Minnesota Stars Beat Up on Atlanta Silverbacks, Earn First Shutout of Season
The NSC Minnesota Stars defeated the Atlanta Silverbacks 3-0 on a very cold and windy Saturday evening. Coming into the match, the Silverbacks were winless after their first 5 games including 4 home games. Minnesota took advantage of the struggling team that had only scored 3 goals and given up 8 by pressing Atlanta early in the game high up the field. The tactics paid off with the Silverbacks on the back foot most of the first 20 minutes.
Neil Hlavaty lines up his penalty kick - Photo's by Jeremy Olson - www.digitalgopher.net
“We certainly wanted to get higher and really take it to them the first 20 minutes to see how they reacted,” said head coach Manny Lagos. The Stars coach had said prior to the game that it was critical for his team to get 3 points from this 3rd match in a four-game stretch of home games. “It’s really a credit to our guys. They really pushed the game and made it a struggle for them to counter and we really set a tone that I don’t think they ever quite caught up.”
The Stars put a couple of fierce shots on net, the first by forward Devon Del Do who started the game paired with Jeff Cosgriff and the second by midfielder Lucas Rodriguez. Both caused Atlanta goalkeeper Felipe Quintero to make outstanding saves that kept the Stars off the scoreboard.
Cosgriff finally had the break through goal in the 17th minute of action for Minnesota. Midfielder Neil Hlavaty stole a ball at midfield and turned up field beating several defenders. Hlavaty got the ball back and put in a cross that found the head of Cosgriff.
Minnesota continued to press and had several more scoring opportunities in the first half but weren’t able to get their shots on frame. The Stars took 7 shots and with only 2 on goal.
Stars midfielder Hlavaty was very active all match got into the action again in the second half, taking a penalty kick in the 57th minute after Ely Allen made took a touch on the ball in the Silverbacks box and was bowled over from behind. Hlavaty placed his kick high and into the upper netting putting Minnesota up 2-0.
“I do practice them a lot,” said Hlavaty in reference to his PK. “I just feel confident that I can step up and take them. There are others that want to take them as well but this time I felt that I was the guy. It was definitely a bit higher than I wanted it to go. I kind of caught the wind. But I got some good power behind it and I made sure he (Quintero) wasn’t going to stop it.”
The Stars’ 3rd goal came in the 66th minute from Lucas Rodriguez with a nice assist by Devin Del Do. The cross came to Rodriquez who was wide open and slotted the ball home.
Moments later Rodriguez had two more golden opportunities neither of which he was not able to convert on. The best chance came in the 69th minute when Rodriquez who had drifted into the center of the field several times from his left outside midfield position saw himself one-on-one with an Atlanta defender. Del Do saw the run from the right side of the field and curled it in front of the defender to Rodriquez who touched it a bit in front of himself. However, with two cuts he was able to elude the defender and Quintero but he sailed his shot high over a wide open net.
Stars keeper Joe Warren was tested several times late in the game. None better then a Raphael Cox shot that Warren tipped into the left post.
Stars midfielder Neil Hlavaty seemed to be everywhere on the field for this match and played a complete game by attacking in the midfield and being relentless defensively. He earned IMS Man of the Match honors. “I’ve been feeling good the last few games with starting all the time, said Hlavaty. “When the chances come I just step up and do it. I’m really not trying to overdue anything this season. I’m trying to do that this year over what I did last year and it’s benefiting me more.”
Right back Justin Davis with one of his many crosses on the night.
Stars coach Lagos also felt Hlavaty was a good recipient of Man of the Match. “I think it’s deserving. Neil did a workmans job. I think for a true soccer fan to see how hard he was working all over the field. He just brought an energy in the middle of the field that we weren’t going to lose the battles there. Even when we were winning he continued to put the work in. It’s nice for me and the fans to see that sort of player on your roster.”
When asked about the pairing up front of Devon Del Do and Jeff Cosgriff, coach Lagos said, “Tino (Nunez) sprained his ankle in the game last week and credit to him that he played through it during the game. I just felt it was important this week to start 11 guys who were 100%. I haven’t done that all year. We really needed guys tonight that were going to press, push, attack and defend and really take it to the Silverbacks. To their credit they did a great job in the first 20 minutes. I was also proud of the guys to continue to attack even though we could have finished better.”
Justin Davis got his first start for the Stars at leftt outside back and made forays up field all game and gave the Silverbacks fits, overloading the left side and unleashing many quality crosses.
“For his debut I thought he was outstanding,” said Lagos of Davis play. “He brought a lot of energy and got forward quite a bit and we worked on that a lot this week. I’m looking forward to having him healthy and continue to play well in that position.”
Davis was subbed out in the 80th minute after injuring his shoulder when he had made a breakaway into the Silverbacks half of the field. The ball was tackled away from Davis and he took a nasty spill falling on his shoulder.
The Stars who took Sunday off will have a quick turnaround as they play the Puerto Rico Islanders at home on Wednesday night at NSC Stadium. The Islanders defeated the Suriname’s Walking Boyz 7-0 on Saturday in a Caribbean Football Union Championship quarterfinal game. Kickoff for the Islanders Stars game is set of 7:30 CT and the weather is predicted to be good.
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Well done, Stars! Let’s start a win-streak.
What was the attendance like at this game? I hope they improved upon their average!
A understandable 963. It was miserable 50° at game time with the winds whipping up really good which they almost always do in Blaine at the NSC Stadium. It had rained all day and stopped about 2 hours before game time. Even I had thoughts of staying at home and watching online. It ended up not being really horrible but I have to say I don’t understand at all putting 4 home games in a row in Minnesota in April/May. That makes absolutely no sense.
While this has been a colder than normal spring this sort of weather is really not so unusual for MN in May. It was nearly 80° with high humidity on Monday and Tuesday this week and then the temp dropped of dramatically during the week. That is very typical of weather in MN in the spring.
There should be more game in the south in the beginning of the season and less games in the south and more in the north in the middle of the season.
I thought Chris Clements played right back and Justin Davis played left back. Both did an outstanding job.
Yes, you are correct in both instances. Even the photo proves it. Mistake on my part. Clements played great as well but the big deal was being made over Davis because it was his debut. I will also caution anyone from getting too excited about all of this as the Silverbacks are clearly the weakest team I’ve seen in the league so far. But it was good to be able to break them down and score some goals. So credit to MN. The score could have easily been 5 or 6-0.
While I don’t disagree that it would be good to play games where there is nicer weather, but I DO think that getting to play southern teams in the colder weather in MN is part of the home-field advantage for the Stars.
That’s fine but tell that to someone who hardly knows who the team is or doesn’t want to take the 20 plus mile trip north to the stadium. It has to be about selling tickets first and foremost or the team will not survive and we won’t have to be worrying about winning and losing games or home field advantages.
Tough weather seems to be happening all over the league this year. What a miserable night sitting outside Lockhart Saturday in the driving wind and rain. Don’t know what kind of number we would have had if the weather had cooperated, but there were sure one heck of a lot of people tailgating outside the stadium before the game while the weather was still decent. 7:00 it just blew in and never let up the rest of the night. But so far Carolina and Minnesota seem to have had the worst luck weatherwise. Hopefully the summer will see that stuff clear up for everyone, and we can see some better numbers all over!
BQ, do you know if the Stars front office has any plans to honor the scarf promotions on a later date? I thought the promotion was a great idea and it was too bad the weather did not cooperate. They’ve already spent the money so why not publicize that the scarves will be honored as originally planned on a home game in June or July? Just curious what you think…thanks!
I have no idea but I doubt it.