The Royals found an effective way to create goal-scoring opportunities with Vero Boquete, the team’s most creative playmaker, still sidelined due to an ankle injury. Utah’s midfielders picked their spots to send long balls over Sky Blue’s defense to their forwards.
Amy Rodriguez was the main recipient of those sequences. In the play below, Amanda Laddish passed to Rodriguez, who nearly made Sky Blue pay for the way they defended.
A goalkeeper's best friend. The post denies the opener for @UtahRoyalsFC.
0-0 | #NJvUTA pic.twitter.com/NXxM421Uqi— NWSL (@NWSL) July 13, 2019Unfortunately for Utah, that chance was the closest it got to scoring by using the long ball strategy.