Little Brother defeats Big Brother!
Akron City FC (ACFC) has grabbed the “Best in Ohio in NPSL” award that Cleveland SC (CSC) used to own! Saturday night, ACFC dominated their northe coast foes, 3-0, in a key regular season match for the Great Lakes Conference!
ACFC’s Stefan Dobrijevic grabbed a hat trick as the fans at Green Street Stadium enjoyed a near perfect night for the club! The win gives them sole possession of 2nd, and the tail-spin for Cleveland SC continues as they suffered their third setback in four matches.
The Match
The name of the game was pressure. Akron was relentless in pressuring the defenders whenever possible. And the pressure was physical with shoulder-to-shoulder hits and crushing tackles.
Andy Hoggarth in an interview afterwards said something many weren’t sure of in 2022 when Akron opened their inaugural season: “The skies the limit for us!!”
While ACFC challenged every ball, Cleveland was often sloppy. A great example occurred early in the first half. Indiana University’s Sam Sarver saved a ball from heading out and quickly turned it into a great cross that just missed two fairly open teammates in the box!
That aggressive nature allowed ACFC to strike first! Joshua Grosser stole a weak CSC pass which led to three quick passes. Then, Dobrijevic, on a nice pass from Colin Biros, slid an untouched, slow roller past defenders and goalkeeper, Brenden Moher (more on him in a bit), that gave Akron the quick 1-0 lead.
But a few minutes later, Cleveland found themselves a man down as Moher received a red card for a crunching challenge on Sarver. Dominic Williams replaced Moher and near the end of the half, was beaten for the second goal.
Akron was intent on pushing for another goal late in the first half. A through ball from their defensive end found a sprinting Dobrijevic and as he took the ball to his left he was able to swing around a charging Williams and easily deposit the ball into the net.
The final goal in the 2nd half came on an amazing chip by Akron’s Jannis Schmidt over the back of the CSC defense where again, #18, deposited another ball into the net.
Cleveland struggled to get much of anything going all evening. Now, they are faced with trying to win out and hope!
Steel City VS Erie
All Akron players were eyeing the Sunday game with Erie battling Steel City. With an Erie win, Akron would be closer than ever to first. But after going up 1-0, Erie saw their lead fall in almost back-to-back fashion in the early stages of the 2nd half.
Two quick goals by Steel City put the Great Lakes Conference leaders in full control of the match. That is, until the 87’ when Erie’s Denys Verbinskiy, who just entered as a sub not one minute prior, found a late equalizer!
This week
Cleveland has two tough games this week on Wednesday and Friday evenings. Both are home games with Erie and Michigan. They need these two wins and hope for some upsets above them.
Akron has a rare home and away match with Southern Indiana Guardians FC. Friday is away, but Sunday night will be back at St Vincent-St Mary.
Cleveland Tickets are available here.
Akron’s here.
Recent Comments