Decatur FC’s shutout streak continues as the team recorded a 5-0 win over FC Birmingham at Lawson Field Stadium in Birmingham, AL. The team has not lost in its first three weeks of existence.
High-scoring Decatur FC was hampered on Friday’s 0-0 draw with Georgia Impact. While the draw was, in a sense, a victory due to Impact’s place atop the conference, Decatur was frustrated by a lack of goals and looked to return to form against Birmingham.
Throughout the first half, that frustration seemed to have lingered. A swarming defense by the Lady Falcons stymied Decatur FC’s ability to produce passing plays and the half ticked away with little incident.
“I think that was a little bit disjointed, just because of the speed of play,” Decatur FC coach Campbell Chapman said. “The other team just wasn’t coming out and trying to attack, so it meant that we had to start every possession with an attack. And when that happens a lot of times, sometimes you just overpass it.”
But with under two minutes to play in regulation, Decatur got a chance. Off a throw-in, Decatur completed a triangle of passes that ended at Carrie Consolino’s feet. She sent a long ball into the box that Breanna Barley received, dribbled past the goaltender, and tapped into the net. Just like that, Decatur had scored their first goal in a week.
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Two minutes later, Emma Chapman was dragged down in the box and the referee whistled for a penalty shot. One-on-one with the keeper, Chapman didn’t miss and slotted the ball home to put Decatur up 2-0.
And the half still wasn’t quite done as there was significant stoppage time due to water breaks. Decatur took advantage of every minute. Merely three minutes after the second goal and five minutes after the first, Barley was again involved in the play as she sent up a long ball into the box. Wasila Diwura-Soale headed it neatly the goal and Decatur FC entered halftime up 3-0 after having very few chances throughout much of the half.
“I thought we were a little bit nervous early on,” Chapman said. “We’re a little bit safe. And then, as you could see, once we got that first goal, it sort of took the pressure off everybody. And I [never doubted we were] going to win, but obviously you want to get goals on the board early in those situations, so your team relaxes and doesn’t tighten up.”
If goals were what Decatur needed to loosen up, three goals in eight minutes certainly did that. It also helped ease players into their first game. Decatur FC started many girls for the first time as the team played their second game in three nights.
“A lot of the girls that didn’t get a huge amount of minutes on Friday got the opportunity to start,” Chapman said. “I was delighted that [Judith Juarez] could get a start and Katherine Elliott could get a start. And we gave some girls some starts. And it’s never easy when you go in for that first start to relax.”
The team’s confidence only grew in the second half. Under a minute into the half, Jazmin Ferguson headed a corner kick into the net. Less than fifteen minutes later, Chapman sent in a corner that Becky Contreras headed into the net to seal the 5-0 win. Set plays were critical for Decatur FC in this game, and the headed goals added a new dimension to their game that hadn’t been seen before.
“We always feel that sometimes you can overcomplicate it when you have set plays,” Chapman said. “And ours is pretty simple. We know we’ve got two strong girls in the air with Becky [Contreras] and Jazmin [Ferguson]. And we just target certain areas that we think we’ll have an opportunity to score based on what’s happened earlier. And it was good. Good deliveries and then good headers.”
Decatur FC remains without a loss and has still not conceded a goal. But their schedule gets more difficult from this point as they face the second-ranked team in the conference next week, 865 Alliance. Decatur played four of the five worst teams in the conference thus far, and they will be faced with the best in the conference over the coming weeks. Whether or not they can remain among the best in the conference is yet to be seen.
