Minnesota Stars Earn Point in Edmonton
The Minnesota Stars gained their first point in a month with a 1-1 draw with FC Edmonton.
Edmonton’s Bryan Arguez closes on the Stars’ Lucas Rodriguez. Photo by Joel Belizario.
Despite decent play from both Edmonton and Minnesota, Saturday night’s match was determined by defensive miscues rather than brilliant offensive play. The Minnesota Stars were in Edmonton on Saturday night playing the Eddies for only the second time this season. Minnesota was just two minutes away from getting their first win in almost a month with a 1-0 lead. It was July 12 the last time the Stars were able to add points to the NASL standings table. Since that time Minnesota had gone 0-3-0. Now the Stars are 0-3-1 after giving up an own goal in the 89th minute of Saturday night’s contest.
After a first half that saw Edmonton with the bulk of possession with 9 shots forcing 6 saves from Stars goalkeeper Matt VanOekel, it was Minnesota that got on the board just before the break. The Stars defense played a long ball forward to the right side of the field. Edmonton’s Jonathan Joseph-Augustin misplayed the bounce and the speedy Martin Nunez took advantage of the mistake, swiping the ball and speeding around the big defender. Nunez still had much work to do as he headed towards goal with the Eddies keeper Lance Parker coming out. But even with two defenders in pursuit, Nunez calmly shot around Parker to put Minnesota up 1-0 in the 44th minute.
At halftime Eddies coach Harry Sinkgraven said he was happy with his team’s play except for the mistake and they would just have to do more of it in the second half. But Minnesota had other intentions as they created better scoring opportunities in the half.
Perhaps the best of those scoring opportunities came in the 57th minute when Simone Bracalello was fed a ball through that put him alone on goal. But the Minnesota forward took too long on the set up and found his shot deflecting off the foot of new Edmonton defender David Proctor. The former Scottish association football player made an outstanding recovery run and timed his lunging tackle perfectly.
Minnesota looked to have finished the game off cleanly with a 3 to 1 shot advantage and VanOekel not having to make a save in the 2nd half. But that all fell apart in the 88th minute when Bryan Arguez played in Michael Cox behind a trailing Ernest Tchoupe. Cox blasted low but VanOekel came up huge making a brilliant drop save. However, the rebound caromed out to a trailing Tchoupe who accidentally kicked the ball into his own goal off his shin.
With both teams trying to earn all three points there was a nasty incident late in the game. A bad collision occurred when Edmonton’s Paul Hamilton came running in late to head a ball away from Geison Moura who clearly had position and was already in the air. Moura headed the ball and Hamilton slammed heads with the Stars midfielder. Both players were down for a considerable amount of time before Moura was stretchered off and Hamilton was shown a straight red for dangerous play.
The game ended in a 1-1 deadlock and the point helped Minnesota to move back into 4th place, tied with Strikers at 27 points and a game in hand.
The Stars return home next Saturday after their 3 game road trip. They will face the San Antonio Scorpions who visit NSC Stadium for the first time. The first place Scorpions will coming off a midweek match played in Edmonton on Wednesday night.
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Hamilton is a reckless soccer player and it is only a matter of time before he ends someones career. It is great to see a player work hard and be aggressive. However, his challenge against Geison last night has no place in soccer. I was further appauled that the Edmonton commentators to some extent questioned the wisdom of the referee in showing Hamilton a straight red. Where you watch it in slow motion or real time, it was a dimb challenge and deserves more than a one match suspension. This is a great opportunity for the NASL to show it is serious when it comes to player safety.
@ Soccer Boy.
Most of what you said makes sense, except the first sentence. Over exaggeration to the point of being ridiculous. “Hammy” rarely steps out of line, and I have yet to see him create a dangerous scenerio until now. I don’t care if you are mad, don’t say stupid things to tarnish a player’s career.
@ Daniel Blodgett,
Except in this case, “Hammy” did step out of line, and by your own admission, you admit that he created a dangerous scenario. I would not call @soccerboy’s comments stupid and they certainly don’t tarnish a player’s career, when even the ref acknowledged the dangerous play through a red card.
@soccerboy has every right as a fan to be mad at “Hammy”. Plays like that do damage a player’s career, and in some cases, permanently.
Weighting in I do think that Hamilton is one of the better defenders in the league. He can be physical but I would not call him reckless.
Gareth Hampshire is one of the best if not the best announcer in the league. But he was wrong on this one and I think Steven Sandor also realized it was a dangerous play. He was correct that these things happen way faster than when we watch them on replay in slow motion, but he was very late to the party on this play and as Bart said, could have very seriously hurt Moura. In fact I haven’t heard the extent of the injury to the Brazilian. The red card was fully warranted and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him get an additional suspension. You just can’t be doing that sort of stuff that as Bart said, can end a players career.
Yesterdays games were very entertaining. This has been a very fun year in the NASL. Hopefully The Scorpions can win tonight and gain a bigger lead in the league.
PS
RIP Kirk
Hamilton’s play as NOT dangerous plan (that is an indirect free kick).
That was VIOLENT CONDUCT. (red card).
From the MN Stars Facebook page: In his collision with Edmonton’s Paul Hamilton in stoppage time of last night’s game, midfielder Geison Moura sustained a concussion. He was allowed to travel back with the team.
I usually don’t comment on stuff like this. I said my piece on this during the broadcast. But I think, as much as we love instant replay on broadcasts, it has created a situation where so many fans, especially those who have never played soccer but love to watch the game, see the game in a format that’s totally out of context.
The game was very physical. In my mind, you could argue there were two incidents that had far more malice than the Hammy-Moura challenge. Remember that Barthelemy, frustrated, lunged at a Minnesota player where I said on air that he was lucky to stay on the pitch. And then there was Venegas massive collision with Augustin.
In those cases, you could argue there was some premeditation. But, in the Hammy challenge, like 90 per cent of the challenges that fans will ask “what was the guy thinking?” there really isn’t any time to think.
I looked at it again in real time (not slow motion) and the time from the ball leaving Moura’s head and Hamilton coming late was less than half a second. It was snap-snap in real time. Now, of course, in the CBC broadcast, we slow it down and show you what happens. So, through the magic of TV, we can make a few split seconds seems like two or three seconds between the heading of the ball and the contact between the players. Remember: NEVER judge players or officials by what you see on slo-mo. They don’t exist in that world.
Really, in the time that the ball goes up and Moura gets position, Hamilton has less than a second to decide a) If he will go up to challenge b) Judge the flight of the ball c) Get body position just right d) Get that guy like I’ve been itching to do e) Follow through f) Got him.
One second.
OK, time yourself. One second. How many thoughts can your brain process? It’s INSTINCT. That’s how so much of the game is played, yet, because of slow-motion, we have somehow misinterpreted a series of malice, thoughts, calculation into actions that are decided by the millisecond.
And, usually, when a tackle is done in malice, the tackler makes sure to do it in such a way that he doesn’t get hurt. Hamilton sticking out his head in order to hurt another player? Why would he do that when his risk of injury is as high as Moura’s? Remember that Hamilton also needed attention.
Yes, Hamilton mistimed his challenge. Yes, it was sloppy. I won’t argue with the referee’s wisdom on the call. But only judge Hamilton based on what you see in real time, not in slow motion.
Appreciate you stepping up Steven.
Most convincing argument of the lot to me, “Hamilton sticking out his head in order to hurt another player? Why would he do that when his risk of injury is as high as Moura’s? Remember that Hamilton also needed attention.”
I’m with Steven (who actually got to see it in something other than 640×480 at 6 frames per second). I don’t see how that would be a violent conduct red, and there’s no sending off offenses in the laws for being a dope. It was dumb as dirt, and later than a Roger Corman movie on cable, but I don’t see intent to injure in that challenge. I see a guy who’s just played his 90th minute doing something dumb.
Hamilton’s easy to make fun of some times, but he’s a comer. He just came late on that one.
Soccer is a full contact sport, but the challenge (if you want to call it that) was unwarranted. If a foul like that does not deserve red, plus additional punishment, I guess I really do not know what merits it. (My opinion would be the same even is Geison would have popped right up after the hit.) It was a terrible decision on Hamilton’s part! He was not even close to playing the ball.
@StevenSandor, who cares about your instant reply/ability to slow it down. Regardless how you slice this one, it was ugly and really something someone should not try and justify. I take your comments as downplaying the seriousness of the incident.
The league deemed a 1-match suspension enough for Hamilton.
I re-watched the clip today…in slow motion and paused it on Hamilton’s contact. The ball was about 2-3 yards away from Moura when Hamilton connected, head first. Too bad the league does not have more wisdom and turned a blind-eye to player safety, in my opinion.
Even in the NFL, a hit like that would have been at least a $50-75K fine.