USL-W: Minnesota Aurora notches first home win v. Chicago City
Minnesota Aurora FC kicked off a busy weekend at home on Friday night with a dominant 3–1 win over Chicago City SC. The result marked the club’s first franchise home win and improves their record to 3–0–1 after two wins on the road.
Aurora began this home match much like the last, maintaining possession and pressing early. The midfield showed a much-improved chemistry after a couple full weeks together in training. Midfielder Mariah Nguyen and forward Maya Hansen picked apart Chicago’s right side early with interlapping runs, keeping Kelsey Hamm and Kennedy Berschell busy. Within the first five minutes, Nguyen, Hansen, and Kenzie Langdok had notched shots, with Hansen’s forcing the first of nine saves by goalkeeper Katie Montgomery.
Langdok, the rightback who joined the midfield in the attacking press from the first whistle, put Aurora on the board first. Spotting Langdok running in from the right, Addy Symonds sent a through ball into the box as Langdok slipped past two Chicago defenders. One touch on the run to settle the ball set her up for a clean shot past Montgomery putting Minnesota up 1–0 in the 22’.
Just one minute later, Symonds scored one of her own. She received a pass from Eli Rapp at about 20 yards out from goal (the same spot she had just assisted from) and struck quickly. The only thing nicer than the strike was the dummy play from Sangmin Cha. The trick play caused a moment of hesitation by Montgomery, just enough to allow a 2–0 lead in the 23’ and an eruption of cheers from fans who had not yet finished singing for Langdok’s goal.
Symonds earned the Star Tribune Star of the Game award for the performance. She credited her goal and assist to the squad’s focused training and their improved chemistry in the midfield, saying, “We’ve been getting used to each other and the interchanging and I think we’ve really got our movement down and check who goes, and then on defense as well, just working with each other and it think just going to keep going from this game to the other games.”
The cheeky plays also help. She added, “We’ve been working on shots from distance in our practices and then Cha does the most tricks, tricky things. It was fun to see.”
With a 2–0 lead at halftime, Aurora looked to carry the momentum into the second half and coach Nicole Lukic made her first change, replacing forward Maya Hansen with Morgan Turner. Turner nearly added a third goal seconds after the whistle when she popped up at the far post for a header, but the angle was a little off and the ball fell right to Montgomery. The play may have been an omen though.
Aurora’s third goal came in the 64’ when sub Jill Bennett sent a cross toward the far post as Cha rushed in. The ball found Cha’s shoulder (or head?) and was redirected past Montgomery — a well-deserved goal for the number 10 who had been chipping away at Chicago all night.
The visitors would not leave the pitch empty-handed and it is perhaps fitting that forward Amanda Cassidy was the one to net the goal. The Loyola-Chicago senior is a Minnesota-native and Benilde-St. Margaret’s alum and was named a finalist for the Minnesota High School Soccer Coaches Association 2018 Ms. Soccer Award. Cassidy’s outside of the boot touch in the 68’ took her to three goals in three appearances for Chicago City and lit a spark in the Chicago attack, but it was the only time they got on the board.
The late scares are something Lukic wants to work on.
“Yeah, to be honest, it’s turning into a trend for us which it really shouldn’t be,” she said. “So I think that’s just going to take some more maturity, some more time together and hopefully we can continue to work on feeling more comfortable as minutes eat away in the game as a group.”
With another game against Chicago City on Sunday and then again away at Chicago City on Friday, there will be plenty of time to work on that against a familiar opponent.
“I think we’re always focused on ourselves first and just continuing to grow form game to game but we did watch film, we watched them play against Green Bay. So we did feel pretty prepared guessing on what they were going to come out and do and it was pretty spot on. I would imagine that they’re going to try to change some things up for Sunday and maybe start how they started in the second half, where they had a lot more success than they did in the first half. But we’ll see.”
Now with a win in front of a crowd of 5,132, the team will grow and feed off of the home atmosphere on Sunday. Symonds is ready.
“I think it’s fun. I think our team does well in this kind of atmosphere, with the pressure and just playing constantly and it think it plays well in this place. It’s awesome, I’m excited.”
