Silverbacks down Eddies for season’s first win
Fail to play with much intensity in first half before waking up
The scoring chances came fast and furious in the second half, but FC Edmonton’s frantic comeback attempt against the Atlanta Silverbacks came up short in a 2-1 loss at Clarke Field on Sunday afternoon.
A flat opening half saw the Eddies fall behind 2-0, proving to be too great of a mountain to climb for the home side. Atlanta put together a gutsy performance to earn its first North American Soccer League win of the season.
“Sometimes, you can play not as good as you want, but the intensity level always has to be good,” Edmonton head coach Harry Sinkgraven said.
The team’s lack of urgency in the opening 45 minutes wasn’t lost on midfielder Chris Kooy, either.
“We were going against the wind and they pressured us pretty well and we just didn’t deal with it at all,” Kooy said of the Eddies’ first-half struggles. “We just didn’t play sharp defensively. We gave the ball away easily and we didn’t keep it when we had it, so it was really frustrating for us.
“This is our home field and when we come out flat like we did there, it’s kind of inexcusable, so we’ve got to come out and show some heart. There’s no tactics, or technical things to do to make up for no heart.”
A short-handed Silverbacks team that came to Edmonton with only a 15-man roster gutted out a victory without the likes of NASL-leading goal scorer Reinaldo Navia, whose visa issues stopped him from coming north of the border.
“This is my first game winning as a head coach and the first win of the season,” Atlanta head coach Alex Pineda Chacón said. “I think the performance and the way we played today was very, very, very good, so I congratulated the players, because they stepped up.
“I think Edmonton, at the end, deserved to tie the game, but we were working very compact at the end and we got the result.”
Coming into the game as the league’s lone winless squad, Atlanta opened the scoring in the 31st minute on a beautiful free kick by Ciaran O’Brien from just outside the box. It was the midfielder’s first of the season, beating Edmonton keeper Lance Parker, who had little chance on the solid strike to the top left corner.
The Silverbacks stretched their lead to 2-0 10 minutes after opening the score when defender Shane Moroney made a great play to head home an O’Brien strike, deflecting in his third in as many NASL games on another ball Parker was all but helpless to save.
“It was my guy, I was with (Moroney) just in front of the first post, so the ball came in (and) I’m right behind him thinking, ‘This is a tight angle,’ ” Kooy said. “From in front of the post, I don’t know how it went in, but unfortunately it did.”
Atlanta’s two-goal lead held until the 52nd minute, when the Eddies would finally find the back of the net, sparking some much-needed energy.
A low strike off a free kick from a sharp angle to the right of Silverbacks goalie Daniel Illyes by Shaun Saiko provided the opportunity the Eddies had been looking for, with Kevin Hatchi deflecting home the Saiko shot to make it 2-1.
With new life after Hatchi’s first tally of 2012, Edmonton poured on the offence.
After taking it to Atlanta for much of the second half, the Eddies appeared to have tied the game in the 80th minute when Paul Craig headed home a Saiko cross. The goal, however, didn’t come to fruition as Craig was just a step behind the Silverbacks backline and called on the offside.
Atlanta held on in the final 10 minutes plus stoppage time, handing Edmonton its second NASL home loss of the season.
“Some that weren’t on target and some that were right at the keeper, but I think we needed to shoot more,” Kooy said of his team’s second-half push that yielded just a single goal.
“Obviously, we got the ball around the box there. Crosses in the box, but we need to finish those chances for sure.”
Edmonton returns to action Sunday when it wraps up its homestand against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.