The Pittsburgh Riverhounds are facing an uphill battle. To win one of the two remaining playoff spots they need help from some other teams, and they need to win nearly every game from here on in.
Atlanta is just trying to savage what's left of a bad season.
Within the first few minutes it was obvious that Pittsburgh was the better of the two teams. In the 13th and 14th minutes, David Flavius playing as a third forward, run down the field left to right only to bang his shot off the post. A minute later he would make the same move and beat the same Atlanta defender only to let the ball get a bit a head of him.
Atlanta's first attempt came off the foot of former New England Revolution player, Shaker Asad in the 22nd minute. Asad made a very pretty move to get around his defender only to send the shot wide.
A minute later Pittsburgh's David Flavius took control of a long ball out of the back and advanced on the goal. His shot nutmegs his defender and surprised Atlanta's goalie Anthony Tokpah. His quick reaction save kept the score even at zero.
Another good chance came a scant minute later, a loose ball in the box dropped into the hands of Aleksey Korol. His shot beat Tokpah but was cleared off the line by a diving defender Carl Fletcher.
Atlanta pushed forward and took advantage of a foul. Pittsburgh's traditional problems with restarts plagued them once again, in the 30th minute John Nusum took in a loose ball and easily put the ball past Randy Dedini from about 12 yards out. Mac Cozier was given the assist.
The rest of the first half belonged to Atlanta. In the 39th minute, Pittsburgh's goalie Randy Dedini made an easy save off shot from about 25 yards out. Roughly four minutes before the half Mac Cozier beat everyone in the Pittsburgh box and watched helplessly as his cross rolled harmlessly through the box untouched and go wide.
Another Atlanta restart nearly lead to another goal, as Carlos Parra would send a hard driven header over the top bar.
At the beginning of the second half Atlanta seemed to be happy to sit on the one goal lead, Pittsburgh needed to increase the intensity of play and finally did so starting in the 63rd minute. By the 69th minute it was clear that it was only a matter of time before Pittsburgh scored, it would come down to a battle between Anthony Topkah and Pittsburgh's Brazilian connection of Thiago Martins and Ricardo Villar.
Martins found himself in a 2 on 2 rush with Villar trailing. Topkah cheated off his mark to cover Villar in the middle only to find himself diving backward and making a one handed save off Martins rocket of a shot. Frankly it was the best save I've seen all year.
Pittsburgh would have another chance off of a 30-yard shot by Justin Evans. It was deflected by a Riverhound player on the way in and floated harmlessly over the bar.
In the 79th minute of play Joey Worthen, who entered the game in the 65th minute, made a run down the far side of the field, he slipped past his defender and broke towards the goal. Given his speed the only play possible was to foul him from behind, which is something you don't want to do in the penalty box.
Thigo Martins converted the PK less than a minute later. It was his 13th goal of the season tying him with the Mariners Dante Washington for the league scoring title.
The final attempt for Pittsburgh in regular time came in the 88th minute, when Tokpah made a diving save off a Martins header to maintain the tie. It was that save that also ended any hopes for Atlanta to leave the steel city with a tie.
Tokpah was subbed out at the start of OT and had his right shoulder and arm attended to. Bryheem Hancock was not able to warm up properly during the short break and entered the nets cold.
Less than a minute into the overtime a beautiful pass from Ricardo Villar and some tightrope walking by Corey Woolfolk to stay in an on side put Pittsburgh over the top. Woolfolk was able to beat the trap and walk in mostly uncontested. He easily put the ball past a sprawling Hancock.
NOTES OF INTEREST
Luiz Martins and his daughter Simone surprised his son Thiago by attending the US Open Cup game in DC and tonight's game. Luiz has been learning English by using the A-league.com chat room whenever the Riverhounds play.
