Charm City's First Loss at Home
June 8, 2008
Queen City (Buffalo, NY) had something to prove to Charm City tonight for their poor performance last Sunday in Buffalo which found them falling to the same club 4-0. They came out determined to turn their (0-3) start around. Last year’s NPSL Finalist and Northeast champions jumped out fast on a very slow starting Charm City FC (4-2) and held on for a 2-0 win.
This is the first time Charm City has been held scoreless this season. City came out very slow and appeared to have no energy in the extremely hot conditions at Harford Community College. The Buffalo side came out fired up and scored in the 5th minute when Queen City midfielder slotted a nice through pass to forward Andy Tiedt who calmly placed the ball in the low left hand corner from 12 yards outs. The Charm City defense was caught sleeping on the play and the team never recovered from the early deficit.
Buffalo caught Charm City napping in the back again when another seemingly harmless through ball from midfielder Dan Cavanough found it’s way past the City defense where forward Al Franjoine out hustled a Charm City defender in part by a tug on the defenders jersey and broke in alone on goalie Mike Svehla and beat him with a strong shot to the right side netting in the 38th minute. That would be all the scoring Buffalo would need.
Charm City coach Jason Rims was not pleased with the team’s first half performance “We came out flat and not ready to play. They (Queen City) wanted it more.”
The second half was more like the Charm City we are used to watching. The ball movement was better and they appeared to have more composure. Buffalo began to bunker down in an attempt to preserve the victory. The tactic worked as Charm City again and again peppered the goal with 12 of the 16 shots coming in the second half. Matt Beckman’s tireless efforts could not find the back of the net as the iron got in the way on one of his as well as a long range strike by defender Eric Ravendel.
Unfortunately, City could not overcome the early deficit or a referee whose calls were very questionable. But regardless of the referees ability to perform at this level does not change the fact that City could not find the back of the net and their sluggish first half performance.
City will play Saturday, June 14 in Atlantic City and Sunday, June 15 in New York against the New York Athletic Club.