NASL Week 6 Recap: Carolina, NSC Minnesota with Big Wins

Three NASL matches were scheduled for Saturday, but unfortunately the Florida derby between FC Tampa Bay and the Fort Lauderdale Strikers had to be delayed, and eventually postponed, because of lightning.  Earlier in the afternoon, the Carolina RailHawks took their show on the road to Montreal and thumped the Impact 2-1 before almost 12,000 fans, while NSC Minnesota came up with its most complete game of the season, downing Atlanta 3-0.  In Caribbean Football Union tournament play, the Islanders advanced after demolishing Walking Boyz of Suriname 7-0 in the second leg of their series.

Montreal Impact 1-2 Carolina RailHawks

Photo courtesy of the Montreal Impact/Pépé

RailHawks forward Etienne Barbara is making the NASL his own personal playground, as his two goals were too much to overcome for the Montreal Impact, as Carolina triumphed 2-1. The goals were the 8th and 9th of the young NASL season for the Maltese star, coming in only seven games. With his 9th goal, Barbara breaks the RailHawks all-time scoring record for most goals in a season, which formerly stood at 8 and was set by Barbara last season.

Carolina raised its record to 5-1-1 and haven’t lost since opening day. Montreal’s Coach Marc Dos Santos, who had gotten their ship sailing in the right direction after a slow start with wins over FC Edmonton and NY Red Bulls, saw his club drop to 1-1-3 after being eliminated by the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Nutrilite Canadian Championship competition.

Barbara made his mark on the match quickly, scoring in the 8th minute on a deflected shot after receiving the ball from midfielder Floyd Franks. Barbara led another charge late in the half, but Nick Zimmerman was unable to convert and the RailHawks went into halftime leading 1-0.

Barbara struck early in 2nd half play, netting in the 51st minute past Montreal goalkeeper Evan Bush from a Jonny Steele pass. Brad Knighton almost had another clean sheet until Montreal’s Idriss Ech Chergui one-timed a ball from Simon Gatti past Knighton with only six minutes left in regulation.  Despite outshooting Carolina 15-8, the Impact went down to defeat and Carolina builds its lead atop the NASL, although the Puerto Rico Islanders now have played three fewer league games than the RailHawks.

Remarkably, Barbara has scored in every 2011 RailHawks match. “Etienne scoring nine goals in seven games is a club record and it is a huge accomplishment,” said RailHawks head coach Martin Rennie. “He’s off to a great start this season, and the team fought very hard today for a big win.”

NSC Minnesota Stars 3-0 Atlanta Silverbacks

Photo by Jeremy Olson - Digitalgopher.net

Any thought that NSC Minnesota might suffer offensively without suspended forward Simone Bracalello, who scored in each of the Stars’ last two matches, was put to rest as Manny Lagos’ Stars played their best game of the season, knocking off the Atlanta Silverbacks 3-0.

After two consecutive draws, NSC Minnesota needed a win and the team responded.  Former AC St. Louis player Jeff Cosgriff put the Stars on the board in the 17th minute.  The tall attacker took advantage of a Neil Hlavaty cross and beat Atlanta keeper Felipe Quintero with a diving header.

Hlavaty put his own name on the scoresheet in the 2nd half, netting a penalty kick drawn by Ely Allen.  His conversion gave the Stars a 2-0 lead in the 57th minute, and Lucas Rodriguez completed the scoring less than 10 minutes later. The 25-year-old native of Buenos Aires earned MISL Rookie of the Year playing for the Missouri Comets over the winter, and his first NASL goal of the year came from Devin Del Do, who squared a ball to Rodriguez near the center of the box.

The Silverbacks weren’t without chances.  After Quintero was called upon to make three quality saves early, Atlanta had some periods of possession and challenged Minnesota goalkeeper Joe Warren in the second half on chances by Willie Hunt and Emsad Zahirovic and Raphael Cox who hit the post just before game’s end after the Stars ‘keeper tipped the shot right. Warren was sharp as usual and earned his first clean sheet of the 2011 season. Atlanta tallied 6 corner kicks and 10 shots, but only forced two saves from Warren while the Stars had 18 shots, six of which were on frame.

Stars’ Coach Manny Lagos was happy with the result. “We put pressure on ourselves this week to play well, and the guys responded well, and they put in a great effort to not only get a win, but to get a deserved win and see it through to a shutout,” Lagos said. He added that “It wasn’t just important to get an early goal, but to get the first goal and to get it at home. It was important psychologically to make the most of an early chance, and you have to give credit to these guys for continuing to push and for asserting themselves and creating a second goal.”

The win boosts NSC Minnesota to fourth place in the NASL table, while Atlanta still seeks their first 2011 win. The only negative for the Stars was the size of the crowd on a cold and windy night in Blaine, where only 963 showed up to see the best Stars’ performance of the new season.

Fort Lauderdale Strikers – FC Tampa Bay (postponed)

Despite a ticket pre-sale that exceeded Fort Lauderdale’s opening day crowd of over 6,400, Mother Nature wasn’t in a cooperative mood, and the much-anticipated Florida derby Saturday night had to be postponed. A lightning storm delayed kickoff for several hours before the match was finally called off due to playing conditions. A re-scheduled date for the big matchup has not been fixed as of yet according to a league official. Many fans of FC Tampa Bay made the trek south to see their club take on the Strikers.

“We are obviously disappointed that we couldn’t play tonight but we can’t control mother nature,” said President Tim Robbie. “We’re looking forward to playing Tampa at a later date with the kind of crowd that was ready to turn out tonight. We appreciate our fans who braved the elements and we know they’ll be back for the rescheduled contest.”

CFU:  Puerto Rico Islanders 7-0 Walking Boyz

The Puerto Rico Islanders, undefeated in 2011 NASL play, strutted their stuff at Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium Saturday, whipping up on Suriname’s Walking Boyz club in a 7-0 second leg win, which advances the Islanders to the CFU club championship semifinals.  The teams played to a 1-1 stalemate last week in Suriname.

Islanders’ co-captain Noah Delgado got his team off to a fast start Saturday, notching two goals before the game was seven minutes old. Colin Clarke’s La Tropa Naranja didn’t ease up on the gas pedal, as Aaron Pitchkolan, Englishman David Foley and rookie Matthew Bouraee all added goals before the 1st half ended. The Islanders continued their dominance in the 2nd half, as Dominican Jonathan Faña scored his fifth 2011 goal in all competitions.  Joe Salem put the capper on the rout with a PK goal.

The semifinals and finals of the CFU Club Championship will be played in Guyana on May 25th and 27th, with the Islanders looking to again take the title.

In other Islanders’ news, rookie Steven Beattie recently underwent surgery for the debilitating knee injury he suffered just 20 minutes into his first Islanders practice of the season.  Our thoughts are with the young Irishman, who led the University of Northern Kentucky to the NSCAA Division II title last season and was twice named NSCAA Division II National Player of the Year.  According to his Twitter report,  Beattie’s May 13th ACL surgery went well with no complications.

NASL News

The NSC Minnesota Stars will host the Islanders Wednesday night, hoping to hand Puerto Rico its first 2011 defeat.  On Saturday,  the Islanders continue their road trip in Cary, North Carolina in a big showdown between the NASL’s top two teams.  Also on Saturday, FC Tampa Bay will host the up and down Montreal Impact while the Fort Lauderdale Strikers travel to Atlanta as the Silverbacks try to get on the good foot with their first 2011 win.

Despite the Silverbacks struggles, their reserve side got a result in their first NPSL match of the season, drawing with Chattanooga FC 1-1 Friday evening at Silverbacks Stadium. Twenty four hours later, the Silverbacks reserves got their first 2011 NPSL victory by downing Jacksonville United 3-1 on second half goals by Kevin Rodriguez, Juan Arbelaez and Nick Burton.  The four points over the weekend leave the Silverbacks U-23 tied for first in the NPSL Southeast Division.  For more on the Silverbacks’ U-23, click here.