Report and photos by Kevin Kyle
It seemingly happened in a heartbeat Tuesday night.
It was simple, straight forward and… extremely memorable.
Sioux Falls City defender Tyreese Zacher clears the ball away from goal in the first half of Tuesday night’s USL W Central Conference Heartland Division match against visiting Aurora FC at Bob Young Field in Sioux Falls.
In the final minute of the regulation 90, Sioux Falls City Football Club midfielder Mia Bosch picked up the ball on the left touchline, near midfield, and promptly hoisted it down the line to a breaking Keyera Harmon. The striker collected the quick toss, settled the ball and cut inside, 16 yards from goal, before delivering a drive toward the Minnesota Aurora FC net. Harmon’s blast was fortuitously deflected to striking partner Hailee Christensen in the middle of the area, 10 yards from goal.
Having found her scoring touch with a brace against Rochester FC just three days prior, Christensen again made no mistake – rocketing the ball over the shoulder of MAFC goalkeeper Taylor Kane to even the score at 1-1 and send the City players, coaches and faithful into a frenzy.
Christensen’s late equalizer not only proved memorable to the hosting club, but also to the visitors, as it was the first time Aurora FC had dropped points in a regular season match since its inception four years ago.
SFCFC Sporting Director Joe DeMay’s postgame talk was short and oh so sweet.
“This is the first time they’ve ever dropped points during the regular season. You’re the first team to do it; now let’s finish the job!”
After bowing out to Aurora FC, 2-0, June 6 in Eagan, MN, City promptly went back to work tweaking its approach and tactics for a pair of homes games (June 17 and 20). Though the hosts found themselves down 1-0 on 50 minutes, following a well-crafted end line cutback pass from Saige Wimes to Catherine Rapp, City never stopped playing – demonstrating resilience throughout.
“We did; the team came and showed up,” said City center back Taylor Thomas. “When we went down, I think it fueled us even more to go get one. It’s never nice to get scored on, especially with as well as we’d been playing, but after a few minutes it was like, ‘no, we’ve been in this game from the beginning, we’re playing well and creating chances.’ We just needed to keep after it and keep creating, and we were bound to get one.”
City now has its sights set on being the first club to defeat Aurora FC in the regular season, as the teams will meet at Bob Young Field in Sioux Falls once more Friday evening (7 p.m.).
“After this game, and knowing we can come back, I think we’ll step on the field and know we can take them on!” said Harmon.
SFCFC midfielder Yui Fujii dribbles past an Aurora FC player in the first half of Tuesday night’s game at Bob Young Field in Sioux Falls.
It was City’s constant and consistent pressure that ultimately aided the hosts in that endeavor, as Aurora FC struggled to get the ball out of its half in the final minutes of the contest.
Fresh legs don’t hurt either.
“It was awesome; the changers who came in were absolutely phenomenal.” said SFCFC Coach Dale Weiler. “I bit of the message has been, ‘none of this is going to be perfect,’ so we have to take the lumps at times. The changers who came in changed the tide, as far as giving energy and pressing and that caused a lot of problems for them. All it takes is one chance, sometimes, which we got.”
After playing her heart out for more than 60 minutes, midfielder Mali Van Meeteren was spelled by MaKenna Lehman to shore up the central portion of the pitch, while Bosch entered the fray and pushed Christensen further forward.
“That role requires a lot of physical prowess and consistency with it because you have to cover so much ground,” said Weiler. “We could see, with who Mali had to cover, she was maxed out. Makenna and the rest of the changers came in and did an outstanding job of plugging up holes and keeping the ball in the opposition half.”
Where Bosch ultimately started the equalizing strike.
“Mia picked it up and got us moving,” said Harmon. “I saw the opportunity to run down the line, cut in and take a shot… deflected to Hailee to finish it. In my head I was taking a shot and the pace of it helped with the deflection.
“Honestly, I was just trying not to whiff it,” added Christensen. “In warmups, every ball was going up and over… was thinking, ‘gotta just place it.’ It felt great!”
As quickly as Christensen’s equalizer occurred, what transpired previously was a slow burn. Aurora FC’s high-possession, field-spreading, quick-tempo play regularly keeps opposing sides scrambling, and Tuesday night was no different.
To its credit, City bent but didn’t break in the first half. Even after Cat Rapp’s go-ahead tally that beat Campbell Fischer from eight yards out five minutes after the restart, City stuck to its plan.
“A few mistakes like that happen at times, but the response was the most important thing,” said Weiler. “We easily could have tanked a bit, but we seemed to snap out of it pretty quickly to move beyond and move forward.
“We knew we had to respect the opponent and understand they would probably have the lion’s share of the ball, but our message at the beginning of the game – as far as pressing and being collective with our organization defensively – worked to an extent in the first half. So, it was a bit of a similar theme… ‘hey, let’s continue to be compact and pick our times to squeeze space, etc.’”
The insertion of Nadje Meite, Hanna Schimmer and Rylee Haldeman early in the second half didn’t change that mindset, but rather reinforced City’s ability to remain within striking distance of the division leaders.
SFCFC goalkeeper Campbell Fischer rises to get her hands on a cross during first-half action Tuesday night at Bob Young Field in Sioux Falls.
City played hard, bided its time and continued to press before its late breakthrough.
However, Christensen’s 89th-minute equalizer wasn’t the last action of the highly physical Central Conference battle, as Aurora FC pressed forward extremely hard over the final minute and ensuing three minutes of stoppage time. The visitors had three corner kicks in the closing stages of the match, and Cat Rapp’s late drive to the left side of the goal appeared destined to find the side netting and lift the visitors to a ninth consecutive victory.
Seeing the ball late, and through lots of traffic, Fischer parried the shot wide at full stretch to keep the score even. Thomas too was heavily involved in the chaos, getting her left cheek to an attempted cross from the right corner to prevent Aurora from another dangerous attack and preserve the tie.
“It came down to who wanted it,” said Thomas with an icepack on her tender cheek. “I told everyone around me, ‘you have to want it more than them,’ and every single person on this team wanted it more… saw it in the individual battles, the hustle and the work ethic from everyone on the field tonight.”
And Friday night back at the ‘Bob’ is likely to be another highly charged battle, as City look to be the first side to beat Aurora FC in a regular-season match. For area soccer fans, this is not a match you’ll want to miss.
This is OUR City!
Aurora FC 0 1 – 1
Sioux Falls City 0 1 – 1