NASL Week 12 Recap: Carolina Unbeatable, Edmonton Revenge
Week 12 of the NASL season saw Carolina extend its unbeaten streak to an incredible 12 games by punishing the Atlanta Silverbacks, while FC Edmonton grabbed a firmer hold on 2nd place behind Carolina with a win over their bogey team, Montreal, at Foote Field. In Fort Lauderdale, the Strikers kept their unbeaten streak alive with a comeback draw with the Puerto Rico Islanders.
Atlanta Silverbacks 1-5 Carolina RailHawks
Carolina has now not only not lost since Opening Day, but now have won their last nine matches. What can one say about a team that has built an 11-point lead over 2nd place Edmonton, while now boasting a +20 goal differential in only 13 games. Incredible? Stupendous? Unbeatable seems accurate, too.
Last-place Atlanta actually opened the scoring at Silverbacks Park Saturday. In front of over 2,300 fans, Matt Horth netted for the second time this season, assisted by Atlanta newcomer Connor Chinn in the 10th minute, who made his first Atlanta start. But in another ten minutes, the RailHawks engine began to pick up steam and and eventually added five unanswered goals in the rout.
Etienne Barbara was the first to find the net for Carolina, as he took a long ball from Matt Watson and used his skills to keep the play alive and fire a left-footed shot past Jimmy Maurer to even the score. The goal was the 14th of the season for the untouchable Mr. Barbara. Just before the half hour mark, Nick Zimmerman gave Carolina the lead they wouldn’t surrender . His long-distance beauty scorched the net with Floyd Franks assisting. At the 36th minute, former Puerto Rico Islander Chris Nurse opened his RailHawks’ account, giving the club a 3-1 lead over Atlanta. Credit Jonny Steele with the assist.
The second half saw more of the Carolina onslaught. A few minutes past the hour mark, Zimmermann scored again, assisted by Nurse, while the RailHawks final tally came from captain Brad Rusin, as substitute forward Allan Russell turned provider with only a few minutes remaining in the match.
“ It’s another great win for us. That’s nine a row,” said RailHawks coach Martin Rennie. “We’re disappointed we lost the first goal. We were playing well at the time and could have defended better, but it came against the run of play. We kept our composure and the team fought back as it’s done all season. It keeps us on a roll, and now we’ll get focused on what we have to do get to 10.”
Rennie also stated that “To score five on the road is a hard thing to do.” Apparently not for Carolina.
FC Edmonton 1-0 Montreal Impact
FC Edmonton made two steps forward in their shutout win over Montreal Saturday night. They now built a five point lead over the idle NSC Minnesota Stars for the second spot in the NASL standings, but also dispatched what looked to be their bogey team. Montreal had beaten their Canadian rivals by an aggregate of 7-0 in their first two meetings this season.
The game’s only goal came in the 5th minute, as the Eddies’ Kyle Porter struck a long distance shot that beat Montreal goalkeeper Evan Bush. The goal was Porter’s fifth of the season. The 21 year-old Toronto native continues to demonstrate that he is the real deal, as he narrowly missed adding two more goals in the half from a ball that was cleared off of the goalline and another shot that his the crossbar. He has represented Canada at the U-17 and U-20 levels, and if he continues to show that he can score consistently he’ll hopefully receive consideration for a spot on the Canadian senior roster.
Bush did his part to keep the score close, stopping a Chris Kooy penalty kick in the first half, but the Impact could only muster two shots on goal during the match. His Edmonton counterpart, Rein Baart, earned his fourth clean sheet of the season by stopping shots by Anthony Le Gall and Antonio Ribeiro. In the 82nd minute, Montreal missed the chance to equalize when NASL debutante Wandrille Lefevre missed on a header by inches.
Another big home win for the expansion Eddies n front of 2,306 fans. Coach Harry Sinkgraven’s side now have a win against every NASL opponent save Carolina, and they got their victory without sensational rookie midfielder Shaun Saiko, who was our with a redcard suspension. For Montreal and Coach Marc Dos Santos, “We are currently going through a rough time, but we must continue to fight,” said Dos Santos. “Nobody must doubt it. Again, we will need to win our home games, starting with the three points against Puerto Rico on Wednesday.” The Impact are now a sorry 2-3-7 for only nine points in 2011.
Fort Lauderdale Strikers 1-1 Puerto Rico Islanders
Fort Lauderdale have now picked up points in six consecutive matches as they came from behind to draw with the Puerto Rico Islanders Saturday in front of over 3,600 Strikers Likers. The draw at 3-7-2, good for fifth place in the standings, two points behind Puerto Rico, who now are 5-3-4.
Despite a total of 25 shots in the game, neither club could get on the scoreboard until the 65th minute. Paulinho Le Petit had a good first half chance for the Strikers just miss, while goalkeeper Matt Glaeser was able to stop a fine opportunity from the Islanders’ Matt Bouraee. It was up to Jonathan Fana, though, to give the Islanders the lead, as he tallied his seventh goal of 2011 from a Logan Emory free kick.
But the Strikers substitute Martin Nunez was the Lockhart Stadium hero ten minutes later. Eduardo Coudet passed to Cristian Arrieta, and he teed up a cross to Nunez, who headed past Ray Burse for his second goal of the year. A late chance by the Strikers’ Brian Shriver went for naught as his volleyed shot hit the crossbar and the game ended 1-1.
Fana is having a fabulous season for Colin Clarke’s Islanders side. The Dominican has certainly proven that he is one of the elite scorers in the NASL.
Meanwhile, Strikers’ Coach Daryl Shore wasn’t going to badmouth earning a draw.”We’re fortunate to salvage a point out of this,” said head coach Daryl Shore, “we’ve said time and time again that we’re a team that won’t quit and that we won’t give up. We’re pleased how we pushed and earned the point.”
NASL News
There will be a flurry of NASL action as the season heads to its halfway point with the upcoming 4th of July holiday. On Wednesday June 29, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers will host the rested FC Tampa Bay side in the first 2011 Florida derby (the earlier scheduled first meeting was postponed because of harsh weather). Also that night, the Montreal Impact will host the Puerto Rico Islanders and try to get a win before the usual Saputo Stadium crowd.
On Sunday, the Impact will again be in action in Cary, North Carolina as they attempt to best the high-flying RailHawks. There isn’t much love between these two clubs after last season’s contentious playoff series. On Monday, July 4, the site of the Florida derby moves to Al Lang Field in Tampa as the tow clubs square off for the second time in four days while Atlanta will be looking for a result against the Islanders at Silverbacks Park. NSC Minnesota will return to action at home on the 4th against FC Edmonton, looking to make up ground on the Eddies as the two teams jockey for 2nd place behind Carolina.
In other news, two clubs picked up defenders last week. The Silverbacks acquired 6’3” central defender Cristian Quinones on loan from the Strikers, while FC Edmonton picked up right back Jeffrey Quijano. Quinones, 19,,hails from Colombia and has been associated with with 1st division Colombian clubs Independiente Santa Fe, Deportivo Cali, Independiente Medillin and Once Caldas. Quijano is a 23 year-old Californian who played his college ball at the University of Michigan and impressed FC Edmnoton in the preseason. According to a story by Steven Sandor on The 11 Canadian’s Online Soccer Magazine, the Eddies are also going to add a veteran midfielder from the Netherlands soon.
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