NWSL Week 17 in review: Sam Kerr’s 4-goal game gets Sky Blue FC back in the playoff race

Three weeks after the Reign topped Sky Blue 5-4 in Seattle, the New Jersey team returned the favor with a 5-4 home victory of its own. Now, thanks to one of the most epic comebacks — and greatest individual performances — in NWSL history, Sky Blue’s postseason hopes are still very much alive.

Games at Sky Blue FC’s home venue Yurcak Field are, historically, not very good. There’s occasionally some wacky stuff that happens there, sure, but mostly, it’s a lot of 0-0 draws with Boston and playoff hopes that have been dashed since May.

Until this season.

Going down by a goal or three is, generally, an awful strategy for winning games. It is a completely terrible one if your endgame is the playoffs. It is, also, the place where Sky Blue now lives, and boy, have they made that house a home.

Before Saturday there were already a lifetime’s worth of epic comebacks and late-game miracles from this team. Going down 2-0 against FC Kansas City before a Sam Kerr hat trick in the span of 12 minutes gave Sky Blue the 3-2 win. An 84th minute goal from Kerr to earn a 1-0 victory over North Carolina. A 90th minute goal, also from Kerr, to salvage a 2-2 draw with Chicago. Raquel Rodriguez scoring in the 83rd minute against FC Kansas City to turn a 0-0 draw into a 1-0 win. An 85th minute goal from Rodriguez to break a 1-1 deadlock with Houston. Maya Hayes scoring in the 82nd to give Sky Blue the 2-1 win over Orlando. All of these, with the exception of the win over the Courage, happened at Yurcak. And all of these, with the exception of the draw with Chicago, have resulted in Sky Blue, however improbably, getting all three points out of something that probably should’ve gone the other way.

That’s five late-game wins, and Sky Blue had, before Saturday, won only seven games this season, total.

Sometimes, of course, it goes the other way. In June, Sky Blue lost 3-2 to Orlando thanks to an 86th minute goal from Rachel Hill.

Three weeks ago, that little bit of late-game magic perhaps got diluted by whatever wet weather reputation the Pacific Northwest has. Then, Sky Blue took a 4-0 Seattle lead and turned it into a 4-4 game, with four goals in 15 minutes (Kelley O’Hara, 60’; Leah Galton, 64’; Daphne Corboz, 72’; Kerr, 75’). And there would indeed be one more, only it came for Seattle, from Megan Rapinoe in the 87th minute.

Sky Blue followed up that game against the Reign with a 4-1 loss to Washington. And then came last week, where Sky Blue got into that comfortable place of at the bottom of very deep hole before realizing they forgot to grab the bag with the ladder from baggage claim. Final score: a 5-0 loss to the Pride in what was one of the worst performances by any team this season.

In the week between then and now, head coach Christy Holly stepped down and captain and central defender Christie Rampone announced she was done for the season due to “accumulated injuries.” Whatever magical season Sky Blue had been having, they’d apparently left that bag of tricks at the baggage claim, too.

Whatever low point the game at Orlando and everything that happened in the following week may have been for Sky Blue, that alone apparently wasn't enough for them to stage some epic comeback. A big win after an ugly loss? Boring. Finding some kind of on-field inspiration in all the off-field drama? Been done. Instead, Sky Blue would take the field on Saturday night against Seattle and within three minutes, go down 1-0. And then it was 2. By the time the whistle blew for halftime, Sky Blue was down 3-0

When the teams emerged from their locker rooms following the break, the Sky Blue players quickly took the field and lined up, while Seattle stayed in its huddle. It was, visually, kind of hilarious to see Sky Blue there on the field, alone, facing off against some invisible opponent, like some too on-the-nose metaphor come to life.

Eventually the Reign too took the field and what transpired over the next 45 minutes will be forever remembered not only as one of the wildest halves in league history, but also as one of the greatest individual performances and epic comebacks this league has ever seen. And in a season where Sky Blue's already become pretty adept at all those things, well, Saturday was something else.

Even before Saturday, Kerr's name was being thrown around as a possible MVP candidate. She's been long stuck in a three-way race with Marta and the now injured Megan Rapinoe for the Golden Boot. She's scored more clutch goals than any other player, certainly this season and maybe ever, and at 23, was just shortlisted for the FIFA Best Player award for her performances for both club(s) and country.

Kerr started Sky Blue's comeback in the 48th, a fortuitous series of bounces in front of the Seattle goal eventually landing the ball close enough to Kerr that she was able to poke it through traffic and between the post and Haley Kopmeyer.

The second came 20 minutes later, with Kerr getting on the end of a ball from Daphne Corboz, taking a few touches past her defender and firing a low shot past Kopmeyer from just above the corner of the six. Suddenly, it was 3-2, and with 22 minutes still to play, everything was possible.

And everything is, indeed, what happened next. Kerr’s third, and the prettiest of the night, came in the 71st, again on ball out of the back, though this time from Sarah Killion. Kerr settled it, and with four defenders around her, fired a bending shot from just above the 18. The shot was so casual it seemed to catch Kopmeyer off guard, and then it’s 3-3.

Seattle, of course, and maybe the game three weeks ago should’ve been a warning this would happen, didn’t let things stay even for long. In the 85th minute, Kiersten Dallstream put the Reign back on top. And then things got really crazy.

Maya Hayes equalized, again, in the first minute of stoppage time. And then on what probably should have been Sky Blue’s last gasp, a handball in the box, and a penalty kick. Here, Killion, who’s Sky Blue’s usual PK taker but who’s also struggled lately from the spot, and Kerr, discuss things for a minute. Ultimately, it’s Kerr who’s left standing over the ball, 36 feet from her fourth of the night and the unlikeliest of wins in a season already full of them. Kerr rings her shot off the crossbar.

In the highlight video posted to the league site, they don’t even cut away to the next bit of action after Kerr’s missed PK. Instead, they let the whole sequence, unedited, play out for nearly a minute. Seattle clears the rebound, but the ball doesn’t even make it midfield. Sky Blue plays it back in, and some kind of last ditch attempt at getting the ball into the box takes a funny deflection, first off the foot of Kristen McNabb and then off Kopmeyer’s hand and out.

By now, we’re fully into the four minutes of stoppage time. Taylor Lytle’s corner floats perfectly into the box. There’s a scramble of bodies both fluorescent yellow and light blue. Hayes and Kerr both jump for the ball, kind of colliding in mid-air. Somehow, amidst all this, Kerr gets her head on it as she’s simultaneously being pushed sideways from the contact with Hayes behind her. And among all of it, the ball sails past Kopmeyer. Now it’s 5-4. The game is over before the ball even makes it back to midfield. Improbable comeback now not just probable, but real.

For Kerr individually, the four goals put her squarely back atop the Golden Boot race, and now with 15, just one away from the single season record set by Kim Little in 2014. Already the league’s all-time leading scorer, Kerr also became the first player to score four goals in a single game, and the first to score two hat tricks in one season.

For Sky Blue as a whole, they become the first team to come back from a three goal deficit to win.

Now, Sky Blue is sixth on the table and still three points out of the final postseason spot. And with just five games to play, there’s not a ton of time left to make up the ground the series of rough results over the past few weeks cost them. Or maybe coming from that place, down with not a lot of time left, is exactly how Sky Blue gets into the postseason. A comeback? It’s not like they haven't done it before.

Scores

Wednesday

Boston Breakers 1 - 3 Houston Dash

Chicago Red Stars 1 - 2 Seattle Reign FC

FC Kansas City 2 - 1 Portland Thorns FC

Saturday

North Carolina Courage 2 - 0 Washington Spirit

Boston Breakers 1 - 2 Orlando Pride

Sky Blue FC 5 - 4 Seattle Reign FC

Portland Thorns FC 2 - 0 Houston Dash

Sunday

Chicago Red Stars 1 - 3 FC Kansas City