Brooklyn FC 3, Dallas Trinity FC 0
Brooklyn FC came into Sunday’s match at Maimonides Park fighting for their playoff lives, and they played every minute like it. Dallas Trinity FC did not have a similar sense of urgency, and the final score reflected it.
The Golden Girls were outplayed 3-0 in Coney Island, managing a single shot on target in 90-plus minutes against a side that entered the day with one win in their last five. Dallas (9-9-5, 32 points) holds fourth place in the USL Super League standings with five matches to play, three points ahead of DC Power.
Matters were complicated before kickoff. A clerical error left Samar Guidry ineligible, confirmed by the Peacock broadcast, and Dallas absorbed the hit, losing a sub off the bench. Sydney Cheesman was at right back in her first professional start. With Sealey Strawn away on international duty in Argentina, Bethany Bos came into the XI in her place. Jasmine Hamid began the match on the bench.
It was a sunny afternoon in Coney Island, Nathan’s Famous and Luna Park’s Thunderbolt visible above the outfield walls, and it was Maimonides Park’s narrow pitch that took away everything Thackeray wanted to do.
Dallas’s wide runs went nowhere. Crosses into the box never came from the angles they needed. Brooklyn pressed high, disrupted the rhythm, and forced Dallas into a disjointed, foul-heavy first half that never found any coherence. Cheesman drew a yellow in the 11th on a call that looked like a lesser offense. Chioma Ubogagu was booked in the 36th. Wayny Balata gave away free kicks. Jessica Garziano tested Tyler McCamey from beyond 35 yards in the 12th, the kind of speculative effort Dallas wasn’t generating from anywhere.
The goal that sent Dallas into halftime in trouble required a miss to happen. A Hope Breslin foul on the left wing in the 44th minute set up a Kelsey Hill set piece. Hill swung and missed the ball completely. The whiff caught Balata as she slid to block and rolled into the net. Dallas went into the break down 1-0 without a shot on target.
Thackeray made a double substitution at 54 minutes, bringing on Hamid and Allie Thornton. No tactical shape change came with it.
Three minutes later, Rebecca Cooke finished from the center of the box off a Samantha Kroeger cross on the counter. Cooke had been the most dangerous player on the pitch all afternoon. Breslin was sent off in the 69th for a second yellow, a foul on Hamid that needed no deliberation.
Dallas had a man advantage for twenty minutes and produced almost nothing. A few long shots from Lexi Missimo. A Cyera Hintzen attempt in the 80th. The only shot on target all match came in the 76th, a Missimo effort that Kelsey Daugherty held comfortably. Cooke put the final nail in it in the 85th, finishing on the counter off Kroeger again, from outside the box to the bottom right corner. Brooklyn, a man down, had just scored their third.
“We’re still a ways off being anywhere near the team that I want us to be,” Nathan Thackeray said. “Obviously, we’ve added players and are playing players out of position based on a couple of injuries here or there. It’s a work in progress. I knew this was going to be difficult, but that doesn’t make the end result any easier.”
Bethany Bos was candid. “A lot of it didn’t work in terms of game plan, whether that was on our execution or just what we were doing in general. I think that it’ll be good to have fresh film and we’ll hopefully know where to make adjustments and play the type of football we want to play.”
Tyler McCamey looked ahead. “Nathan always talks about games being good opportunities. Obviously, this isn’t the result we wanted, but I think it’s an opportunity to watch the film, see what worked, go back and workshop it. Everyone’s going to be excited to be back here in two weeks, have another go, and try to get a different outcome.”
Dallas returns to the Cotton Bowl next Sunday, April 19, to host Carolina Ascent FC (11-7-6, 39 points) at 4:00 p.m. CT. The match airs on KFAA and streams on WFAA+, Peacock, and TUDN Radio.
STARTING LINEUPS DAL: McCamey; Hintzen, McCutcheon, Wisner (C), Cheesman; Balata, Stainbrook; Lancaster, Missimo, Ubogagu; Bos
BKN: Daugherty; Loving, Hill (C), Scarpelli, Kroeger; Cudjoe; Childers, Garziano, Breslin; Williams; Cooke
SCORING SUMMARY 44′ — BKN: Kelsey Hill (set piece) 57′ — BKN: Rebecca Cooke (Samantha Kroeger) 85′ — BKN: Rebecca Cooke (Samantha Kroeger)