Bay FC dropped its final home match before the summer break after Barbra Banda’s shot in the box took an unlucky bounce off two Bay FC players. The loss snapped a three-match unbeaten streak.
Bay FC dropped its final home match before the summer break after Barbra Banda’s shot in the box took an unlucky bounce off two Bay FC players. The loss snapped a three-match unbeaten streak.
Subscribe to continue reading this article.
Already subscribed? To log in, click here.
RevContent Feed
SAN JOSE — In the span of two minutes, Bay FC went from inches away from going up a goal to giving up a head-scratcher in a 1-0 loss.
Facing the Orlando Pride in their final home game before the NWSL’s summer break, Bay FC nearly went up in the 57th minute when Caprice Dydasco sent in a scorcher from just inside the 18-yard box, hitting the crossbar. One minute later, Orlando made Bay FC pay.
Taking advantage of a delayed reaction to a foul, Orlando quickly played the ball up to Barbra Banda, whose shot deep from in the box bounced off Abby Dahlkemper, then Kelli Hubly, and found its way past Bay FC goalkeeper Emmie Allen.
That was all the scoring Orlando would need, as the Pride survived a flurry of late Bay FC chances to hang on and make Banda’s goal stand up.
“Overall, it was a good performance from our team,” Bay FC coach Albertin Montoya said. “We showed we can go toe-to-toe with the champs of the NWSL. That second half, the last 25 minutes, we possessed the ball a lot better than we did throughout the game. But we were dangerous in certain opportunities, and overall, it was a good performance.”
The numbers bear out that Bay FC suffered from bad luck on Friday night. According to the game report by analytics company Opta, Bay FC generated an expected goals (XG) mark of 1.74 to Orlando’s 0.35.
Hubly, who played her 100th career NWSL game, chalked up Banda’s goal to a mix of surprise and unfortunate bounces. The referee allowed play to resume quickly after a foul by Caprice Dydasco gave Orlando a free kick.
Carson Pickett instantly played the set ball forward to Banda, who raced up the left touch line and into the box. Getting in close to goal, she unleashed a curler that deflected off Dahlkemper, then changed course after hitting Hubly and diverted into the net for the lone goal.
There wasn’t a whole lot Allen, making her NWSL debut, could do.
“Goals are going to happen,” Hubly said. “It’s hard being a center back. It’s hard being a defender in this league. Each year, it’s getting harder and harder to defend some of these players. They’re getting so good, so fast, so strong.
“You can’t be thinking about what just happened. It was really sh—y, I’m not gonna lie, because I feel like they didn’t really break us down. So that goal hurt really badly.”
Hubly said she thought Bay FC needed to be ready for the quick free kick regardless of whether the official allowed play to resume unusually suddenly.
“That’s a tactic that I would hope we would do too,” Hubly said. “They’re allowed to do that, unless it’s a yellow card, where they have to keep it stopped. So they took advantage of half a second. We’re bummed that we weren’t paying attention for half a second, but all we can do is learn from it and move on.”
Montoya expressed some surprise that the action was restarted immediately, but he agreed that Bay FC needed to be ready no matter what.
“I’d have to go look at it, because there’s times that he would call it back and stop play and then we’d restart,” Montoya said of the referee. “But regardless, on our end, we just have to make sure we step in front of the ball and stay locked in. That’s it.”
Bay FC generated multiple excellent chances to equalize down the stretch. The best one came in the 82nd minute, when Caroline Conti ripped a dipping curler from right to left that Orlando goalie Anna Moorhouse punched up and over the bar.
Bay kept the pressure on to the bitter end. The home team had five corner kicks in the final 40 minutes of action, including one in the eighth minute of stoppage time.
The bounces just didn’t go Bay FC’s way on Friday.
“The last 20 minutes, we were just pounding it down to them,” Hubly said. “I don’t know what the shots were, the XG, but it felt like we deserved that win. So that’s what hurts.”
Bay FC has one more game on the docket before beginning its break for the summer international window. Bay faces Gotham FC in New York on June 21, then takes a hiatus from NWSL action until Aug. 2.
The loss snapped a three-match unbeaten streak for Bay FC dating back to May 17. Bay FC’s final home match before the break was attended by 12,127 fans.
“In the last 25 minutes, we definitely had the best chances,” Montoya said. “And I would say we probably had the most dangerous chances, where the opportunities occurred, because their shots came in from a little bit further outside the box.
“Emmie only had to make a couple saves throughout the game. We hit the post, missed one right in front of the goal. We were in good areas on the field. I felt the goal was going to come, because that’s how dangerous we were.”
Progress has taken place in the past four weeks. But it will need to continue against Gotham and after the break if Bay FC is to reach its stated goal of finishing in the top four of the NWSL standings and earning the right to host a home playoff game.
And as was just announced Friday morning, if Bay FC makes it to the NWSL championship, it will be hosting the match in its home stadium.
“We’re seeing the progress because the quality of the chances, they’re dangerous. They’re not just hit from random angles,” Montoya said. “With that, it’s just execution. Continue to work on it. But I love the areas that we’re getting into.
“It’s incredibly exciting if we play the way we played in the second half. The way we played against Portland, our previous four games have been very good. We’re going to be a tough team to beat, and if we happen to be in that final at home in front of our fans, anything can happen.”
