Calgary Foothills WFC draw 2-2 with Colorado Pride – remain undefeated

Calgary Foothills WFC were held to a 2-2 draw by the Colorado Pride at the Calgary Soccer Centre Friday night.

Foothills WFC remain undefeated, with three wins and one tie from the first four games of the new United Women’s Soccer league season. But the Calgary club, and their manager, were left disappointed by Friday’s result, as there were plenty of opportunities to win their fourth straight.

“I think it was my fear coming into the game, that we’d be a little be complacent because we’re off to a good start,” said Foothills WFC coach Troye Flannery. “I said, prior to the game, a good start is only useful if you keep it going. We faced our first bit of adversity and our response to it obviously wasn’t what we would want.

“Having said that, despite the fact we got punished for a few mistakes and some poor decisions and recognizing when they’re pressing and when there’re not, we generated chance after chance. We hit the bar. We hit the post. We had so many one on ones with the goalkeeper and if you don’t get your details right and if we aren’t ruthless in front of goal, games like today are going to occur.”

Foothills WFC striker Lauren Raimondo scored at the end of a first half that seemed destined to end scoreless. Despite a positive start to the second half by the hosts, it was the visitors who found the back of the net next – Sara Spaulding scoring in 51st minute against the run of play.

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17-year-old Mya Jones, a late first-half substitute, then scored her first goal for Foothills WFC in the 64th minute, coming in from the right wing. But Athena Kuehn’s 78th minute strike for the Pride meant the points were shared.

“I said at halftime, that our details were poor and we wanted to be more ruthless,” said Flannery. “We wanted to put our mark on the game. For the first part of the second half, we looked as good as we’ve looked.

“And then we made a mistake, which happens. And our reaction to the mistake, as a collective group, was poor. We made some chances to try and get momentum back. But obviously it wasn’t enough.”

Flannery did see positives from the game, even if the final product didn’t meet expectations.

“Mya Jones, when healthy, is such an electric dynamic player,” said the manager. “She had to come off with a knock again, but she electrified when she came on.

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“The midfield three, as always, was good. Rehana (Murani) had a good game. Going forward we’ve got all sorts of attacking options. Nobody was poor, per se. We just weren’t ruthless and that’s the disappointing part for all of us.”

Up next for Foothills WFC will be to host LA Galaxy OC Sunday afternoon. And Flannery is expecting tough competition from league’s new team.

“I know that most of their team is US U23 international or US U20 international and the ones that aren’t, I think, play for Australia,” said Flannery. “They’re coming in here fresh. And we’re going to find out what we’re made of real quick.”

The United Women’s Soccer season runs for six weeks and will see Foothills WFC play a total of 10 matches in the West Conference against Real Salt Lake, So Cal Crush, Santa Clarita Blue Heat, Colorado Pride and LA Galaxy. Playoffs follow the regular season but feature the best from each division.

UWS is a second-tier league in the North American soccer pyramid, below National Women’s Soccer League. The league features 27 clubs but only one Canadian team, Calgary Foothills WFC.

Calgary Foothills WFC’s next home game is against LA Galaxy OC at Calgary Soccer Centre Sunday, June 10 at 4pm.

Single game and season tickets are available online at www.foothillsfc.ca/tickets/ or at the gate.

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