FC KANSAS CITY FINISHES EXHIBITION SEASON ON HIGH NOTE

Cuellar Scores Five Goals in 8-0 Victory

PARKVILLE, Missouri (April 6, 2024) – FC Kansas City put an exclamation point on their exhibition season with a dominating performance, defeating the University of Nebraska 8-0 in front of a lively crowd at Park University’s Julian Field.  Casey Loyd and Courtney Jones each had two assists, but Renae Cuellar led the day with a five-goal, one-assist performance.

The University of Nebraska has a strong history and currently boasts Mexican Women’s National Team defender, Ari Romero.  They showed no fear when facing their professional opponents this afternoon.  Early in the game they sat back to face defend the FC Kansas City attack and counter with their own opportune attacks.  In fact, Nebraska was able to get the first shot of the game in the fifth minute.  After thwarting an attack from Kansas City midfielders Sinead Farrelly and Jen Buczkowski, Nebraska midfielder Mayme Conroy broke through the defense and got a shot off from the right side that just went over the crossbar.

Kansas City’s strategy immediately adjusted after that, exploiting the outside wings while Nebraska focused on the Blues’ powerful central midfield.  Outside midfielders Casey Loyd and Courtney Jones worked up and down the field and were instrumental in a four-minute stretch of the first half that saw the first three FC Kansas City goals.  Cueller bookended the sequence with goals from each of the outside midfielders (16th minute and 20th minute) and notched a helper in-between to Jones (17th minute).  Cuellar finished her hat trick just before the half when Erika Tymrak found her free up the middle in the 44th minute, giving the speedy forward a one-on-one opportunity with the goalkeeper that she quickly buried far post.

The second half started the same as the first half ended.  In the 48th minute, Casey Loyd won a ball near the midfield line and placed a perfect chip over the Nebraska defensive line that Tymrak was able to run onto and score.  Three minutes later Jones once again beat her defender along the right side, then dribbling up the goal line she placed a cross that soared just over the Nebraska goalkeeper’s hands right onto Sinead Farrelly’s waiting head.  Coach Vlatko Andonovski used his first substitution of the match right after that bringing in the strong midfielder from Notre Dame, Melissa Henderson, to replace Casey Loyd.  Henderson needed only three minutes to join the party, passing the ball to Cuellar for her fourth goal of the day.  Cuellar finished the day in the 67^th minute, scoring goal number five of the match and her seventh of the exhibition season.

FC Kansas City finishes the preseason at 3-0, scoring 18 goals and only allowing two.  The season gets started for real on Saturday April 13th when Alex Morgan and the Portland Thorns come to Shawnee Mission District Stadium to open the Inaugural National Women’s Soccer League at 7:35 p.m.  Tickets are available by calling 855.4KC.GOAL or emailing tickets@kcprosoccer.com

NWSL Match Report

Match: FC Kansas City vs. University of Nebraska
Date: April 6, 2024
Venue: Julian Field, Parkville, Missouri
Kickoff: 2:30p.m. (3:30p.m. ET)
Attendance: 410 (estimated)
Weather: 70 degrees, sunny

Lineups:
FCKC: 1-Henninger Goalkeeper; 9-Matthias Right Back, 16-Williams Center Back (Norris Substitute, 61’), 20-Kelly Center Back, 13-Robinson Left Back; 8-Jones Right Midfielder (Arrietta Substitute, 61’), 6-Buczkowski Midfielder, 15-Tymrak Midfielder (Substitute Trialist, 61’), 17-Farrelly Midfielder, 7-Loyd Left Midfielder (2-Henderson Substitute, 52’); 10-Cuellar Forward
Head Coach: Vlatko Andonovski

NEB: 0-Stevens, 2-Romero, 4-Areman, 5-Krauetner, 7-Bartels, 11-Conroy, 12-Gray, 13-Odermann, 16-Jackson, 21-Flynn, 22-Hayes
Head Coach: John Walker

Officials:
Referee: Brandon Marshall
Assistant Referee 1: Jon Freemon
Assistant Referee 2: Christina Andrade