Sky Blue FC

Sky Blue FC named Ian Sawyers as its first head coach and general manager on March 5, 2008. However, it was not until September 9, 2008 that the New York/New Jersey outfit was officially unveiled under the name Sky Blue FC. One week later, the US Women's National Team allocation took place with Heather O'Reilly, Natasha Kai, and Christie Pearce allocated to Sky Blue FC.[1]

On September 24, the 2008 WPS International Draft was held. Sky Blue FC drafted Australian National Team forward Sarah Walsh in the first round, Brazilian National Team members Rosana and Ester in the second and third rounds respectively, finished with Canadian National Team midfielder Kelly Parker in the fourth round.[2] In addition to these picks, Sky Blue FC also named Australian National Team midfielder Collette McCallum and England National Team defender Anita Asante as post-draft discovery players on September 26, 2008 and October 2, 2008 respectively, and were awarded their WPS playing rights.

To further assign player rights, on October 6 the 2008 WPS General Draft took place. Sky Blue FC drafted Cori Alexander, Keeley Dowling, Kacey White, and Jenny Hammond.[3] Ian Sawyers closed out 2008 by choosing Kelly Lindsey to be his assistant coach on December 3.

The new year brought new players. On January 16, the 2009 WPS Draft was held. Sky Blue FC drafted Yael Averbuch, Meghan Schnur, Karen Bardsley, Christie Shaner, Julianne Sitch, Jen Buczkowski, Zhang Ouying, Mary Therese McDonnell, Mele French, and Fanta Cooper.[4]

As of 2018, Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy was a majority shareholder of the team.[5]

Sky Blue FC kicked off its inaugural season on April 5, 2009 dropping a 2–0 decision to Los Angeles Sol at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey. It played its next game at the venue before moving permanently to Yurcak Field on the campus of Rutgers University.

Sky Blue FC battle in St. Louis during the 2009 postseason

The team stuttered to one win and two draws in their first six games, scoring only 3 goals in the process, before head coach and general manager Ian Sawyers was suspended indefinitely by the team for disagreements on May 23, 2009. He was eventually relieved of his duties as head coach and general manager on May 28, 2009. In his absence, Kelly Lindsey stepped in as the interim and slowly started to turn around Sky Blue FC's on-field fortunes. She was eventually permanently installed as head coach on June 19, 2009 by then General Manager Gerry Marrone.

Lindsey's time at the helm was short-lived as she abruptly resigned from her position on July 30, 2009. She had won five games and drawn three others in her twelve total matches before Christie Pearce was named the second interim of the year and third head coach overall by Marrone. Her position also included playing on the field and was the first player/manager in WPS history. Rampone lead Sky Blue FC into 4th position and secured the final playoff spot for the 2009 playoffs. Sky Blue FC upended both Washington Freedom and Saint Louis Athletica to make the championship game against Los Angeles Sol. A 16th minute Heather O'Reilly strike earned Sky Blue FC the championship on August 22, 2009, beating the Sol on their own home field of The Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

With two additional teams, Atlanta Beat and Philadelphia Independence, joining the league for 2010, Sky Blue FC were destined to lose players from their championship-winning side. On September 15, the 2009 WPS Expansion Draft was held with Jen Buczkowski moving to Philadelphia and Noelle Keselica headed to Atlanta.

Sky Blue FC announced on September 29, 2009 that former Finnish National Team player Pauliina Miettinen would be head coach of the team for the 2010 season after completing her coaching duties with PK-35 Vantaa.

Sky Blue FC started its title defense on April 11, 2010 when it hosted the Chicago Red Stars at Yurcak Field. The team wasted little time in gaining its first goal on the young season, with forward Tasha Kai scoring on a fourth-minute strike to lead her team to an eventual 1–0 victory. Sky Blue FC found itself having some trouble tallying goals as the season progressed and held a 5–6–3 record when head coach Pauliina Miettinen was relieved of her duties. Immediately replacing her was assistant coach Rick Stainton, who led the team to a 2–4–4 record the rest of the way. After settling for three draws to conclude its sophomore campaign, Sky Blue FC finished the year in fifth place in the regular season standings and just missed the postseason.

The 2011 season marked the first at the helm by decorated women's soccer coach Jim Gabarra, who had spent the past decade with the Washington Freedom. Prior to the start of the regular season, Sky Blue FC headed to Turkey for the preseason, playing to the finals of the Alanya International Women's Tournament of Champions, where it fell to team partner LdB FC Malmö, 1–0. Also participating in the tournament were Russian side FK Energiya and Danish club Fortuna Hjørring (who Sky Blue FC defeated in a penalty shootout in the semifinals).

Sky Blue FC kicked off the WPS regular season on April 10, 2011 at Yurcak Field, playing the Philadelphia Independence to a 2–2 draw. The team then hit the road for three games, suffering three consecutive defeats, before returning home for a pair of wins. After two more draws and another victory, Sky Blue FC found itself amid the longest unbeaten streak in franchise history (five matches). The team kicked off that streak on May 21, 2011 with a 3–0 win over the Atlanta Beat, its largest margin of victory ever.

The club went 1–2 in its next three games before entering the final four matches of the regular season. After suffering defeats in each of those games, Sky Blue FC came up just short of the playoffs after finishing even with the Boston Breakers for the final postseason spot (Boston took the season tiebreaker).

After the WPS announced the suspension of the 2012 season, Sky Blue FC announced a partnership with the New Jersey Wildcats of the W-League, which included sharing coaching staff.

In November 2012, it was announced that Sky Blue FC would be one of eight teams in a new women's professional soccer league sponsored by the United States Soccer Federation, the Canadian Soccer Association and the Mexican Football Federation.[6] The league, known as the National Women's Soccer League, began play in spring 2013.

Sky Blue FC opened its 2016 season at Seattle Reign in thrilling fashion on Sunday, April 17, 2016, winning 2–1 and handing two-time defending NWSL Shield winner its first-ever home loss at Memorial Stadium. The Reign were unbeaten at Memorial Stadium over the previous two seasons[7] Sky Blue FC started six (6) players who had never logged a single NWSL minute before that night.[8] By the end of the season they had racked up with 26 points in 7th place. Playing 20 games this season they ended up with 7 wins 8 losses 5 and ties. They scored 24 goals and had 30 against them.[9] Sky Blue midfielder Raquel Rodríguez was named 2016 NWSL Rookie of the Year.[10]

In 2017, Sky Blue had its most successful season since 2014. They finished in sixth place, but were in playoff contention until mid September.[11] Head coach Christy Holly unexpectedly stepped down as coach on August 16.[12] This was followed by veteran defender Christie Pearce announcing she would miss the remainder of the season due to injury on August 18.[13]

On August 19, 2017 Sky Blue overcame a 3–0 deficit, to defeat the Seattle Reign 5–4. In that game Sam Kerr became the first player in NWSL history to score 4 goals in one game.[14] Kerr enjoyed a breakout season in 2017, she broke the single season goal scoring record by scoring 17 goals and won the golden boot. Kerr was also awarded the 2017 NWSL MVP award.[15]

Denise Reddy was appointed as the new head coach on November 15, 2017.[16] Sky Blue began the off-season by trading several of their key players. They dealt Taylor Lytle and USWNT defender Kelley O'Hara to the Utah Royals on December 29, 2017.[17] Then at the 2018 NWSL College Draft they traded Nikki Stanton and 2017 NWSL MVP Sam Kerr to the Chicago Red Stars.[18] Sky Blue received forward Katie Johnson and defender Rebekah Stott from the Seattle Reign in exchange for the rights to forward Caitlin Foord.[19] They also added two-time FIFA Player of the year Carli Lloyd in the trade for Sam Kerr.[18]

The results of the field were not good for Sky Blue as they finished in last place with a record of 1–17–6. They broke the NWSL record for the longest winless streak (23 games) as they didn't earn a victory until the final game of the season.[20] Their season was plagued with reports of poor off-field conditions, such a inadequate training facilities as well as housing, travel, and transportation issues.[21]

The 2018 season did include promising rookie seasons from Imani Dorsey and Savannah McCaskill. Dorsey scored 4 goals in 13 games and McCaskill had 3 goals and 3 assists.[22] Both players were voted as finalists for the 2018 NWSL Rookie of the year. Dorsey won the award, becoming the second Sky Blue player to win the award after Raquel Rodríguez won it in 2016.[23]

Where a player has not declared an international allegiance, nation is determined by place of birth. Squad correct as of June 23, 2020.[24]

No.	Position	Player	Nation
1	Goalkeeper	Kailen Sheridan	Canada
2	Defender	Kaleigh Riehl	United States
3	Defender	Caprice Dydasco	United States
4	Forward	Paige Monaghan	United States
5	Midfielder	Nicole Baxter	United States
6	Midfielder	Jennifer Cudjoe	Ghana
7	Midfielder	McCall Zerboni	United States
8	Defender	Erica Skroski	United States
9	Midfielder	Nahomi Kawasumi	Japan
10	Midfielder	Carli Lloyd	United States
11	Forward	Mallory Pugh	United States
12	Defender	Gina Lewandowski	United States
13	Goalkeeper	DiDi Haracic	Bosnia and Herzegovina
14	Midfielder	Kenie Wright	United States
15	Defender	Sabrina Flores	Mexico
16	Midfielder	Sarah Woldmoe	United States
17	Forward	Domi Richardson	United States
18	Defender	Cassidy Benintente	United States
19	Midfielder	Elizabeth Eddy	United States
20	Forward	Evelyne Viens	Canada
21	Goalkeeper	Mandy McGlynn	United States
22	Defender	Mandy Freeman	United States
23	Midfielder	Margaret Purce	United States
24	Defender	Estelle Johnson	Cameroon
25	Forward	Ifeoma Onumonu	United States
26	Defender	Chantelle Swaby	Jamaica
28	Forward	Imani Dorsey	United States
35	Goalkeeper	Megan Hinz	United States
73	Midfielder	Madison Tiernan	United States

As of June 23, 2020[25][26][27]

Executive Staff
Position	Staff
Owner	Phil Murphy
Owner and Club Chair	Tammy Murphy
Owner	Steven Temares
Owner and Vice Chair	Ed Nalbandian
General Manager	Alyse LaHue
Chief Financial Officer	Mary Smoot
Coaching Staff
Position	Staff
Head Coach	Freya Coombe
Assistant Coach	Rebecca Moros
Assistant Coach	Becki Tweed
Goalkeeper Coach	Dean O'Leary
High Performance Coach	Philip Congleton
Technical Advisor	Marcia McDermott
Head Physio	Joelle Muro