USL-W: MN Aurora FC cleans up at Chicago City SC
Minnesota Aurora FC completed a three-match sweep of Chicago City SC on Friday night, outperforming Chicago City SC and the club’s temporary home pitch at Chicago’s Speer Academy. Aurora’s 3–1 performance secured a fifth consecutive win, on the heels of a 4–0 shutout at home.
While facing the same opponent three times in seven days (Aurora with the benefit of a week off while Chicago hosted St. Louis Lions on Wednesday) has the potential to grow stale, squad rotation and perhaps a little competitive rapport made each performance by both teams more compelling.
Sunday’s match at TCO Stadium saw Chicago City’s offense press early to look for an early goal and the Minnesota defense took some time to get a read on the changes. “They pressed a lot harder today and they were pressing the centerbacks a lot more,” Kelsey Kaufusi explained. “I think we just got a little frantic, but as soon as we started to settle, it got better. But it took a while for us to settle.”
A freekick in the 25’ served to help with that. Kaufusi lined up the shot from just outside the 18 and midfielder Sangmin Cha got on the end of it. Her first shot was stopped by Chicago keeper Costadena Liapis, but Cha followed up for the rebound and scored on her second shot. The 1–0 lead helped Kaufusi’s defense find their rhythm. She said, “After we got the first one you could see most of us, like, trying to like get the team to calm down or like the next five minutes let’s really try and possess and be able to move it across the backline, control the tempo a little bit more.”
Morgan Turner and Mariah Nguyen each had opportunities and took some shots, but the score remained 1–0 at the half. Unlike the first match, however, Aurora went on a tear through the second half, not allowing Chicago to gain any momentum in the attack while scoring three additional goals, including a penalty, in a 25 minute period to win 4–0.
Both Kaufusi and head coach Nicole Lukic credited the continued improvement in squad chemistry for the performance. “This is how we built our team with big goals in mind,” Lukic explained. “And we want to keep it moving. We put a lot of effort into the players that we recruited getting them to play the way that we wanted to play. So it’s nice to see things coming together.”
For Kaufusi: “We’ve built that chemistry so quickly that way because it is so loud in here. We really do have to have like that silent communication where it’s more of just like knowing each other. And so you could kind of tell the from the first game to the new these two home games we actually knew each other a lot better, we were able to find certain players in different ways.”
They had to do that without the presence of 5,000 supporters on Friday night. Both teams faced challenges: Minnesota had to adjust their wide game to fit the narrow pitch at Chicago’s Speer Academy, while a heavily rotated Chicago side was on their fourth match in two weeks, having played just two nights prior. Home field advantage was certainly in play when Chicago City opened the scoring in the 4’. Samantha Scaffidi was able to exploit a gap in Minnesota’s condensed defense to beat Sarah Fuller in goal.
Trailing for the first time all season, Minnesota launched a comeback. It began with a penalty kick in the 30’, converted by Kenzie Langdok to level the score. While Chicago continued their attempts to disrupt the balance, Minnesota adapted — Again. “It took a lot of grit and adaptability,” said Lukic. “We made some good adjustments as a group.”
It took a little time, but Aurora gained a lead in the 70’, with Jelena Zbiljic finishing a close-range play assisted by Nguyen. Subs again made an impact with a Rapp duo, Rami and Catherine, teaming up to assist Morgan Turner in scoring her first career goal. They held off Chicago in stoppage time to close out the series with a 3–1 win.
Aurora outscored Chicago City 10–2 across three games, with eight different scorers, securing a 5–0–1 record and remaining the only unbeaten team in the Heartland Division. How did they do it?
“I think just taking one game at a time, but having that longer vision towards moving towards our goal of being divisional champions and making it to the playoffs and getting to the USL championship game,” Lukic explained on Sunday. “You know, you just try not to get too far ahead of yourself and stay focused on the current weekend instead of what’s to come.”
They can look forward to another home match though. Minnesota will host Kaw Valley FC on Sunday, June 19, the first of a three-game stretch at home before finishing the season with three on the road. And they will make the most of it.
“There’s so many people here and like, obviously it takes time to settle, but it is definitely one of the coolest experiences playing in front of like crowds like this and we are definitely the most supported in this league,” Kaufusi explained. “And like any other team I’ve ever played for. It’s awesome to have fans in the community here. It makes it so much more fun to play.”
