Bay FC and Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds had lessons to impart to each other during their international friendly match, a 2-2 draw, on Sunday afternoon at PayPal Park.
Both clubs want to apply high pressure to their opposition, forcing turnovers and then quickly countering to score goals.
“They’re very quick, very quick in small places, one two touches, and then they’re out the opposite side. They move as a unit. They definitely pushed us, but it was in a good way,” said Bay FC’s Caroline Conti.
Urawa Red Diamonds defender Ito Miki was just as complimentary about the NWSL team, noting that Bay FC was similar to them in their approach to building up their attack as a team while staying compact on the field to make it difficult for them to transition when they did turn them over.
Playing as a unit while also leveraging their speed and athleticism was the main lesson Bay FC coach Albertin Montoya wanted his club to take away from the friendly.
“The message to the team was, look, we want to continue to improve on our football,” said Montoya, “Which is keeping the ball, playing similar to the way [Urawa] play. But our strength was going to be our speed. Let’s get in behind, let’s attack down the wide channels.”
Bay FC’s speed and attack out wide caught the Red Diamonds off guard early when Karlie Lema was able to cross the ball on the ground to forward Penelope Hocking in the fifth minute. Her strike from just inside the top of the box gave Bay an early 1-0 lead.
Once Urawa settled into the game, they were able to push their attack up the pitch and were rewarded in the 26th minute, thanks to a goal by Tanno Ririka after the team had several chances on target.
After a relatively even start to the second half for both sides, the Red Diamonds’ Takatsuka Ena was able to get onto the end of a cross to head home a goal for the Japanese side in the 65th minute and take a 2-1 lead.
Bay FC stepped up their pressure in the final twenty minutes of the game and were rewarded when Hocking, who was a menace up top all game, was taken down in the box just as second-half extra time started. That led to Caroline Conti stepping up to the spot and scoring the equalizing penalty kick for the final 2-2 scoreline.
With the return of league play against the Houston Dash on Saturday, Montoya hopes to turn the lessons learned against Urawa into action on the field as they chase an NWSL playoff spot.
“It was a fun game because you could see the type of football that we’re trying to play,” said Montoya. “But then if we add on our fight and speed, if it all comes together, that’s when we can be very dangerous, because we do have that pace that can hurt you in an instant.”
