{"id":332935,"date":"2026-05-26T14:56:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T14:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/332935\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T14:56:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T14:56:27","slug":"mallory-swansons-first-goal-since-returning-from-maternity-leave-lifts-stars-past-bay-fc-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/332935\/","title":{"rendered":"Mallory Swanson\u2019s first goal since returning from maternity leave lifts Stars past Bay FC"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. women\u2019s national team forward Mallory Swanson<\/a>\u2019s first goal in nearly two years helped lift the Chicago Stars to their third win of the season.<\/p>\n

She scored in the 70th minute in the Stars\u2019 1-0 victory over a nine-player Bay FC in San Jose on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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Swanson, who entered the match in the second half, dribbled through Bay\u2019s defensive end before drilling the ball with her left foot into the lower corner. The goal came in her second game back since returning from maternity leave last week<\/a>. It was a much-needed win for the Stars, who now sit second-to-last in the NWSL standings.<\/p>\n

Swanson has brought an obvious boost to Chicago since returning to the pitch, with Stars head coach Martin Sj\u00f6gren estimating the attacking player is still playing at only 70 percent of her full capacity. She is currently on limited minutes, slowly working her way back to being able to play a full match.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she comes on, then all of a sudden we create chances and we create breakthroughs,\u201d Sj\u00f6gren said after the game. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty natural that she\u2019s the one that actually wins this game for us with a goal, when she breaks in and she hits it \u2014 doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s the left or right, she shoots.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know Mal\u2019s quality, but I\u2019m really happy for us, and I\u2019m also really happy for her sake, because she\u2019s been away for a long time, and now we also see what kind of impact she has.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stars goalkeeper Katie Atkinson said having Swanson back in their attack gives the team \u201cconfidence\u201d on the pitch.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHer leadership and what she brings to the field gives everybody energy to know that we have a threat there,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cIt\u2019s so great, and we\u2019re so happy for her to come in and to make such an impact so early. We\u2019re really lucky to have her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swanson last scored for the Stars on July 6, 2024, against the Houston Dash \u2014 her seventh regular-season goal that year. She stepped away from soccer last season when she became pregnant with her first daughter, Josie James Swanson, who was born in November.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, she exited the match prematurely in the 92nd minute, after falling to the ground while fighting for a ball near the corner. She appeared to injure her ankle. She later walked off the pitch on her own, favoring her right leg. Sj\u00f6gren said her exit was \u201cmore or less a precaution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s win marked its first on the road this season.<\/p>\n

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Bay FC ended the match with nine players, after red cards were given to defender Aldana Cometti<\/a> and goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz, adding to the high tally of red cards<\/a> already shown in the NWSL this year.<\/p>\n

Cometti was shown a straight red in the 12th minute for denying a goal-scoring opportunity as the final defender. Silkowitz was shown a straight red for intentionally using her hand outside the box to keep Chicago from scoring in the 62nd minute. The Bay Area club put up a hard fight through the final whistle, nearly scoring an equalizer in the final minute of play.<\/p>\n

Sj\u00f6gren acknowledged \u201cit would have been a totally different game\u201d if Bay had 11 players on the pitch. \u201cBut I\u2019m so happy that we have won this game, because we really needed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chicago now returns home to face the third-place San Diego Wave on May 31. This week\u2019s victory could serve as a crucial momentum for the Stars, whose only other two wins have been at home. It will be their final match before the NWSL takes a month-long pause for the start of the men\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

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This article originally appeared in The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

US Women’s national team, Chicago Red Stars, Bay FC, NWSL, Women’s Soccer<\/p>\n

2026 The Athletic Media Company<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. women\u2019s national team forward Mallory Swanson\u2019s first goal in nearly two years helped lift the Chicago Stars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[126542,10708,9677,137898,71261,88,90,89,137899],"class_list":["post-332935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-aldana-cometti","tag-bay-fc","tag-chicago-stars","tag-josie-james-swanson","tag-mallory-swanson","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-sjogren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}