Atlanta- Roberts, Norcott, Silva, Care, Bednar, Soto, Valcourt (Mohledin 69'), Piesner, Rodriguez (Alvarez 63'), Henderson, Moleka
Charleston- Huddock, Spooner, Jean-Baptiste, Suarez, Miller, Iotov (Larionov 86'), Sewell, Akin, Warham, Thelin
Goals- Suarez 62', Iotov 85'
The Atlanta Silverbacks opened up the 2000 season with an extremely disappointing loss to arch rival Charleston. Despite an enormous crowd of over 6,000, the Silverbacks could not convert chances, Charleston dominated a rough second half. And I left the stadium, almost praying, the Silverbacks weren't about to go back to their inconsistency of last season.
Atlanta started off playing an extremely conservative 4-5-1 and didn't start forwards Stilian Shishkov who was the biggest scoring force without Iggy Moleka last season in which he was suspended for the last month. Charleston came up with a 5-3-2 and the first fifteen minutes were played mostly in the midfield and there were very few chances. Until the 25th minute when Iggy Moleka entered the 18 with three defenders around him. Showing great skill Moleka found some open space and drilled a ball over charging keeper Dusty Huddock only to hit the crossbar and be cleared out of the
Charleston zone. That was the only major chance of the first half, however, the game became increasingly rough throughout the half, a player for the Charleston Battery went down after Moleka elbowed him in the air. Also, Midfielder Guy Valcourt, a member of the Haitian National team, took a shot to the side. As time expired in the first half, the teams had battled to a stand-still, no one got a legitimate shot on goal.
In the second half, former Silverbacks Temoc Suarez put a ball in the back of the net off a free kick just outside the box. Suarez put the perfect spin on the ball and it curved passed an outstretched Tony Roberts and went into the upper-90. Only three minutes later a header by Guy Valcourt went just barely wide of the goal. Two minutes later, Ahmed Mohleydin went into the game for Valcourt to add more attacking. Perhaps the biggest chance by the Silverbacks of the second half went just wide. On a rebound shot just outside the 18 by Daniel Alvarez a substitution into the game the ball went inches wide. Only two minutes later, in the 85th minute, Tony Roberts was forced to come off his line to make a save, the ball bounced inside the 6 yard box and Bulgarian Iotov drilled the ball into an open net to make the score 2-0. It was over after that. The Silverbacks failed to mount any more chances and Charleston was victorious.
Despite the loss, there were some bright spots for the Silverbacks, Ze Redriguez, a newcomer born in Cape Verde looked extremely strong. On one play, he faked out three defenders before passing the ball to a teammate. He looks to be an extremely good addition to the team and we are glad to have him here. Also, thirty-eight year old Tony Roberts looked great. The crowd seemed in awe of his drop-kicks that went over three-quarters of the field. Overall, the Silverbacks were outplayed by the Battery, but they have another game against Charleston, this time on the road, this Saturday. It should be a great game.
