Puerto Rico Islanders Defeat Metapán 3-0 with Bench Players
The Puerto Rico Islanders defeated Salvadorian side Isidro Metapán 3-0 at Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium on Thursday night in CONCACAF Champions League play. Puerto Rico was playing for nothing more than pride as they were yet to win a Champions League match in the 2012 campaign and had already been eliminated from advancing before Thursday night’s match. With the win they sent the LA Galaxy into the quarterfinals from Group 5.
Hector Ramos scored a brace for the Islanders. His first came 5 minutes before the half and his second in the 79th minute. Gregory Richardson added to the tally in stoppage time of the second half for the 3-0 final.
Most importantly for the Islanders, the win did not come at the expense of their NASL playoff run which starts this Sunday, September 30th at Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium when they host the Minnesota Stars in the quarterfinals scheduled to kick off at 6:00 p.m. ET. Puerto Rico played this match primarily with bench players, resting their starters for Sunday’s playoff game.
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Now if only they had shown up to play the Galaxy….
The thing that struck me the most about this match was being able to hear Whitt screaming at the Islanders to keep pushing forward to attack. Even when they were up by 2 and 3 goals. The CONCACAF commentator apologized for Whitt’s language because their mics were picking up almost everything that he was shouting. Credit to him for wanting to win this “meaningless” match. You would have thought that they were playing to win the group last night.
I really believe that some of the guys who played last night were being given the final opportunity to show him if they should be brought back next season. Dudes were playing for their jobs and given another opportunity to get some more video footage of themselves and agents to help them is pursuit of “future endeavors”.
Go STARS!
@Stephen – The Galaxy bench players/reserves are way better than Metapan.