Charlotte Eagles 1 – 0 New Hampshire Phantoms
By Jerry Sumner,
uslfans.com Match Reporter
Date/Time: June 3, 2006 at 8:00 p.m.
Location: E.E. Wadell High School, Charlotte, NC
Game Conditions: Partly Cloudy, 80 degrees
Attendance: 1,350
Previous Match-ups:
May 27 - Charlotte 2
– 0 New Hampshire
Next Eagles Games:
Richmond Kickers
Saturday June 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Cincinnati Kings
Saturday June 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Harrisburg City Islanders
Wednesday June 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Next Eagles Home Game:
Pittsburgh Riverhounds
Saturday June 24 at 7:30 p.m.
E.E. Wadell High School
The Charlotte Eagles enter the
8th game of the 2006 coming off a strong three game performance on
the road. They first traveled to Wilmington - never an
easy place to play. The Eagles
played well and held a 3 – 1 lead in the 76th minute before
giving up two late goals and holding on for the tie. A tie against the Hammerheads in Wilmington is generally a
good result but this one felt more like a loss due to the late lead. The Eagles then traveled to Western
Mass. and New Hampshire
for back-to-back games. The rematch
of the 2005 championship game went to the Eagles 2 – 1 and the second
game of the weekend against New Hampshire also went to the Eagles by a score of
2 – 0. A team that has been
searching for its offense seems to have found it. The defense seems to have regrouped as
well. Hopefully, this is the start
of some momentum for the Eagles as they make another run to the playoffs.
The New Hampshire Phantoms
came to Charlotte after an emotional game the
night before in Wilmington
against the Hammerheads. NH scored
in the 90th minute of that game to break a scoreless tie and take
the win. It would have been natural
for the Phantoms to be satisfied with three points on this difficult trip
through North Carolina but they came to Charlotte ready to play
and took it to the Eagles in the first half. It wasn’t so much that they
dominated the statistics but they controlled tempo, possession and had the
Eagles on the defensive for most of the half.
New Hampshire got the first good look at the goal in the 8th
minute. The ball was well played up
the left side and the Eagles defense was slow to react. The ball was crossed cleanly to the top
of the six yard box where a header was sent just wide to the left. In the 10th minute, Gomes
gathered in the ball just inside the 18-yard box and dribbled by a
defender. He was deep into the box
when he took a point blank shot that went straight to Chris McClellan who
blocked the shot but the ball stayed in play. Gomes got the rebound and took another
shot but his angle was bad the ball hit the side netting.
In the 18th
minute the Eagles got their first good look at the goal. Josh Rife took a free kick near the
midfield stripe and sent the ball deep into the box to the left side. Jacob Coggins got a head on the ball,
redirecting it to Dustin Swinehart on the right side. Dustin’s first touch was just off
and the Phantoms defense collapsed on him before he could collect the ball and
get off a shot.
Another good opportunity for
New Hampshire
came in the 26th minute.
Barbosa received a nice leading pass near midfield and he was behind
most of the Eagles defense. Josh
Rife took a good angle and ran Barbosa down and forced him wider than he wanted
to go. By the time Barbosa took a
shot, he was too wide and too deep to and his shot went directly to a waiting
McClellan.
The Eagles next scoring
chance came in the 32nd minute.
Patrick Daka ripped a shot from 22 yards that absolutely froze Matthew
Parsons. He watched helplessly as
the ball at first seemed to be heading for the top right corner of the
goal. The ball was rising slightly
and was just high enough by the time it reached the goal to skip off the top
crossbar.
Josh Rife took one for the
team in the 32nd minute.
A Phantom forward was open and ready to shoot and Josh was the only
Eagles defender close enough to make any attempt to stop the shot. He couldn’t get in front of him in
time so all he could do was stick a foot out to try to hit the ball. It worked but it also lead to a direct
kick into an unprotected part of his leg.
Josh was in obvious pain as the ball was pushed up field by the Eagles
and he actually took a knee for a moment.
Then in the 34th minute, still limping from the previous
play, Josh made another play that prevented another disaster for the
Eagles. A terrible back pass by the
Eagles defense left the ball between a New
Hampshire forward and the Eagles keeper. Josh ran in from the side to just beat
the onrushing forward and push the ball out of danger. These plays never show up anywhere in
the statistics but they are typical of the kind of plays Rife makes game after
game and they are the reason he was the Defender of the Year for 2005.
The 2nd half was
a different game for the Eagles.
Whether it was tired legs for the Phantoms or the Eagles picking up the
pace of play, they controlled most of the play in this half. It started early as the Eagles nearly
scored in the 48th minute.
The ball was played into the six yard box and a shot was taken. Parsons went to the ground to block the
shot but couldn’t wrap up the ball.
As it rolled loose Daka was taken down but was still kicking at the ball
while he was on the ground. Finally
the New Hampshire
defense was able to push the ball out of bounds and out of danger.
In the 52nd
minute Daka had a clean header off a corner kick that just went wide left. In the 54th minute, Dustin
Swinehart had an open look that was rushed and his shot went over the goal. Again, in the 59th minute
Swinehart found he was open for a shot but his touch was off and the defense
was able to close in to prevent a good shot on goal. In the 64th minute, off
another corner kick Clay Roberts rose above the defense to get a good header on
goal but Parsons was able to respond to the play and made the save. Finally, the pressure by the Eagles led
to a goal. On a play that
didn’t seem to be particularly dangerous, Joseph Kabwe worked the ball to
the top of the 18 yard box. He sent
a quick pass into Dustin Swinehart who was surrounded by the Phantoms
defense. Swinehart lofted a pass to
Patrick Daka about 25 yards out.
Daka controlled the ball with his chest and volleyed a quick hard shot
through a small opening in the Phantoms defense. The shot wasn’t ripped like the
earlier one, but was well struck with a lot of topspin. The ball landed just inside the top of
the six yard box and the topspin caused it to bounce higher than was
expected. It caught everyone by
surprise and Parsons wasn’t able to react quickly enough to the bounce. He completely laid out to try to deflect
the shot but it was too late as the ball hit the back of the net.
Somehow it seemed everyone
knew this one goal was going to be enough to win on this particular night. What little energy the Phantoms had was
gone and the Eagles were reenergized by the goal. Both teams mounted some offensive
pressure in the remaining minutes of the game but the score ended with the
Eagles up by one.
The Eagles won this game
against a very good opponent despite a generally poor performance. Their passing was off all night and at
times the defense was slow to react to New
Hampshire’s attack. Chris McClellan was at the top of his
game and had nine saves on the night.
Patrick Daka and Dustin Swinehart played well together at forward. However, this team travels to Richmond next week and to Cincinnati the week after. They will have to play much better as a
team to have a chance to win against either of these clubs on the road.
Patrick Daka played this
game with a soft cast on his fractured left hand. The injury occurred last weekend and did
not seem to impact his play. The
Eagles came out of this game without significant additional injury although a
number of the players were wearing ice as they left the field. It is not unusual for a few guys to be on
ice, but it was most of the team.
This was a cleanly played, but very physical game.
Charlotte Eagles New Hampshire Phantoms
|
Pos.
|
No.
|
Name
|
Min
|
G
|
A
|
S
|
F
|
|
Pos.
|
No.
|
Name
|
Min
|
G
|
A
|
S
|
F
|
|
GK
|
0
|
Chris
McClellan
|
90
|
|
|
|
|
|
GK
|
1
|
Matthew
Parsons
|
90
|
|
|
|
|
|
D
|
11
|
Josh Rife
|
90
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
D
|
3
|
David
Evans
|
90
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
D
|
3
|
Ben Meek
|
65
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
D
|
4
|
Marc
Hubbard
|
90
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
D
|
12
|
Aaron Faro
|
90
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
D
|
8
|
Jason Karalexis
|
90
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
D
|
17
|
Gregg
Schroeder
|
90
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
D
|
15
|
Oliver
Harker
|
90
|
|
|
|
|
|
M
|
7
|
Chris
Lemons
|
90
|
|
|
1
|
3
|
|
M
|
19
|
Tyler
Jackson
|
55
|
|
|
1
|
|
|
M
|
8
|
Ross
Spencer
|
56
|
|
|
2
|
1
|
|
M
|
10
|
Emanuel
Brito
|
63
|
|
|
|
|
|
M
|
20
|
Jacob
Coggins
|
90
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
M
|
17
|
Tomas
Szczypiorski
|
90
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
M
|
16
|
Clay Roberts
|
76
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
M
|
21
|
Eric Masi
|
55
|
|
|
|
1
|
|
F
|
18
|
Dustin
Swinehart
|
90
|
|
|
2
|
|
|
M
|
25
|
Valdemar
Teixeira-Gomes
|
63
|
|
|
4
|
1
|
|
F
|
19
|
Patrick
Daka
|
90
|
1
|
|
5
|
3
|
|
F
|
6
|
Almir
Barbosa
|
90
|
|
|
7
|
1
|
|
|
|
Substitutes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Substitutes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
D
|
2
|
