Baltimore MD - On a hot and humid afternoon in Boyds, it was a slightly different looking Crystal Palace side that took to the field at the Maryland Soccerplex to face local rivals Real Maryland. With their minds equally focussed on Tuesday night's huge US Open Cup match against the New York Red Bulls, Palace Co-Managers Pete Medd and Jim Cherneski opt ed to start some players that over recent weeks have become accustomed to entering the match from the bench. Cherneski even changed hats, or rather his shirt, and played his first minutes of the season, almost notching a goal in the first half.
Real Maryland had the better of the opening period, with the first shot on goal coming from defender Stephen Basso on 8 minutes, but Palace 'keeper Brian Rowland wasn't troubled by the attempt. Palace's first real chance came five minutes later when Kevin King let fly from a central position outside the box, but Emilio Zelaya in the Real goal was able to take the sting off the powerful effort and collect the ball.
 Palace now began to find their attacking rhythm and Sergio Flores made a good run through Real's back line in the 20th minute, but under pressure from his marker, his low shot beat the 'keeper but skimmed wide of the left post.
On 25 minutes, Cecil Lewis' corner found Jim Cherneski open just outside the six yard box. The Palace Co-Manager headed the ball down towards the bottom left corner but the angle wasn't quite right and the ball bounced just over the crossbar.
With Tuesday's big Open Cup game clearly a consideration, Palace made an early change as Bryan Harkin was replaced by Pat Healey on the half hour.
In the 34th minute, Cecil Lewis beat two Real defenders and found himself with Sergio Flores in the box with just the 'keeper to beat. Lewis opted to do it himself, calmly slotting the ball home past the charging Zelaya.
The following minute, a goalmouth scramble was eventually cleared by Mike Lookingland as Brian Rowland lay on the ground. But the Real MD pressure contunued and another sixty seconds later, it was David Feazeall's turn to make the key intercepting tackle in a dangerous situation for the Palace defense.
The relentless effort paid off for Real Maryland when Angel Higuera's corner landed in the middle of a sea of heads on the edge of the six yard box. Nilson Perez didn't seem to know much about it as the ball caromed off his head and flew past Brian Rowland to bring the home side level.
 Val Teixeira came on for Carlos Morales at the start of the second half and had an almost immediate impact. With just five minutes gone, tireless Jamaican forward Kevin King sent in a ball across the box to his Portuguese teammate 15 yards out. Teixeira's first-time left-footed volley was struck with plenty of power but directly at Zelaya who held on.
In the 55th minutes, it was another nice build-up from Palace as Kevin King crossed from the right corner. Sergio Flores was all set to head the ball in from 8 yards out but Zelaya leapt high to pluck the ball off the Palace striker's head.
Palace's inevitable second goal came just sixty seconds later. Kevin King suddenly popped up on the left side, out-muscled his marker on his run into the box , forcing his way aroung the defender. As King bore down on goal, Zelaya committed himself leaving Sergio Flores wide open 10 yards out.  King fed the ball perfectly to the feet of Flores and, despite the best efforts of a Real defender scrambling back to the cover the goal, Flores buried his finish to restore Palace's lead.
The visitors almost put the game out of reach on 62 minutes when Val Teixeira's sneaky free-kick fooled Real Maryland. Teixeira appeared to be running up for a shot on goal, but instead passed along the ground to Jim Cherneski running into the area. Cherneski lined up the shot but his first-time, right-footed effort skewed high and wide.
Real Maryland came back into the game over the next 15 minutes - Brian Rowland had to be at this best to tip a shot from 20 yards around his right-hand post, then it was Shintaro Harada's turn for heroics as blocked a dangerous-looking Nilson Perez effort at close in.
The momentum then swung back to Palace for the remainder of the game, with Val Teixeira marauding up the left channel, setting up chances for Matthew Mbuta and Sergio Flores, and even right-back David Feazell almost getting on the end of a through-ball into the box from Dan Lader. But the missed chances didn't matter in the end as the final whistle blew with the final score 2-1 to Palace.
"We're absolutely thrilled." remarked Palace Co-Manager Pete Medd. "When you're a manager planning out the week, to have no injuries and three points in the bag, then it's all gone to plan." Medd explained that Tuesday's Red Bulls game was a major consideration: "We planned the week around these two games. We even scripted the playing time today." He singled out Jamaican striker Kevin King for praise after the game: "Kevin is playinng reall well for us at the moment. He holds the ball up so well and gets everyobdy into the attack. He's been fantastic the last five games, one of the top players in the league.  After not getting much playing time earlier in the season, he displayed a super-professional attitude and now we rely on him."
Co-Manager Jim Cherneski played his first game of the season: "I'm pleased. There are some things you see to a greater degree when you're out there on the field. There are players on the team that make everybody better. Pat Healey slowed the game down when he came on, Kevin King was just tremendous - every time he got the ball, he didn't lose it, he held it well and joined players into the attack. We've been missing that player."
Cherneski was asked if Palace would miss Kevin King who is ineligible to play against the Red Bulls after receiving a red card in the 2nd round win at Harrisburg: "We wish we had him on Tuesday but we'll do the best we can with the excellent players we have."
Palace remain in third place after this weekend's league results, but they are now only a point behind Cleveland and six behind Charlotte, both of whom have played two more games than Palace. Their next game is Tuesday's US Open Cup 3rd round match against the New York Red Bulls of MLS in Annapolis. Their next league fixture sees the Baltimore side face the City Stars in Cleveland on Saturday July 12th at 7:00pm. |
