A Striker Recap and a Railhawk Preview

The Ft Lauderdale Strikers mascot Hot Shot, or Knuckles from Sonic The Hedgehog?

It's certainly nice that we have the NASL season to come back to after watching the World Cup for the past 30 days. Unfortunately, because one began just a day before the other ended, it's hard not to draw comparisons between the level of soccer being played.  While Germany and Argentina had to put in flawless performance to not give up a goal for 90 minutes in the World Cup final, Minnesota United and Fort Lauderdale both committed error after error in their season opener. Fortunately for United, they were the only team able to capitalize on those errors.

I felt a little bad for the Strikers while watching Minnesota win Saturday's match 3-0. Nothing seemed to go their way. In the 13th minute United center back Tiago Calvano lost sight of Striker forward Martin Nuñez who then had an open break on goal. Only he didn't take his chance when he had it, and instead allowed United goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt to knock it off his feet. As for Hildebrandt, who had more than a few great saves on the night, he made a meal of a cross in the 25th minute, pushing the ball right to Striker forward Jenison, who also could do nothing with his opportunity. In fact the Brazilian Jenison, playing in his first game for Ft Lauderdale, had a game he'll hope to forget after being unable to capitalize on more than a few golden chances.

While the Strikers deserved one if not two goals in the first half, it was United who were up 1-0 at the break. Slovakian goalkeeper Kamil Contofalsky, playing in his first game for the Strikers, lost sight of a Justin Davis corner kick in the 23rd minute. All Daniel Mendes had to do was stand on the endline and let the ball bounce off of him and into the net for the opening goal.

Contofalsky had a pretty rough debut in net for the Strikers. In the second half he let Davis cross the ball into the box for Christian Ramirez to run onto it for the easy tap in.  There wasn't much Contofalsky could do with the third goal after Striker defender Rafael Alves cleared the ball right at an oncoming Miguel Ibarra, who coolly dribbled passed Contofalsky and put the ball in the corner of the net.

United certainly played better in the second half and put the Strikers under more pressure, but the 3-0 scoreline conceals an overall poor performance by the backline who were lucky to keep a clean sheet. Tiago in particular was poor, losing his mark occasionally throughout the game. In the 80th minute he failed to track back to pick up substitute Aly Hassan who had a clear header on net that somehow hit the post. It's easy to forgive Tiago when your team is up 3-0 with 10 minutes left, but it was one in a series of mental lapses throughout the game.

On a more positive note, Ibarra's performance grew as the game went on. After a few misplaced passes at key moments in the first half, he was close to flawless in both his shot selection and distribution in the second half. It was nice to see Kevin Venegas back in the lineup at right back, after missing the end of the spring season with an injury. His performance was overshadowed by Davis' offensive dominance on the left side. Aside from Ibarra and Ramirez up top, it seems like the fullbacks will continue to be a major offensive factor for United in the fall season.

If the good news is that the team won 3-0, the bad news is that they have two fewer days of rest as the team faces the Carolina Railhawks in their fall season home opener tonight. The reason for the Thursday night game is that they play EPL side Swansea City at home this Saturday in a preseason tuneup for the Welsh side.

The Railhawks are coming off a tough 2-1 loss to Indy Eleven, the first-year NASL team that didn't record a single win in the spring season. The Railhawks scored first when Enzo Martinez fired through the legs of his defender, only for the Indy goalkeeper to let the ball go through his hands and into the goal. The game turned, however, after the Railhawks got a player sent off on a last man foul, and Indy were able to get two goals back in the remaining 30 minutes. The loss ended the Railhawks 17 game unbeaten streak in NASL competition at home. It was a tough way to open the season, especially after being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the US Open Cup just last week by MLS side FC Dallas.

Now the Railhawks come to Minnesota looking to erase the memory of last week's 2-1 defeat. Hopefully United can focus on the task at hand and not look ahead to Saturday's match against Swansea.

United showed great mental fortitude defending this corner kick,
as they faced the prospect of great deals at the Ft Lauderdale tire sale!