By Kevin Kyle
‘A little harder, a little faster, a little more precise.’ 
Those words kicked off Sioux Falls City Football Club Sporting Director Joe DeMay’s post-match talk with his players, following City’s 2-0 Central Conference Heartland Division loss to Minnesota Aurora FC Friday night at TCO Stadium in Eagan, MN.
By no means was his brief critique casting blame or doubt on what SFCFC did or will be doing in the future, but rather it was a straightforward account of why the visitors we’re on the back foot for much of the 90-minute tilt. And moving forward, City will simply have to find a way to be a little harder, faster and precise the next time it takes on the division-leading Aurora (5-0-0, 15 pts.).
“Sometimes you have to see the level and experience the level to understand what it looks like in training,” said DeMay “We train at a high level, but this is a very, very good team. The Stanley Cup is going on right now and they say sometimes you have to lose the Cup to win the Cup. If you’re not pushed to technical breakdown sometimes, tactical breakdown, you don’t know what it’s like and don’t know what to improve on to make it better. It’s going to be hard to learn; a lot of learning comes from mistakes. So, we’ve seen that now and this is what we need to do in training to make it work.”
Despite having few offensive forays in the opening stanza and defending on its heels a couple of times, City entered the locker room at the interval down by a single tally.
Perhaps more unfortunate for the visitors was the early substitute City had to make, coupled with the departure of veteran defender Mo Malone, who went down with head and neck trauma after a heavy collision in the closing minutes of the half.
By that time, City appeared to have shaken off Aurora FC’s early goal (5th minute) by right winger Natalie Tavana off a bouncing cross from left-side counterpart Mariah Nguyen. As the opening 45 moved toward conclusion, City had two efforts on goal – coming via an individual run by Mia Mullenmeister and a Mali Van Meeteren header off a free kick from Malone.
Still, scoring opportunities were few and far between for City… both teams really, as City keeper Campbell Fischer only had to get dirty once – coming out and making herself big in preventing Tavana from notching a second on 38 minutes.
Chasing the game throughout, City nearly knotted the score four minutes into the final frame. Running onto a cutback pass from striker Hailee Christensen at the top of the box, first-year midfielder Madie Donovan unleashed a dipping right-footed drive destined for the upper left corner. Unfortunately for the visitors, Donovan’s blistering blast hit the crossbar and bounded out past the box. City right winger Avery Korsching collected the rebound 22 yards out, but her shot sailed over the bar by eight inches – leaving City wanting.
“Oh yes, I thought it was going in right away… was aiming for the far post,” said Donovan. “It’s unfortunate that it hit the crossbar, but I’m happy we were able to get a shot on goal there.”
Although City managed to put more pressure on Aurora FC in the second half, the hosts still fashioned more chances at the other end. And Tavana’s substitute had two softer cracks on goal before beating Fischer with the game’s final tally. 
Tracking down a long switch from left-to-right, Kunie Hirai was initially stood up by City veteran midfielder/defender Taylor Thomas. Holding the ball as traffic thinned, Hirai quickly cut inside, past a pair of City backs and bent a high curling shot over the outstretched hand of Fischer. The ball hit the side netting to Fischer’s right for a 2-0 Aurora FC lead on 78 minutes.
“They did a really good job of finding the open player,” said Van Meeteren. “They’d overload one side and switch it well; you have to work your butt off to get to the other side as quick as you can because it’s going to happen over there. We definitely have a lot more work to do, but we hung in there.”
There was no loss of fight in City following Aurora FC’s second counter, but as DeMay suggested, the visitors needed a little more just about everywhere. The hosts did well to plug up all avenues to goal and appeared content to allow City to play into space.
“Yeah, they have a lot of good players which makes a difference as a collective,” said Van Meeteren. “Against a team like this you have to be better, and the details really matter. The good thing is we have two more opportunities against these guys at home. So, we have to put this one in the past and move on.”
“Sometimes they really spread us out and other times, I felt like our situational practice was right there where we needed it,” added Donovan. “I didn’t feel it was as crazy as it looked. This will give us more motivation. The next game is going to be even tougher, but I feel we’ll have a positive result from the next one. We’re close to playing how ‘City’ plays, and the next one is going to be positive.”
Although Malone was stretchered from the contest just before the halftime horn, she was alert and knew where she was by then end of the match – a positive right there.
City (3-2-0, 9 pts.) will have three training sessions before hosting Rochester FC (2-0-3, 6 pts.) in a divisional duel Wednesday night at Bob Young Stadium in Sioux Falls.
This is YOUR City!
SFCFC 0 0 – 0
Aurora FC 1 1 – 2