Minnesota Stars and FC Edmonton Play to Another Close Game
NSC Minnesota 1-1 FC Edmonton
For the second time in three meetings this season, the NSC Minnesota Stars tied FC Edmonton. It was fitting that the two teams, who had been battling for 2nd place in the NASL standings for a good share of the season, saw the identical scoreline on June 18th, Edmonton’s last visit to Minnesota.
Minnesota had the much better possession in the first half but that didn’t equate to goals or quality shots on goal. In typical Edmonton style, the Canadian side seemed content to weather the storm and counter attack mainly running down the right flank and testing Cristiano, who is normally a center back but was pushed to the outside for this game. Jack Stewart and Kyle Altman made up the other two backs in a 3-5-2 that saw usual right back Justin Davis joining the back line in their defensive shape and pushing hard up field when in the attack.
At the end of the half Minnesota had outshot the Eddies 7-3, but not one of those 7 shots tested Edmonton’s keeper Rein Baart. All three of FC Edmonton’s shots forced Stars keeper Joe Warren into big saves.
Photo by Jeremy Olson - www.digitalgopher.net
After receiving only their 2nd corner of the game, Edmonton sent a cross into Stars ‘keeper Joe Warren who punched the ball clear but not out of trouble. The ball sailed out to Alex Surprenant who took a quick touch and attempted to fire a ball through the crowd in front of goal. The ball took a deflection and jumped over the players, including a helpless Warren and into the far side of the net. It was Surprenant’s 2nd goal of the season and put the Eddies up 1-0 in the 63rd.
“It just took a late deflection and I was already on my way to make the save, and suddenly it was on the opposite side of the net,” said Warren. “What are you going to do?”
The rest of the second half saw an energized Edmonton. In fact both teams saw an increase of activity around goal with Minnesota cranking off 9 shots, 4 on goal, and Edmonton 10 shots, 4 on goal.
In the 85th minute Minnesota was finally rewarded for their 16 shots taken. Tino Nunez, who had subbed for Simone Bracalello, fired low and hard. Bart knocked the shot away but it caromed out to Devin Del Do who struck another hard and low shot to the right and this time past Baart. The ball clearly went into the goal but oddly found a hole in the back of the net and continued on out the other side. The Edmonton players put up protests claiming the ball never made it into the goal. But the celebrating Stars players and head official pointing to the center spot told a different story.
Both keepers made outstanding stops in the contest but none better than 2 outstanding saves made by Warren just minutes after Minnesota’s goal. Warren was named IMSoccer News Man of the Match for his 7 saves.
The draw leaves the Stars in 4th place. All teams have now completed half their season and have played 14 games. Minnesota is 4-7-3 with 19 points. Three of the 4 Stars wins have come against hapless Atlanta who have only 1 win and 2 ties all season. Edmonton on the other hand have gone 5 pts. clear of the Stars and remain in second place with 24 pts. with a 7-3-4 record. The Puerto Rico Islanders won in a topsy-turvy game on Monday evening that saw 7 goals scored. The most important goal was a 90th minute winner for the Islanders over Atlanta, which helped them move past Minnesota and into 3rd place with 22 pts.
Game Notes:
~Kentaro Takada was in the starting lineup for the first time in over 2 months after a knee injury. The Japanese midfielder went the distance for the Stars and looked very solid for a player who had missed that much action. In typical ‘Taka’ form, he was a calm presence in the midfield, protected the ball to keep possession and played simply. Overall a good outing for Takada.
~In the 62nd minute, Stars coach Manny Lagos brought in Tino Nunez for Simone Bracalello, who seems to have been struggling recently. Bracalello, who has 4 goals on the season and started the year brightly, last scored on May 23rd. He came close numerous times in late May and through June but never was able to find the back of the net. Bracalello seemed to struggle to hook up with his teammates on Monday evening.
~The Stars seemed to have lost some of their creativity and movement around the goal that saw them scoring goals early in the season. Minnesota is now in 5th place for goals scored with 17 trailing Carolina with 33, Puerto Rico with 22, Ft. Lauderdale with 19 and Edmonton at 18.
~On the other end of the field, Minnesota is tied for second fewest goals given up with 2 other teams, Montreal and Edmonton, who all have given up 15 goals. Carolina, in first place, has only given up 11.
~The NASL debuted their new game ball last night at all three league games in Atlanta, GA, St. Petersburg, FL, and Blaine, MN. The ball, which is made by Joma, looks very much like the old NASL balls from the 70s but uses the new NASL logo and star. It definitely added a touch of professionalism to the game.
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Hopefully the team gets a video of the goal up soon. To be honest, most of the people seated around me thought it went wide, and then all of a sudden 5 Stars players are rowing
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Good match, the Stars were robbed of a clear PK a few minutes before. Someday there will be decent officiating in the NASL…
First there would have to be good officiating at the MLS level and we haven’t achieved that yet.
I was fooled by the Stars goal… I think that you need to blame the officiating for not looking at the nets properly before the game.
I don’t believe that a PK should have been called on the play you are referencing. The Stars forward ruined the play himself by taking an extra touch and giving himself a poor angle for a shot before getting nudged off the ball.
The Stars should have won 3 or 4 to 1 last night, they had quite a few opportunities to put the game away early. Beautiful night for a game to say the least.
Yeah, I SWEAR I saw the shot pass on the other side of the post. Very confusing. Was there a hole in the net?
From the east stands, there was no confusion at all; the celebration started right away.
Heh, Game, Set, Match BQ
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Well, here’s the video. I’ve stopped it along the way and it really looks like it goes wide but if you watch the reaction to the players, including Edmonton, it clearly made it into the net. Very strange!
I would love to see the footage form Brave New Media who you can see shooting at the end line.
http://youtu.be/_c9b0MzrkDU
I’ll take a Stars goal any way I can have it.
In the net, through the net, even over the net if the Ref is accommodating.
Wow. From that angle, the nets didn’t ripple at all. Has anyone checked the net for holes? Weird.
Agreed, but watch the net after the ball sails through/by. You will see the bottom 1/3rd of the net move/wave.
Could they change the mesh, or spray it a neon colour?
The Stars should have taken all three points last night. The Edmonton goal is completely Warrens fault, he has to get a better punch off in that situation (low and to the middle of the field???).
Nice to see Del Do score considering he should have scored at least two with his head earlier in the game.
“Good match, the Stars were robbed of a clear PK a few minutes before. ” — The Minnesota forward took an extra touch and put himself in a crappy position to shoot when he was nudged off the ball. He had two touches where he could have shot the ball but blew it big time.
All-in-all a nice night for soccer.
By the way, any reason for the IP address ban?
Email me and I will explain what I think happened. Oh wait, you’d never do that would you!?!
“The Stars should have won 3 or 4 to 1 last night…” The same could be said about Edmonton if not for the quality saves by Joe Warren on the header by Antoniuk, close shot by Porter and tipping Surprenant’s chip over the bar.
Ya, thought the same thing CL.
OK, here’s the Brave New Media camera shot. They were really moving around on the goal but if you stop/start you will see the ball fly into the corner of the goal and just keep going. Very strange. There must have been a fairly large size hole in that net. Refs missed it and the NSC need to fix it. Not cool at all for a pro soccer team.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW22tWFQtQE
Awesome! Thanks Brian for digging that up, the mystery of that play had been nagging at me all weekend. In the past I remember seeing linesmaen checking the nets before the game and at halftime, but I don’t recall seeing that on the 4th.
The officials did walk the field and check the nets before the game.
Honestly, I think this was just a fluke occurance. No one is at fault/responsible for this.
“The same could be said about Edmonton if not for the quality saves by Joe Warren on the header by Antoniuk, close shot by Porter and tipping Surprenant’s chip over the bar.”
Edmonton was woeful with their opportunities shooting them right at Warren. But, you can credit them for hitting the net the majority of the time with their chances. Porter’s shot was poor. Try and beat Joe Warren, the largest man in the midwest, at his near post from 4 yards away. The Stars had two quality sequences that resulted in shots on frame. 1) The Edmonton keeper made a great save out of the top corner on a header. 2) The Edmonton keeper gave up a massive rebound on a Nunez shot for the Stars goal.
The refs walked the field and checked nets after halftime, too. Total fluke.
Ah, just as I thought Michigan Mike, you chose not to respond via email.
Why e-mail you? Seems like a big time waster creating a fake e-mail address just to say hi.