Baltimore MD - Palace USA notched their second win in as many pre-season matches with a hard-fought 2-0 defeat of Loyola College at Loyola's Diane Geppi-Aikens Field, where over a hundred Loyola fans cheered their team on but not as vociferously as the twenty or so Eagles supporters.
Palace played possession football throughout the match, but failed to muster any real chances in the opening 25 minutes. That changed on 28 minutes when ever-eager midfielder Bryan Harkin surged forward from midway inside Loyola's half, playing the ball to Sergio Flores on the right edge of the penalty box. With one touch, Flores laid the ball off to Matthew Mbuta who slid his way past three defenders and placed the ball inside the right post from six yards out.
The game opened up in the second half with both teams creating plenty of opportunities to score. The Eagles' best chance of the half fell to Pat Healey who headed just beyond the far post, after a probing cross from right-back Andrew Marshall near the right corner flag.
Loyola were denied four minutes later when Palace keeper Dustyn Brim got down well to deflect a powerful, low shot from Jamie Darvill away for a Greyhounds' corner.
Darvill was guilty of wasting the best chance of the afternoon for Loyola with 10 minutes to go, when he seemed slightly surprised that a long cross from the right had beaten the Palace defense, bringing it under control nicely and blasting it over from eight yards out with only the keeper to beat.
With less than three minutes left, Palace's Larry Mark got on the end of an accurate long ball from the back, battled hard to beat one defender to break into the box, passed another and his perfct low cross from the byline was turned in cleanly by Carlos Morales from the edge of the six yard box to seal the victory.
"It was a good test for us. Loyola is a very well managed team, very organized and difficult to break down." said Palace Co-manager, Pete Medd. "It took two special, individual efforts to create the goals, one from Mathew Mbuta and one from Larry Mark. We held possession very well but need to get into the attack quicker. That will come as we get all our players in and everyone back on the same page."
Co-manager Jim Cherneski added: "We are only two weeks in and we are not fully fit yet, so it is to be expected that we were a bit stagnant, a bit too patient at times. But we are building into things slowly as we have a long pre-season."
Next up for Palace is a trip to the outskirts of Harrisburg Pennsylvania for a noon kickoff against the City Islanders on Friday March 21st. |
