Slumping Red Stars slink out of town

Chicago Red Stars coach Emma Hayes can't wait to get out of town.

After finishing a five-game homestand with 3 consecutive shutout losses, including Saturday night's 2-0 defeat to St. Louis Athletica at Toyota Park, a change of scenery seems to be exactly what the slumping Red Stars (2-3-2, 8 points) need.

Certainly something has to change.

"Thank God we're going on the road," Hayes said of the upcoming four-game road trip. "And by that I mean it's important for a team to go on the road. Sometimes you can be home for too long."

An aggressive start was lost when the Red Stars gave up an own goal when St. Louis' Eniola Aluko banged a cross of the Red Stars' Ifeoma Dieke and into the net in the 25th minute.

"At the beginning of the game, they were attacking us a little bit more," said St. Louis defender Elise Weber, an Arlington Heights native, "so with the goal it gave us a big burst of energy."

Aluko struck again in the 41st minute.

Hayes made two substitutions at halftime and indicated more changes could be coming.

"We'll evaluate as a coaching staff what we need to do, and I think this is a time the team as a whole have to come together, along with the staff, we have to find solutions to things which in my opinion are not based off of ability," Hayes said. "They're based mentally. We have to develop a collective and a focus when we've conceded goals and the game's not going our way. For us we're better than we're showing at the moment."

Both teams were missing several key players because of national team commitments.

"I don't think it really affected the game either way," Weber said. "Everyone who comes in is going to play hard and play well. Both teams have a good bench, so I don't think it had a huge effect on the game."