Charlotte Eagles 2 – 4 Richmond Kickers
By Jerry Sumner,
uslfans.com Match Reporter
Date/Time: May
12, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.
Location: E.E. Wadell High School, Charlotte, NC
Game Conditions: Clear, 65 degrees
Attendance: 1,472
Previous Match-ups:
The Eagles and Kickers have not played since 2003
when both were in the USL First Division
Next Eagles Game:
Wilmington Hammerheads
Saturday May 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Next Eagles Home Game:
New
Hampshire Phantoms
Saturday June 3 at 7:30 p.m.
E.E. Wadell High School
The Charlotte Eagles enter game
four of the 2006 season looking for their offense. When the season schedule was released, the
Eagles were excited to start the season with four straight home games. This seemed like an opportunity to launch a
strong defense of their 2005 league title.
One win and two ties through three games was not the strong start the
Eagles had expected. The Eagles have
scored only one offensive goal in three games.
They have run up an impressive number of “shots”, but the quality of
those shots has not been good. They need
a win against the Kickers before they start a stretch of the schedule where six
of their next seven games are on the road.
The Richmond Kickers came to
the home field of the USL-2 defending champions and made a statement to the
rest of the league on this night. The
championship may well go through Richmond
in 2006. The Kickers are that good. From start to finish, the Kickers dominated
the Eagles in every aspect of the game.
They were quicker to the ball, their passes consistently found the mark
and the Eagles had no answer for the Kickers offense. The final score was 4 – 2 but it could easily
have been worse.
The Kickers offense got
going quickly as they very nearly scored in the 3rd minute. Eagles keeper Chris
McClellan made an incredible save literally pulling the ball off the boot of
the Kickers forward. Again in the 6th
minute, Robert Ssejjemba found an opening and took a quick shot that just
sailed over the top of the goal.
The Eagles offense created
their first opportunity of the night in the 8th minute. The Eagles made a quick run up the left side
and the ball was crossed all the way across the goal to an open Sam Casey. Sam controlled the ball well and took a shot
that found its mark but a diving Ronnie Pascale was able to get a hand on the
ball to divert it out of danger. In the
17th minute the Eagles created a scoring opportunity off a corner
kick. The kick went to the far post to
Aaron Faro who chipped the ball into the six yard box where Clay Roberts sent a
header on goal. Again, Pascale was able
to make a good save.
In the 21st
minute, Sascha Gorres took a tremendous shot to the face, but was able to
continue playing after a brief visit with the trainer. Gorres and an Eagles player were both running
to retrieve an errant pass. The Eagles
player got their first and as he kicked the ball Gorres appeared to fall and
the ball hit him squarely in the face.
The ball rebounded all the way from mid-field to Pascale in goal.
In the 24th
minute the Eagles were lucky as the Kickers took a long shot from directly in
front of the goal. The ball at first
appeared to be going well over the goal but started to dip. Eagles keeper
McClellan was completely fooled by the shot and could only watch as the ball
just skipped off the top of the goal.
Finally in the 30th
minute the Eagles offense found the back of the net. Sam Casey sent a long, looping pass into the
six yard area and Jacob Coggins rose above everyone to send a back header
toward the net. The ball was just barely
out of the reach of a diving Ronnie Pascale and the Eagles had their only lead
of the night. However, the lead was brief
as the Kickers attacked quickly off the ensuing kickoff and scored the
equalized in the 31st minute.
The Eagles defense was nowhere to be found on the play as the Kickers
quickly moved the ball up the field and Robert Ssejjemba weaved his way into
the 18 yard box and neatly put the ball in the net. It happened so quickly that the Eagles
appeared stunned by the turn of events and they never seemed to fully recover
from it.
The Kickers got a gift in
stoppage time as another defensive collapse by the Eagles led to the 2nd
goal of the night for Ssejjemba and the halftime lead for the Kickers. The Kickers had been applying consistent
pressure as the half was ending. A
relatively simple pass up the right side was ignored by the Eagles
defense. The Kickers quickly moved the
ball on goal and keeper McClellan rushed to meet the approaching player but was
far out of position. A simple pass from
Chris Carrieri was one-touched into the net by Ssejjemba and the Kickers took a
lead they would never relinquish.
The 2nd half
started much as the first half ended. In
the 53rd minute, Eagles keeper McClellan made a play I have never
seen him make. He came well out of the
18 yard box to try to beat Matthew Watson to the ball as Watson was well behind
the Eagles defense. It was no contest
and Watson easily pushed by the ball by McClellan and was uncontested to the
net. In the 55th minute,
Michael Burke took a corner kick and sent a bullet high to the near post. Kevin Knight got a head on the ball and sent
it past a diving McClellan for the Kickers fourth goal of the night.
The Eagles regrouped and put
on their most consistent offensive pressure of the game in the 55th
to 60th minutes. They earned
three corner kicks in that period of time and had good shots on goal on two of
the three attempts. After the 3rd
corner kick, the Kickers quickly counter-attacked down the right side. Ssejjemba was about 20 yards out on the right
when he sent a well-struck shot toward the left corner of the net. His shot hit the left crossbar squarely and
bounced back into play where a second shot was put on goal but the ball sailed
just right of the goal.
In the 63rd
minute the Eagles beat keeper Pascale and thought they had scored but the goal
was not awarded by the referee. The play
came off a long throw-in deep on the offensive end. The pass found an open Eagles player with
Pascale out of position. A quick shot
rolled toward the goal but was cleared by the Kickers defense. The Eagles argued that the ball had passed
the goal line before it was cleared but lost the argument.
In the 73rd
minute the Eagles were awarded a penalty kick as Jacob Coggins was taken down
in the box as he moved to take a shot.
The Kickers complained about the call and it was a close call but Jacob
was taken to the ground as he prepared to shoot on goal, so I feel it was
proper.
The Eagles continued to
mount some offensive pressure as the Kickers fell back into a more defensive
set for the remainder of the game. For
some inexplicable reason, the Kickers got very “chippy” toward the end of the
game. The game was won and all they had
to do was play it out but they took some cheap fouls and Steven Wolfe was
carded after a very aggressive play on Chris McClellan. The final fifteen minutes tainted what had
been a very clean, well-played game up to that point. The Kickers are a classy organization and
this is a very good team, but those last few minutes were not their best. The Eagles could not score any additional
goals and the game ended 4 – 2 in favor of the Kickers.
The Eagles never seemed
ready to play this game. The Kickers
were the quicker, sharper team from start to finish. The Eagles defense, which had been
consistently good all season, was shredded by the Kickers offense. Offensively, the Eagles woes continue
although more of the shots created in this game were high quality shots than in
any game thus far this season. However,
the finish still isn’t there and Jacob Coggins is the only real offensive
threat. Other teams know that and Jacob
is a marked man. He works hard but can’t
get free for shots because the defense is always double-teaming him. This team is struggling and now goes on the
road for six of their next seven games.
Hopefully they will find a way to pull together and get some wins.
The Eagles came out of this
game without significant injury.
Charlotte
Eagles Richmond
Kickers
|
Pos.
|
No.
|
Name
|
Min
|
G
|
A
|
S
|
F
|
|
Pos.
|
No.
|
Name
|
Min
|
G
|
A
|
S
|
F
|
|
GK
|
0
|
Chris
McClellan
|
90
|
|
|
|
|
|
GK
|
22
|
Ronnie
Pascale
|
90
|
|
|
|
|
|
D
|
11
|
Josh Rife
|
90
|
|
|
|
|
|
D
|
5
|
Kelvin
Jones
|
90
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
D
|
3
|
Ben Meek
|
85
|
|
|
3
|
2
|
|
D
|
3
|
Kevin
Knight
|
90
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
|
D
|
12
|
Aaron Faro
|
90
|
|
|
|
|
|
D
|
11
|
Anthony
Williams
|
90
|
|
|
1
|
2
|
|
D
|
17
|
Gregg
Schroeder
|
90
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
D
|
4
|
Ray
Goodlet
|
90
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
M
|
9
|
Andy
Guastaferro
|
60
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
M
|
15
|
Tim Brown
|
90
|
|
|
1
|
3
|
|
M
|
18
|
Dustin
Swinehart
|
69
|
|
|
1
|
|
|
M
|
19
|
Michael
Burke
|
62
|
|
1
|
1
|
|
|
M
|
10
|
Sam Casey
|
78
|
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
|
M
|
23
|
Sascha
Gorres
|
90
|
|
|
2
|
1
|
|
M
|
16
|
Clay
Roberts
|
65
|
|
|
2
|
1
|
|
M
|
18
|
Matthew
Watson
|
89
|
1
|
|
1
|
3
|
|
F
|
14
|
Adam Ruud
|
90
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
F
|
9
|
Chris
Carrieri
|
90
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
|
F
|
20
|
Jacob
Coggins
|
90
|
2
|
|
4
|
1
|
|
F
|
14
|
Robert
SSejjemba
|
71
|
2
|
|
5
|
1
|
|
|
|
Substitutes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Substitutes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
F
|
19
|
Patrick
Daka
|
21
|
|
|
1
|
