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 Nearly 24 hours after watching the Chicago Red Stars shred his team for four unanswered goals in a match that likely determined the Women's Premier Soccer League Midwest Conference North Division title, FC Milwaukee coach Christian Lavers was still irked by the performance.
"We were terrible. There was not one facet of the game that we beat them in," he said of the Nationals' 4-2 loss Thursday night on their home field in Germantown.
"We got outplayed in every aspect: attack, defense, transition, physical, mental. There weren't a lot of positive things from this game. ... We were just thoroughly outplayed. It's not very often I say that."
UW-Milwaukee forward Sarah Hagen (Appleton North) scored both goals as reigning division champion FC Milwaukee (4-2-1) took an early 2-0 lead.
Hagen, who recently scored four goals in three matches with the U.S. Under-23 national team in Sweden, converted a penalty kick in the third minute after a questionable handball call on Chicago's Kecia Morway and added a tap-in to double the lead.
"I think we were a little fortunate to be up 2-0 and then we got thumped," said Lavers, whose team's other loss came to the Red Stars 2-0 on June 16. "It was a combination of us being really poor, for whatever reason, and them being very good. They were very sharp, about as sharp as you can get."
Midfielder Kara Kabellis (UW) made two penalty kicks and set up another as the Red Stars (4-1-0) surged to their fourth consecutive win and moved within a point of FC Milwaukee in the standings with two games in hand. Chicago has scored 11 goals in its past three matches.
Illinois' Vanessa DiBernardo started the comeback, Kabellis converted from the spot after a handball to tie it and did so again to put the Red Stars ahead after Shayla Mutz was taken down in the box. Defender Sammy Scofield rose up at the far post and headed in Kabellis' free kick from near midfield to account for the final score.
It left Lavers with plenty of points to work on with the Nationals before their next match Thursday at home against Chicago Eclipse Select.
"Winning sometimes smooths over some issues that you need to fix in multiple aspects," he said. "I think yesterday gave us an opportunity to discuss some of the things that need to change in our team and what we're doing in order to be better."
While his team is still leading the division, Lavers admits FC Milwaukee likely is playing for second place. The top two teams qualify for the Midwest playoffs, where they'll match up against the top two finishers from the South Division.
"They'd have to drop points, and I don't see them dropping points if they play like they did last night," Lavers said of the Nationals' chances of staying ahead of the Red Stars. "But ... if we do what we should do the rest of the year, we'll get another chance to play them in the playoffs (in the conference final).
"There's not a question about whether we can play them or whether we can beat them on a day. It wasn't last night, though."
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