'A hard one for us': Calgary Wild FC battle but fall to Halifax Tides FC
Halifax's ace midfielder, Megumi Nakamura, chipped one past Wild FC goalkeeper Stephanie Bukovec at the 36-minute mark of the opening half and the Tides held on for their second Northern Super League victory of the season.
'It was a hard one for us tonight. I think overall the team played with great spirit, and togetherness,' said Wild FC head coach Lydia Bedford. 'It could have quite easily finished as a nil-nil draw, but we were quite unfortunate to concede on the second phase of a set piece which we will go away and reflect on.'
The first match following a two-week international break combined with a banged-up Calgary roster made it difficult for the Wild Roses to mount an offensive attack.
'Right now, we are riding a little patch where player availability is a struggle for us. You saw tonight that we had five on the bench and four of them were senior players,' said Bedford. 'We are trying to make sure the players who are unavailable are getting back to fitness, but in the meantime, we have to stick together and be competitive. Overall, the team can be pleased that we didn't concede an open play goal, but we need more to try and make sure that we can not only be defensively sound but that we can also catch teams.'
Using nearly every player available to them in hopes of having fresh legs on the pitch, Wild FC controlled possession for 54 per cent of the time, but most of it was at the back end.
'I feel like we look after the ball at the back end, but it is just that final pass and final shot that we seem to be lacking on,' said Bedford. 'We will keep working on it and the players will keep giving everything. Hopefully it will click for us over the next couple of weeks.'
Playing in front of their parents and grandparents who call Nova Scotia home, the feisty teenage Stewart twins were poised to find a breakthrough moment in front of the boisterous Bluenose crowd.
'I think we stuck together well as a team and kept trying to fight through it tonight,' said Taegan Stewart, who started the match. 'We had one or two chances that we could have put in the back of the net, but I think we were just one second slow in the movement.'
Putting the pressure on late in the match in hopes of trying to convert a shot on target, the Wild FC weren't able to push through the force of the Tides and dropped to a 3-5-2 record.
'It's a tradeoff (late in the game). You can push for more and end up conceding one. It was good that when we were pushing, we didn't get hurt but now it's just needing that final pass in those final moments,' said Bedford. 'I think we showed that we can be resilient tonight but just didn't have enough quality in front of the goal. We might have to keep tweaking the way we are playing to create more chances.'
Calgary Wild FC will have a short week to adjust their plan of attack. They will ride into McMahon Stadium during Stampede week for a home match against the Vancouver Rise FC on Saturday.
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