify or put into words.
“The list could probably be pretty long,” Casey Krueger said about what went wrong in the Red Stars most lopsided loss in team history, 5-0 to the Thorns in Portland. “From the start we were flat. We weren’t ready. And we got broken in many different ways.”
The Red Stars may have more issues than just a bad loss. Julie Ertz got tripped up by Raquel Rodriguez trying to start a counterattack and did not get up. Ertz eventually walked off with assistance and not much movement in her right knee. She was scheduled for an MRI back in Chicago per head coach Rory Dames, who elected not to speculate on the injury.
“We certainly want to do everything we can to have her ready for the Olympics,,” Dames said. “We know how important she is to (the U.S. national team) and to our team.”
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