Last night, the Silverbacks did just what I had asked for. Finally, a win, and some goals. But it wasn't just "some" goals, it was three goals in the last fifteen minutes of the game to defeat the Raleigh Capital Express, 3-0.
Despite the three goals, other than the last 15 minutes this might be the most boring game the Silverbacks will play all season. The first half, was a defensive battle, neither team could generate any good chances other than an Iggy Moleka volley off a free kick that went just wide of the goal. However, Raleigh lost key midfielder Steve Armas to a red card, after he savagely tackled Silverback defender Sylvan Bednar at the top of the 18. At first it looked as if Bednar was badly injured, but it turned out he was okay and he continued to play. There wasn't much action for the rest of the first half. However, just before halftime, I saw rookie Patrick Beech warming up on the sidelines. Beech is supposed to be making big things happen for the Silverbacks for years to come. At halftime, he was put into the game for struggling attacking midfielder Josh Henderson. Beech looked irratic throughout for the first ten minutes of the second half, but the Raleigh defense knew what would happen if they didn't recognize his presence, and there were often two or sometimes even three men covering Beech. Midway, through the second half, Daniel Alvarez was substituted for Stilian Shishkov who had been struggling in his first start of the season playing up front with Moleka. And only seven minutes later, the Silverbacks struck. Patrick Beech received a through ball and was taken down just outside the 18 for a free kick. Tony Soto took the kick and curved the ball perfectly and sent it into the upper 90 for the first goal of the match. Only one minute later, Iggy Moleka ripped a shot just wide from the top of the box. But only seconds after that the Silverbacks won a throw-in, Moleka then made a run and Sylvan Bednar's throw found him ahead of the whole Raleigh defense, he dribbled into the box and shot the ball past Raleigh Keeper Chris Lewis and the onslaught was on. Raleigh tried desperatley to get back into the game, but time and time again, the Silverbacks' defense of Jacenir Silva, Sylvan Bednar, Danny Care, Guy Norcott and goalkeeper Tony Roberts turned them away. Finally, Raleigh became desperate, pushing everybody up despite only having ten players, it cost them, and the Silverbacks ended up scoring their third goal of the game on the counterattack with only nine minutes to go. Iggy Moleka dribbled into the box and found streaking Midfielder Brian Piesner inside the 18, Piesner's insuing shot deflected off a defender, and came right to the feet of Moleka, who drilled the ball into the corner of the net, and it was 3-0.
The players and crowd were ecstatic, finally a win, finally goals, finally, an offense to complement the defense. The team seemed extremely upbeat about the game. "Without goals, we cannot win," injured midfielder Ze Rodrigues told me, they got them. Coach Nuno Pitiera seemed very pleased with his teams performmance, after congratulating him on his teams first win of the season he smiled and said, "Don't thank me, thank the players! They are the ones who made this happen!" But Iggy Moleka probably summed it up best. I thanked him for finally getting our team over the hump and he smiled and said, "We needed those."
