The Vancouver Rise are in a slump and they wanted to get out of it.

They are coming off a draw and two straight losses and before Sunday, Vancouver sits second last in the league. It wasn’t going to get any easier as the Montreal Roses came to town. Montreal was two points behind league-leading AFC Toronto.

The Roses have already beaten the Rise twice this season. First, it was a 3-1 win at Swangard in late April and on June 7, beat Vancouver 2-0 in Montreal.

It was going to be tough, but this was a great opportunity for the Rise to get back into the win column. They didn’t, but there was lots to like about this scoreless draw.

First half: Best half in weeks.

It was clear that Rise wanted to set the tone early. They were doing a good job of winning the ball back and made some nice forward passes. Holly Ward, Josie Longhurst and Jasmine Spencer, in particular, were doing a good job pressing and causing turnovers.

They also had to be wary of Montreal’s transitions. Noemi Paquin nearly opened the scoring after Shannon Woeller and Ariel Young got caught flat-footed. Fortunately, Morgan McAslan was there to make an unreal save. The Rise goalkeeper held the NSL lead in saves heading into this match.

Spencer was making use of the long ball early. She found Mariah Lee running down the wing but her shot from a tight angle was stopped by Roses goalkeeper Anna Karpenko.

The Rise were swarming Karpenko and her creases but had trouble finding space to take good shots. Montreal’s low block was tough to break down.

Ward was proving even further why she is a key player for the Rise and getting call-ups for the Canadian women’s national team. Her speed and agility were on full display.

That was the best half of soccer the Rise have played in weeks. There was lots to like, but they needed to create scoring chances. None of the chances on Karpenko were that dangerous for her.

Second half: Pushing but no goals

The Rise looked to continue the momentum from the first half. The press was active again.

Lee nearly brought the Swangard faithful to their feet as she burst through the Roses defenders. However, she chose to pass instead of shoot and no one was there to receive it. Not long after, Lisa Pechersky cut inside and her shot went off a Montreal defender and off the crossbar. A goal had to come sooner or later, right?

Slowly but surely, the Rise were finding space in the 18-yard box. Lee found Longhurst in a small pocket of space but Karpenko handled it with ease.

It was clear Montreal was getting frustrated as the Rise started to win fouls. Chang had two free kicks near the box. One went into the wall and the other went right to Karpenko.

The Rise looked more fluid in the second half and limited the Roses’ transitions.

In the end, it was a much-improved game, but it felt like one Vancouver should’ve won.

Stat of the match

The Rise had seven shots on target while the Roses had two.

What was said

“The performance today was really impressive,” said Rise had coach Anja Heiner-Moller after the game. I think from the beginning of the game, the team today showed that they wanted to show up and give their best. It was out-of-possession and in-possession, just the initiative in the whole team, which brought us closer to a victory today.”

“We can build from this, this is the standard that we need to go forward with,” Heiner-Moller also said on how Sunday’s game was the true Rise identity. “When we have those standards, we can try and see what this team can do. You can totally call it a turning point. I feel like this was us, this game.”

“We had chances, it would have been great to just be sharper in those moments,” said Pechersky. “There’s always going to be things to work on, but overall, we see it very positively today.”

Rise captain Woeller also believed her team showed great improvement despite not getting a win.

“We really showed what we wanted to show as a team and I think it was a big improvement from the last few weeks,” she said. “We need to get the final touch into the goal, but it’s definitely a performance to build off of going forward.”

Wrap-up

The Rise and the rest of the NSL have a couple of weeks off. Vancouver heads to Calgary to play the Wild on Saturday, July 12. Kickoff for that game is at 4:00 pm Pacific.