The Red Stars haven't lost in six games. But is the cost too high?

The Chicago Red Stars have made it through a grueling five-game stretch without a loss, extending their current unbeaten streak to six games out of the first eight of their season, with a record of 4-1-3 to sit tied alongside the San Diego Wave atop the NWSL table with 15 points.

It’s a brilliant start to the season by any measure, certainly considering the shakeup to the team’s roster and coaching staff in the offseason. So why did Sunday’s 1-0 win feel at times like the wheels are beginning to fall off?

The Red Stars began the match all over the Orlando Pride, with Sarah Luebbert pushing further forward as a wingback, and the interplay between the attacking midfielders and Sarah Griffith as the lone striker giving Orlando very little time with the ball. Pugh’s rocket in the 10th minute was a world-class strike, but it came from a run of play that Chicago dominated with ease, and it felt like the Red Stars could finish the half with an even more lopsided scoreline.

But when Kayla Sharples went down with what looked like a serious knee injury in the 24th minute, everybody froze. Sharples has played every minute of Chicago’s regular season campaign thus far, and has more significantly taken up the space left by Tierna Davidson in the center-most center-back position within the Red Stars’ back-three defense. She’s been a key aerial presence, both in set piece opportunities and when opponents whip the ball into the box. She’s also the most experienced player on the backline, having played with the team since 2019 and having successful stints both in Finland and Australia. Sharples has been ready for the big stage ever since the 2020 Challenge Cup, and this year felt like the culmination of her hard work combined with a calm mind in the middle of the defense.

Then she went into a challenge in isolation against Orlando’s Abi Kim, her plant foot failed her, and she had to immediately leave the game. Rookie Amanda Kowalski then came on with 21 minutes left in the first half, and the young Red Stars suddenly felt a whole lot younger. Stepping up immediately, Tatumn Milazzo slotted in centrally with Zoe Morse and Kowalski on either side. Milazzo played outside-back in place of Casey Krueger in the latter half of the 2021 season, and has done well on the left side of the back-three. But she was suddenly consulting with Alyssa Naeher on who should go up for corner kicks, and who should stay back in the chance of a quick counter-attack (Milazzo and Kowalski went up, Morse stayed.) 

“It always shakes you up a little bit, when one of your teammates is down, and it looks like that,” Milazzo said after the match. “So, in that moment, I was just like, Okay, let’s check the time, get through this half with what we have, and then regroup at halftime.”

The defense would make a slight positional adjustment after the half, with Morse (who has the most NWSL center-back experience in the trio, if by a slim margin) taking over in the middle of the formation. However, she wasn’t alone; the Red Stars rallied around their defense in numbers. Vanessa DiBernardo and Bianca St-Georges told head coach Chris Petrucelli to keep them on after halftime, and Danny Colaprico came in to further shore up the defensive midfield.  “Vanessa said ‘let me go.’ Bianca said ‘let me go,’’ he said. “So it was encouraging, satisfying to see those guys like, ‘Hey we need to get the points here. I will run until I die.”

Pugh also played another complete 90-minute match, dropping right in front of the No. 6’s in the second half to provide an outlet whenever necessary, and push forward whenever her legs would allow her. Yuki Nagasato also had her most effective game of the season, as the Red Stars tried to put the game in a sleeper hold to hold onto the 1-0 win. “I think that’s what you saw the most tonight,” Naeher said after the game. “Just the end of a five game stretch. Everybody gave everything that they had, everybody’s fighting, everybody’s giving every last ounce of energy that they’ve got.”

It’s the do-or-die attitude that Chicago has always prided themselves on, and it’s working. But there’s also some serious cause for concern that this is where the team is both mentally and physically only eight games into a 22-game season. The Red Stars have stepped up in the face of long-term absence after long-term absence, but defending by committee gets a lot harder when two center-backs of the exact same physical profile go down at the beginning of a season. 

They no longer have the size to anchor a three-back, and they don’t have the numbers for a back four. Vanessa DiBernardo is giving everything she has every game in a positional pivot that cements her club legend status, but it’s because Chicago doesn’t actually have two No.6’s to run their duel six midfield. Pugh and Naeher, crucial both in defense as they are in attack, are about to take their talents to Monterrey to help the USWNT qualify for the 2023 World Cup.

And while it’s great that the Red Stars are willing to run themselves into the ground to get a win, they shouldn’t have to. For all the revamping Chicago has done in 2022, that sentiment echoes last year’s championship run, and it worries me.

“Our mindset in-season right now, (…) There’s nothing we can do. There’s nothing we can change. And our focus is one game at a time,” Naeher said about the punishing schedule. “What’s our game plan for this game? How do we get points? How do we get wins? We’ll figure out Kansas City next week. But I do think it needs to be addressed.”

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