At every home game, the Atlanta Silverbacks show me something new. Show the fans yet another way they can win a game. So far this year they've won games with style, in blowouts, beautifully, ugly, and even a few cheap wins, but last Saturday against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds night the Silverbacks showed everyone yet another way they could win and added yet another part of character to a team that has showed so much this year, grit. It showed a united team that will go down for each other, a team consisting of players that will sacrifice themselves for the good of the team, just so they may get three points.
It was a very warm Saturday night, the skies were clear and the Silverbacks were ready to finish their to game homestand. Unfortunately for them, great scorer Patrick Beech was out of the line-up with a red card after punching a player last week against Hershey. It was rumored that last years attacking Midfielder and super-sub Alex Bahr would return this week to play Attacking Midfield this week and Josh Henderson would move back to forward. But as so often happens, the rumor was in-accurate and the Silverbacks started out the game in a 4-5-1, with Iggy Moleka the lone Forward. Guy Valcourt and Stilian Shishkov returned to the dress list (Valcourt started at Midfield as usual), and Zion Renfrum dressed in place of wonderful defender Sylvan Bednar who was not in the lineup (I'm assuming because of an injury). Other than that the Silverbacks' lineup stayed the same, surprisingly, newly signed defender (and former Silverback) Brian Crane, did not start.
In the first half, there was very little action on the Pittsburgh side of the field as Iggy Moleka was un-able to generate much on offense without a counterpart at forward. Pittsburgh would strike first in the 41st minute when Midfielder Adam Fedoruk found a streaking Leidy Klots behind the defense, he manage to sneak the ball under a charging Tony Roberts with defender Jacenir Silva right behind him. The crowd was absolutely silent and I began to wonder if perhaps this just wasn't the Silverbacks' day. Obviously, the team was very much missing injured midfielder Ze Rodrigues and Patrick Beech. Before halftime, sub forwards Stilian Shishkov and Ahmed Mohleydin were seen warming up, perhaps to add an extra attacker for the second 45 minutes. That's exactly what happened, at the half, Mohleydin was substituted for Guy Valcourt adding an extra forward along with Iggy Moleka. The second half belonged to the Silverbacks. Only four minutes into the second half !
Bosnian Midfielder Junus Coralic beat a couple of Riverhounds defenders and was taken down inside the box to set up a penalty kick. As always, leading scorer Iggy Moleka was the man to take it, and he calmly shot the ball into the net for his eighth goal of the season. Brian Piesner would create another chance in the 55th minute, dribbling just outside the left side of the 18 before rifling the ball just barely over the crossbar. Then only one minute later, Ahmed Mohleydin crossed the ball to a wide open Josh Henderson who curved the ball wide left. The Silverbacks continued their second half domination in the 68th minute when Josh Henderson got yet another shot inside the 18, this time it looked good but it took a deflection off a Silverback player and came back to Junus Coralic who shot it over the net. In the 72nd minute Iggy Moleka found himself with a defender in front of him at midfield and Brian Piesner making a run down the right side of the field. Piesner used his speed to dribble just outside the 18 before a Riverhound defender raced back to cut off his angle, but the rookie Piesner cooly cut back inside the 18 faking the Riverhounds defender out of his shoes and sending the ball into the net, it was by far one of the prettiest goals by the Silverbacks this season.
"At first I was expecting Iggy to one touch it to me, but he took a touch instead, and that turned out to be the right thing to do," Piesner told me after the game.
And just like that, the Silverbacks were back on top. A little later in the game, Riverhounds Middie Karn headed the ball inside a 6 but Klavus somehow managed to send a volley over Tony Roberts' goal and the Silverbacks kept the lead. Here's where it gets interesting, first the Pittsburgh Riverhounds' coach, was ejected from the game (for some odd reason, he had been yelling at the linesmen and the fourth ref all game), then with less than 10 minutes to go in the game, Defender Ezzy pushed Silverbacks coach Nuno Pitiera, Pitiera exploded and Ezzy received a red card for making about as stupid a move as a player can make. Still, the Riverhounds were able to get one more chance in the 84th minute but Tony Roberts pushed the ball away. Stilian Shishkov entered the game in place of Iggy Moleka to add some fresh legs that perhaps could get the Silverbacks the coveted bonus point on a counter-attack. Josh Henderson nearly accomplished that in the 88th minute but his shot from about 5 yards outside the 18 landed just barely over the net. In the 89th minute Henderson was taken out in favor of speedy forward Matt Elliot, the Silverbacks managed to get a few counter-attacks in the waning minutes but none of them produced any major chances, but they still got the important three points. However, on this day, at the final whistle the Riverhounds' coach who had taken the ejected coaches place and Nuno Pitiera got into a shouting match that nearly turned physical before Silverbacks Defender Guy Norcott restrained Pitiera. Who knows who got the last word in the fight, but Pitiera got the three points, and that;s all that matters.
Man of the Match: Ahmed Mohleydin
The tempo of the game completely changed when Mohleydin entered the game at halftime, not only was it mainly because of Mohleydin's fresh legs, but he also proved to be very valuable, setting up to chances and keeping the Riverhounds defense on their toes.
