USL Championship round-up, April 5-7
Saturday's action got underway with a pair of games at 7pm (BST), both featuring sides with a collection of wins this season. Hartford Athletic lost away at North Carolina last week but had two wins out of two before that. The Miami FC were their visitors on Saturday and they've looked better than their results this season after a winter of rebuilding. The first-half was relatively quiet until Deshane Beckford was brought down in the area and a penalty awarded to the home side, but Romario Williams's effort was saved by Miami 'keeper Danny Gagliardi. It looked like the visitors might keep it scoreless at the half only for Hartford to hit them on the break right before the whistle, Beckford finishing off a breakaway move. Athletic went further ahead ten minutes into the second-half when Williams made up for his penalty miss with a close-range effort from a corner and both sides missed chances to add to the scoreline before Gabriel Cabral reduced Miami's arrears with a shot from outside the area. That's how it stayed until time added on when Enoch Mushgalusa scored Hartford's third and there was still time for a Joseph Farrell own goal to make it 3-2 and put Athletic on a healthy 9 points from four games.
Detroit City had played three, won three, before Saturday's visit of North Carolina FC to Keyworth Stadium, with new head coach Danny Dichio getting them playing attractive, pressing soccer. His opposite number in the North Carolina dugout - John Bradford - seemed to have the key to negate Le Rouge's system, though, and an own goal by Nelson Blanco in the ninth minute - which gave City their fourth win out of four - was all that separated the sides at the end, with just two shots registered on target all game. That certainly wasn't the case for the big 9pm kick-off in Kentucky, where Louisville City versus Indy Eleven became the first USL game to be televised on CBS nationwide. A bumper crowd of 11,330 flocked to the Lynn Family Stadium for the affair and were rewarded as early as the sixteenth minute when Wilson Harris finished a pressure play to give the home side the lead. Louisville boy Jack Blake was given the chance to equalise for the visitors eighteen minutes later when Jake Morris was adjudged to have fouled Younis Boudadi in the box and slotted the penalty home to silence the home fans, but City's advantage was restored four minutes before half-time when Jansen Wilson was put through by Harris for his first goal since turning professional in the winter. Five minutes into the second-half, that 2-1 lead was turned into a 3-1 lead when Elijah Wynder headed in from close range but Indy just wouldn't go away, Blake latching on to a long ball to fire home and reduce it to a one-goal game with his second goal. Anything Blake could do, Harris could match and he scored his second just three minutes later, finishing off a fast break started by Adrian Perez, and then went one better to secure his hatrick in the 71st minute. A Niall McCabe own goal finished off the scoring and made it 5-3 at the final whistle, a fine first game for CBS to bring to the soccer-curious everywhere.
A few hundred miles south in Tennessee, Memphis 901 welcomed Orange County SC - one of a batch of sides sitting atop the Western Conference - to AutoZone Park and were quite handily beaten 2-0 in a game of just half a dozen chances for both sides. Scoreless until the hour, with just a yellow card for 901's Marlon to talk of in the first half, OC took the lead through a very close range effort from Brian Ilovski. Ilovski took a knock in the process but picked himself up to see out the game, which resumed with another OC goal on the break, this time from burly striker Thomas Amang. Noe Meza went close twice in stoppage time but the visitors saw the game out to take the 2-0 win. The next two games - Tampa Bay Rowdies at Pittsburgh Riverhounds, and Rhode Island FC at home to Charleston Battery, finished scoreless but weren't completely without incident. Riverhounds will be grateful of a point at last following three straight defeats to start the season, and Rhode Island - with an encouraging crowd of almost 4,000 in at Beirne Stadium - were unlucky to lose Conor McGlyn to a second yellow card midway through the second-half, their frustration of a lively Battery attack completed despite that disadvantage.
Like Pittsburgh, Colorado Springs Switchbacks had begun the season with three straight defeats and the visit of Sacramento Republic on Saturday threatened to make that four. It took former Northern Colorado Hailstorm man Trevor Amann just five minutes to score on his return to the Centennial State, his fourth in five games, and strike partner Russell Cicerone made it 2-0 on 26 minutes to put the home side in real trouble. Despite half-chances for Tyreek Magee and Ronaldo Damus in the second-half, Switchbacks never really looked like troubling Republic and the 2-0 win put the visitors joint top of the Western Conference with Orange County. San Antonio FC could have joined them there with a win away at Las Vegas Lights, who were easy fodder last season but have completely rebuilt in the off-season under new owner Jose Bautista. After losing their first two games of the season, Lights added two wins over El Paso Locomotive and away at Oakland Roots, and withstood some decent pressure from the visitors to go into the break goalless. Eleven minutes into the second-half, and just after Bura had an effort saved by Raiko Arozarena in the Lights goal, Shawn Smart scored from outside the box to give the home side a lead they held on to until the final whistle, looking like a completely different side to last year's flimsy outfit.
New Mexico United have looked good this season without attracting too much attention and a crowd of over 9,000 were at Isotopes Park on Saturday for the visit of El Paso Locomotive. Traditionally good travellers, Locomotive went close in the first two minutes but soon fell behind to a beautiful Marco Micaletto strike seven minutes in. Despite chances for both sides, that's how it stayed to half-time and actually how it stayed until the 81st minute when Joaquin Rivas fired home from inside the box to level the scores. That sparked a furious last ten minutes which saw Justin Dhillon fouled in the box by Zico Bailey, allowing Amando Moreno to give the visitors the lead with just three minutes of normal time remaining. Ample time, though, for Jacobo Reyes to head in an equaliser, setting up a grandstand finish that brought a breakaway winner for New Mexico when Nicky Hernandez finished off a move started by substitute Daniel Bruce. Saturday's final game was a Northern California derby from Hayward, where Oakland Roots hosted Monterey Bay FC in a game which - like the one in Albuquerque - didn't really come alive until the final minutes. There were chances earlier on but both goalkeepers were in good form to ensure it stayed 0-0 until Chase Boone shot home to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. There were no further goals but referee Gerald Flores issued four red cards at the final whistle after a bench-clearing contretemps between the sides, a detail sadly missing from many match reports because, despite the platitudes of commentators, fans very much do want to see this sort of thing...
The USL Championship weekend was finished off in Alabama, where Loudoun United were the visitors to Birmingham Legion's Protective Stadium and had much the better of a scoreless first-half before taking the lead through Abdellatif Aboukoura three minutes after the break. The former DC United youth prospect went close a few minutes later but it was Legion who began to pile on the pressure, finally getting back on level terms when Dawson McCartney forced Yanis Leerman to put through his own net on 67 minutes. Tyler Pasher put Birmingham ahead seven minutes later and - after Zach Ryan had gone closest to equalising for Loudoun with a saved header - the job was finished in stoppage time by Mujeeb Murana, his first goal since moving from Houston Dynamo 2 i the off-season.
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