NASL Midweek Action: Tampa Bay Tops Edmonton, Puerto Rico Drop Champions League Opener

Aaron King

Wednesday evening at Al Lang Stadium, FC Tampa Bay ended its season series with FC Edmonton, topping the Canadian side 3-1.  The win gave FC Tampa Bay the advantage in the 2011 season with the expansion upstarts, with FC Tampa Bay winning twice, losing once and drawing once.  Also on Wednesday, in CONCACAF Champions League preliminary round action, the Puerto Rico Islanders got off on the wrong foot, losing their first leg match with Isidro Metapan in El Salvador 2-0.

FC Tampa Bay 3-1 FC Edmonton

The FC Tampa Bay players welcomed back Coach Ricky Hill with a strong performance Wednesday night in front of 2,000 fans. Hill returned to the sidelines after missing two matches resulting from the death of his mother-in -law.  “It was fantastic for us to get the three points tonight,” said head coach Ricky Hill. “The players worked hard tonight and took care of business.”

Forward Aaron King was the first to take care of business, knocking in a 6th minute goal to put FC Tampa Bay up top early. King has regained the form he demonstrated last season in leading the club in goals, and has now scored in five consecutive matches.  But FC Edmonton were equal to the task, as forward Alex Semenets scored from a rebound just prior the half hour mark. Semenets was born in Kiev, but has represented Canada at the U-17 and U-20 levels and spent time in the Vancouver Whitecaps Residency program. 

The match remained drawn until the 60th minute, when Coach Hill’s son, 23-year-old midfielder Shane Hill, scored the game-winner.  Hill’s first goal of the season came from a rebound. After the match, Coach Hill told Bryan Burns of the St. Petersburg Times, “I guess, in his mind, he’s thinking that one’s for Grandma and he wishes her a safe journey wherever she ends up. I think for him that (goal) would be more of a tribute to her than it would be for himself, because that’s the type of person he is.”

FC Tampa Bay midfielder Pascal Millien completed the game’s scoring with six minutes remaining in the match, as he scored his third goal of the season from a fine assist from Mike Ambersley. The Eddies have been on a bit of a slump lately and now have lost three in a row as they dropped to the .500 mark with a 7-4-7 mark.  As Semenets remarked after the match, though, there’s “no need to panic. We have a lot of games left.”

The match was full of action, as the teams totaled twenty shots on goal, with FC Tampa Bay goalkeeper Jeff Attinella called upon to make seven saves, while Rein Baart of the Eddies made eight. FC Tampa Bay are now also at the break-even point with a 6-6-6 record good for 24 points, only one point behind the Eddies. FC Tampa Bay now has ten days off before their next match in Atlanta, and ended a productive July on a high note. FC Edmonton play again Saturday in Fort Lauderdale.

Isidro Metapan 2-0 Puerto Rico Islanders

The tournament-savvy Puerto Rico Islanders started their 2011-2012 CONCACAF Champions League competition on the wrong foot Wednesday night in El Salvador, losing 2-0 to Isidro Metapan.  The Salvadoran side is making its third appearance in the competition, but Wednesday’s victory was only its second in CL play, the other being a 3-2 win over the Houston Dynamo two years ago.

Goalkeeper Ray Burse kept Metapan scoreless in the first half as he made an athletic save on Metapan’s Christian Bautista’s shot, while the goalpost was Burse’s friend two minutes later as the upright denied Alfredo Pacheco’s long-distance free kick in the 23rd minute.

Metapan broke through in front of its home fans, though, in the 65th minute. Edwin Sanchez scored during a goal-mouth scramble when teammate Allan Dos Santos knocked the ball free and Sanchez converted the opportunity. Later the two reversed roles, as Dos Santos added the insurance goal from a Sanchez cross.

Wednesday’s game was the first of six that Colin Clarke’s Islanders will play over the next 18 days.  The Islanders play Sunday afternoon in Montreal before heading home for the second leg of the play-in with Metapan. The squad will have to overcome not only a 2-0 deficit, but travel fatigue and will now need a superior effort to eliminate the Salvadoran side and advance into the CONCACAF Champions League group stage.