NSC Stars Gain Point – Play Entertaining Game
NSC Stars 1-1 Miami FC Blues. Stars gain a point against Miami FC who have still yet to win or lose a game this season.
Johnny Menyongar scores his first goal of the year and his first wearing a NSC Stars uniform. Photo by Jeremy Olson - www.digitalgopher.net
On a beautiful spring Saturday evening in Blaine, MN, the NSC Stars played an exciting 90-minutes of soccer in front of 1,576 soccer lovers who enjoyed a good night of action from both teams. The Stars came out playing a 4-3-3 with Two-Boys Gumede playing outside left back. Gumede would more often than not be found making runs up the left flank and joining in the attack where the formation looked more like a 3-4-3. The South African midfielder’s play was reminiscent of Steven deRoux when he played in the 3-5-2 for the Thunder, although Gumede seemed to do a better job of getting back on to his left fullback role when needed. He seemed effective in both positions and is one of the few players on the Stars who will take a player on one-on-one and capable of doing so in an exciting fashion. Melvin Tarley, Johnny Menyongar and Brian Cvilikas were the 3 front men.
The Stars had numerous chances in the first half but were not able to capitalize on their chances. Finally in the 56th minute Cvilikas lofted a pass square and over his defender to Johnny Menyongar who had made a run into the box unmarked. The Stars forward calmly drove the ball full volley into the net and past keeper Caleb Patterson.
In the 73rd minute Miami’s Christian Gomez made a lunging cross from the left flank that hit its mark as if the ball had radar. Paulo Araujo Jr. beat Brian Kallman by not more than a stretched head. But that’s all it took as he did justice to Gomez’ laser guided cross with a ball headed down and left past Warren.
Minnesota was “done wrong” once again this season as Melvin Tarley was called for a trip in the box when replays showed he never even touched the flopping Steven Cabas for Miami. None the less, the PK was awarded. Abe Thompson stepped up and hit the ball mid-level, hard and to the left of Warren. The Minnesota goalkeeper amazingly stopped the penalty shot which makes him 3-for-3 this season in 3 consecutive games. The crowd went absolutely wild as Warren’s defenders all came back to high five the keeper who says he has never faced 3 PK’s in 3 games let alone stop them all.
The save seemed to inspire the Stars in the final quarter-hour as they came back with several chances but didn’t finish with the precision necessary to slide a new digit into the NSC scoreboard.
Minnesota are now 2-5-1 on the season and in seventh place in the USSF D-2 Pro League table. Miami is now 0-0-5 sitting in 9th place tied with Carolina but have played 3 less games than the Stars.
The Stars next game is a rematch as Minnesota travels to Miami to play the Blues next Saturday evening at Lockhart Stadium with a 7:30 pm ET start.
For a complete game summary please see the NSC Stars website.
NSC Minnesota Stars Lineup: Joe Warren, Two-Boys Gumede, Brian Kallman, Andres Arango, Chris Clements, Andrei Gotsmanov (Neil Hlavaty 25), Kyle Altman, Daniel Wasson (Simone Bracalello 81), Johnny Menyongar, Brian Cvilikas, Melvin Tarley (Warren Ukah 86)
Miami FC Lineup: Caleb Patterson, Chris Gbandi, JP Rodrigues, Cristiano Dias, Euzebio Silva Neto, Jarryd Goldberg, Bryan Arguez (Ariel Germiniani 56), Christian Gomez, Steven Cabas, Abe Thompson, Paulo Araujo Jr.
Scoring Summary:
MIN – Johnny Menyongar 1 (Brian Cvilikas 1), 56th minute
MIA – Paulo Araujo Jr. 2 (Christian Gomez 1), 73
Comments are closed.
Why did Gotsmanov leave in the 25th minute? No mention in either IMS or NSC match report.
Injury I believe. They ordered some ice bags for him after he came off, but quite honestly it was in improvement without him on the field. Sometimes the guy looks like he is totally disinterested in being there. I know he’s talented and all but come on and show some heart sometimes.
It looks like he plays with minimal desire to be on the pitch… Everything about his play looks half-hearted and that’s probably why he picks up injuries all the time.
Gotsmanov is starting to resemble Dyanchenko to a few in the beer garden.
I was really uninspired by the play of Melvin Tarley. I heard how great he was coming into the season, and quite frankly, I just have not seen it. On the other hand, I thought Johnny Menyongar’s goal was impressive. In fact, I think the ball he struck would still be sailing through the air if it did not hit the back of the net. That ball was moving! Man of the Match has to go to Papa Joe. He proves continually that 35 year old GK’s are in their prime.
In was curious why Two Boys was playing in back, or if there was more of an explaintion than Mr. Friedland was sitting 10 rows behind me due to a red card. I thought he did a good job, but he belongs in the midfield. (BTW, where was Leilei?)
Ahhh, Soccer boy, please read again.
“The Stars came out playing a 4-3-3 with Two-Boys Gumede playing outside left back. Gumede would more often than not be found making runs up the left flank and joining in the attack where the formation looked more like a 3-4-3. The South African midfielder’s play was reminiscent of Steven deRoux when he played in the 3-5-2 for the Thunder, although Gumede seemed to do a better job of getting back on to his left fullback role when needed. He seemed effective in both positions and is one of the few players on the Stars who will take a player on one-on-one and capable of doing so in an exciting fashion.”
I thought it was a brilliant move by Manny and suited to the occasion and formation perfectly. What didn’t you get? In that formation and just like the 3-5-2, you need a very special player to fill that role. Not many can do that. Stamina, speed, moves, good passing and most of all reads the game well and knows when to fall back.
I like Johnny’s shoes. I think I might get myself a pair of those.
I agree about Melvin Tarley. There were times where he could have stepped up to challenge the ball and he refused to make the extra effort. He was ball watching a lot and wasn’t even covering very well for most of the game. Many times when the ball was played to him, he would continually try to make quick one touch passes to his not yet ready teammates.
I also though Two Boys played an outstanding game! He showed big time playmaking abilities with his ability to take on a defender one on one make a move to an open position and play the ball off to his teammates. I also thought Chris Clements played a very solid game at right fullback. He made many attacking runs and played a bunch of good crosses. He rarely made a bad pass and was able to get back into position when playing up. He was rarely beaten. While he didn’t make a dent in the score sheet, his solid play really helped support a great deal of offensive effort. His only blemish was an undeserved yellow card for dissent.
The top players in my eyes were: Two Boys Gumede, Chris Clements, Jonny Menyongar and Joe Warren. Disappointments were Melvin Tarley and Brian Cvilikas. Talk about poor officiating: Tarley gets called for a completely non existent foul and the Stars can thank their lucky stars that Warren made such a great save for the third time in a row. But then about 5-10 minutes later, Cvilikas gets leveled in the FC Miami box in a clear foul and the ref swallows the whistle and refused to call what should have been a clear penalty. Cvilikas was gathering a nicely played long ball and was charging at the goal when he was roughed off the ball and knocked hard to the ground with the defender not even touching the ball.