ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Since the NWSL schedule was released in mid-February, Saturday was supposed to be about Abby Wambach’s first home game with her hometown team, the Western New York Flash. Instead, it was the Heather O’Reilly show.
The Boston Breakers midfielder scored once in each half to to lift her team to a 2-1 win over the Western New York Flash at Sahlen’s Stadium. O’Reilly gave the Flash back line nightmares all night -- primarily down Boston’s right flank -- and stamped an exclamation mark on her performance with the 83rd minute game-winner, a ball she put the ball through Flash goalkeeper Adrianna Franch’s legs after a dangerous diagonal run across the top of the 18-yard box.
“I sort of just turned the corner, got a good ball from Lianne (Sanderson), tried to get it on frame and luckily it just went through her legs,” O’Reilly said. “So it’s nice to see hard work pay off for our team.”
O’Reilly, 28, has 36 goals in 183 U.S. women’s national team appearances and has played lights-out this calendar year both internationally and now for her club. Her 15th minute equalizer was a calmly finished tap-in on a far post ball from Sydney Leroux.
“HAO was doing a great job all night. She was getting in behind, getting off crosses and then for her to be able to get in and get the goals was fantastic,” Breakers coach Lisa Cole said. “She has the ability and has had times where maybe she’s had to be the assist person and today for her to be able to come in and score both of them was great.”
Saturday’s breakout performance came following an unscheduled off week last Saturday for the Breakers, who for safety reasons did not fly to Kansas City for their match. They were scheduled to leave Boston last Friday, April 19, when the Boston area went on lockdown in the manhunt for the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings.
That left the Breakers with two weeks of training prior to Saturday’s match. And for O’Reilly -- who frequently drifted high and to the right most of the night, stretch Western New York’s shape -- it was a chance to fine-tune the connection with her teammates, who she trained with only sparingly in the preseason due to U.S. training camps.
“I thought that we kind of made some strides this week in training, especially the way that our front six players were linking up and I think that it showed well in the game,” O’Reilly said.
The result gives the Breakers (1-0-1) four points from two games, but more surprisingly leaves Western New York (0-2-1) -- a team that has won three straight championships in three different leagues -- winless in three games.
Next up for the Flash is a quick turnaround, an opening weekend rematch with unbeaten Sky Blue FC (2-0-0). Wambach, who sat out Saturday after suffering a head injury last weekend. And Wambach said in a halftime interview over the stadium sound system that she’ll be back for Wednesday’s home game.
“The NWSL protocol is that you have to sit out a certain number of days following a concussion, but I’m going to be ready for Wednesday, no doubt,” she said. NWSL and U.S. Soccer require 24-48 hours of concussion-free symptoms before a player can begin the comeback process.
