NASL Week 18 Recap: Road Warriors Roll

All eight NASL teams were in action Saturday night.  The two Florida franchises had big nights, as the Fort Lauderdale Strikers pinned a rare loss on the Carolina RailHawks at Lockhart Stadium while FC Tampa Bay won 4-0 in Atlanta over the Silverbacks. Saturday’s other two matches were also won by the visiting team, as the NSC Minnesota Stars hung another loss on the Montreal Impact at Saputo Stadium and the Puerto Rico Islanders rebounded from their CONCACAF Champions League elimination by eking out a 1-0 victory in Edmonton.

Fort Lauderdale Strikers 2-1 Carolina RailHawks

The Fort Lauderdale Strikers handed the RailHawks only their second loss in nineteen 2011 NASL matches Saturday before a Lockhart Stadium crowd of over 3,100, and did so in a dramatic style that sent Striker Likers home happy.  The club’s second win in a row, coming after their emotional meltdown in Puerto Rico July 20 in a 3-1 loss raises the Strikers’ record to 5-9-5.  More importantly, with only nine regular season games remaining, the Strikers have raised their lead for the last playoff spot to nine points over Montreal and twelve over eighth place Atlanta, significantly increasing their odds of being in the postseason.

Striker newcomer Walter Restrepo opened the night’s scoring in the 38th minute.  The veteran of Colombian football rifled a golazzo into the Carolina net.  But Carolina equalized in the second half as defender John Krause stretched to direct a loose ball into the Fort Lauderdale net in the 72nd minute, only minutes after Strikers forward Abe Thompson was ejected for his second yellow card of the match.

Hopes for a home win and all three points diminished with the Carolina goal and a man disadvantage, but Martin Nunez had other ideas.  As the game was in its closing moments, a long ball into the Carolina box came to Nunez, who fired home to beat Brad Knighton and leave Strikers fans in awe.

“I think this game says we’re going to be a team to be reckoned with,” said Shore. “We had a two game homestand, and we had to have six points. It helps with our confidence to go out and get results on the road.”  With their upgrade in form, the Strikers are becoming a team to reckon with.  Martin Rennie’s RailHawks remain comfortably atop the league standings following the loss with a 14-2-3 record, twelve points ahead of second-place Puerto Rico.

Atlanta Silverbacks 0-4 FC Tampa Bay

Florida’s other NASL club look to be gaining the form fans expected also.  FC Tampa Bay went to Atlanta and drilled their hosts 4-0 for their second win in a row. Former Portland Timber Keith Savage was the hero for Tampa, scoring twice.

Atlanta has been playing better the last weeks, but their young attackers couldn’t get past rookie goalkeeper Evan Newton, the Tampa Bay goalkeeper on loan from the Houston Dynamo.  Newton recorded a clean sheet in his first NASL start Saturday night.

Savage got the ball rolling for FC Tampa Bay in the 28th minute, assisted by Mike Ambersley.  St. Louisan Ambersley scored his 9th goal of the season five minutes later, on a play started by Pascal Millien and continued by July NASL Player of the Month Aaron King, who recorded his third assist of the season.

Carrying a 2-0 lead into halftime, Savage put the game out of reach in front of the 3,100 Atlanta partisans at the hour mark, upping the margin to 3-0 and again being assisted by Ambersley.  Rookie forward Matt Clare, born in Fort Lauderdale and the son of former 1970s Striker John Clare, ended the scoring with his first goal of the season in the 82nd minute for FC Tampa Bay’s biggest win in their history.

“The focus of our players has been tremendous,” said Tampa coach Ricky Hill. “After the loss in Atlanta last month, we bounced back with the win against FC Edmonton. The guys are really hungry and are determined to not concede goals. I am impressed with the attitude of the entire team, and all of the members of the squad played a part tonight.”  Meanwhile, Atlanta, outshot 15-7 on the night, will need to regroup and regain the form they’ve shown the last weeks to have any hopes of a playoff berth.

Montreal Impact 1-3 NSC Minnesota Stars

NSC Minnesota Stars forward Simone Bracalello broke open a deadlocked match with two second half goals to give the Stars a 3-1 win at Saputo Stadium Saturday.  The win kept the Stars in third place in the NASL standings, a point ahead of FC Tampa Bay and four behind Puerto Rico.

The first goal of the game came on a penalty kick, awarded to the Stars after a David Testo foul on Devin Del Do. Neil Hlavaty stepped up and coolly struck as Montreal keeper Evan Bush dived in the opposite direction.  But the Impact came back quickly, as newcomer
Ian Westlake notched his first NASL goal five minutes later with the help of Ali Gerba and Anthony Le Gall. Montreal, which had won its first game in months last time out against Puerto Rico, played well early and looked primed to get another result.

But Bracalello played game changer.  Montreal lost a chance to take the lead near the hour mark, when what looked like a goal by Ali Gerba was nullified by an offside call.  And although Bush made several key saves, including an impressive stop of a free kick to deny the Stars, he had no answer for Bracalello.  The Italian forward’s first goal came at the 75th minute, as he made an elusive run down the left and slipped a perfectly weighted ball off the outside of his right boot that tucked inside the far post to give NSC Minnesota the lead. And then in stoppage time he took advantage of a high bounce on a long ball and slipped past Montreal defender Cameron Knowles to strike again and dash the hopes of over 12,000 Montreal fans in attendance.  After going through a scoring drought, Bracalello now leads the Stars with six goals, and more importantly, led the club to an all-important three points. Montreal’s 2011 record now drops to a dismal 3-10-6.

FC Edmonton 0-1 Puerto Rico Islanders

The road-weary Puerto Rico Islanders eked out a 1-0 win late in their match against the Eddies before 1,400 fans at Foote Field.  The loss extended FC Edmonton’s losing streak to five games, although the Eddies played well enough to have earned a point.

There wasn’t a great deal of offense in the match in which both teams totaled only ten shots. Islanders’ goalkeeper Ray Burse, though, did earn his clean sheet, denying a point blank header by Edmonton defender Paul Hamilton at the end of the first half to keep the game scoreless.

Unfortunately for Edmonton, though, the Islanders were able to take away all three points late in the game. Veteran MLS and D2 defender Aaron Pitchkolan was the hero for La Tropa Naranja, rocketing a shot in the game’s dying moments past Edmonton keeper Rein Baart.  It’s that ‘never say die’ attitude that keeps Colin Clarke’s Islanders an elite club in D2, as they took the game from a young Eddies’ side that looked the better team in the second half, after the Islanders had come out strong in the first.

NASL News

There are three midweek matches on the NASL calendar for the upcoming week. On Wednesday evening, the Montreal Impact host FC Tampa Bay, while that same night the Puerto Rico Islanders host the Atlanta Silverbacks and the Fort Lauderdale Strikers head up north to take on NSC Minnesota.  On the weekend, there are two Saturday matches and another two on Sunday.  Saturday, FC Tampa Bay are at home against NSC Minnesota while the Islanders play host to the Carolina RailHawks. On Sunday, FC Edmonton are at home against the Strikers while Montreal look for a home win against the Silverbacks.

There has been a flurry of personnel acquisitions by NASL clubs recently. The Atlanta Silverbacks signed American midfielder Nico Colaluca, 25, earlier this week.  The Rhode Island native most recently played in the Swedish second division for Norrby IF, where he played in 10 matches, scoring twice.  The 5’9″ former University of Virgina Cavalier played for the Colorado Rapids and New England Revolution between 2007-2010, making 11 MLS appearances.

On another positive note for the Silverbacks, their midfielder Fernando Gonzalez has been called up to the Puerto Rican national team. Gonzalez, 22, started in the Silverbacks’ first four games before being sidelined by a foot injury. The Tampa native, who played college ball at the University of South Florida, will begin camp with the Puerto Rican squad on August 28 as they prepare for World Cup qualifiers against St. Kitts and Nevis and Canada. Congratulations to the young player on the callup.

FC Edmonton have added goalkeeper David Monsalve, 23, to their club. With injuries to backups Lance Parker and Jaswinder Gill, and with current backup  Justin Ammar returning to NAIT, the Eddies were in need of help behind regular keeper Rein Baart. The young Canadian keeper boasts an impressive background, with one senior Canadian cap and 20 playing for Canadian national youth sides.  Monsalve played a match for Toronto FC in 2007 and has made 14 appearances for the Finnish Inter Turku side in the last few seasons.  He started and played the whole match in October, 2009 when Inter Turku won the Finnish Cup.

The Montreal Impact added help with the addition of NY Red Bulls midfielder  Sinisa Ubiparipovic.  The 25-year-old Bosnian played almost 70 matches in the MLS.  His family arrived in the U.S. in 1999, and he attended the University of Illinois-Chicago and University of Akron before being drafted by N.Y. in third round of the 2007 MLS SuperDraft.

“Sinisa is a creative midfielder who can provoke the opposing defense and make the decisive pass,” said Impact sporting director Nick De Santis. “He did well at training over the last few days. He’s a player with great qualities that will help us at midfield. He already knows several players so I don’t think he will have trouble fitting in the team.”

Finally, the Puerto Rico Islanders made an uncharacteristic early exit from the CONCACAF Champions League Wednesday despite beating Isidro Metapan 3-1 in the series 2nd leg.  The Salvadorans won the opening leg, 2-0, and advanced by virtue of their away goal.  Down 1-0 near the hour mark of the second leg, David Foley converted two penalty kicks to give the Islanders a chance, and Nicolas Addlery pulled a third goal back at the end of stoppage time, but the Salvadoran’s away goal was enough to eliminate the Islanders.

Islanders’ coach Colin Clarke remarked after the match that it was a “great effort by the players. I’m very proud of the team. We made it difficult for ourselves in El Salvador. A lot of things could’ve gone differently for us but the guys kept pushing forward.”