The Red Deer Renegades are generally a friendly bunch, but head coach Paul Morigeau felt they were their own worst enemies Sunday at Edgar Park.
The host Renegades coughed up a pair of ugly goals and failed to convert on a few of their own grade-A chances while dropping a 4-1 Alberta Major Women’s Soccer League decision to Edmonton Northwest United.
The Red Deer squad failed to connect on three excellent scoring opportunities late in the first half, with two chances ruined by a comedy of errors.
“We had three balls inside the six,” said Morigeau. “We muffed on one, on another two players on our team ran into each other and the other one the goalie saved.”
The Renegades trailed 2-0 at that point, with the visitors’ first goal coming as a result of an early Red Deer miscue.
“We kind of had an unfortunate situation,” said Morigeau. “Our player passed it back to the goalie (Annie Ulliac), she took her eye of it and it went in.”
The home side got an early second-half goal from Paula Dadensky, but any momentum was short-lived as Northwest United scored on a free kick at the 65-minute mark.
“We put our three shortest players on the wall and their player put it over the wall and in by the short post,” said Morigeau, who didn’t let himself off the hook. “That’s something the coach should have spotted, I guess.”
Getting credit for the visitors’ goals were Jennifer Lam, Charlotte Rath, Suekiana Choucaz and Jaylene Tye. The Edmonton team, which came into the contest with a league second-best goal differential of plus-14, improved to 5-2-0 with the positive result.
Morigeau was somewhat encouraged by his team’s performance considering Northwest United was an 8-0 winner over Red Deer earlier in the season.
“Today it was 3-1. We had two bad goals against us and we should have score two or three (more),” he noted. “But they are a good, veteran team. They make you pay for your mistakes.”
The Renegades possess a 1-2-5 record with six regular-season games remaining on their schedule.
“It’s the second half of the season and we’re building and getting better each and every game,” said Morigeau. “I truly think we can win . . . although I don’t know if winning is the focus, but we can compete and get points off any team.
“Today there were two indescribable goals we never normally give up and we created some good opportunities against a great team, so we can build every game and our goal is to win five of our last six games.”
The Renegades return to action Saturday versus the host Edmonton Angels and then entertain Lethbridge FC at noon Sunday.
“This next weekend is probably the biggest weekend of our season,” said Morigeau.
“I’d like to take six points out of the weekend.”
• The Red Deer Renegades premier men’s team battled Fort McMurray to a pair of weekend exhibition ties at Edgar Park. The two sides drew 2-2 Saturday and 3-3 Sunday.
The Fort McMurray team is challenging for a berth in the Alberta Men’s Major League this year and the Renegades will mount their own challenge in 2016.