NPSL Round Up: Week 1
Wednesday:
Duluth FC 3-0 Joy Athletic Club
Duluth FC’s Charlie Wood had a couple of good chances with 5 mins on the clock, but the crosses in from the left were missed. Two corners back to back eventually resulted in an easy catch for the Joy keeper. Joy’s best early chance was a turnover by Jamie Colvill in his area in the tenth minute. Limmer forced a save in the 12th minute. The breakthrough came in the twenty-fifth minute, as Liam Pritchard stole the ball in midfield and played in last season’s club-leading goalscorer Tyler Limmer. The initial shot was stopped by the trailing foot of Joy’s keeper Oscar Herrera but Limmer picked up the rebound. BlueGreens’ Nathan Porter missed from point-blank in the thirty-third minute. Joy’s Dinielsen Martinez received a straight red card in the forty-fifth minute for a confrontation with Colvill, who received a yellow card. Felipe Santos made it 2-0 on a penalty kick, after he himself was taken down in the eighty-third minute. Limmer scored his second, and Duluth’s third, tapping in a pass from Manny Morales in the eighty-ninth minute.
Saturday:
Duluth FC 2-1 Siouxland United FC
Duluth FC win a wild one on a 65th minute winner from Myles Edmondson. Charlie Wood opened the scoring for the BlueGreens in the 47th minute but the visitors answered right back, their first ever goal, through Flynn Faulkner. In the 62nd minute, Rory Doyle was sent off, reducing the hosts to ten men, but the numerical disadvantage became a scoreboard advantage. SUX saw their own red card, to Hibiki Mizutani, in the 84th minute.
Dakota Fusion FC 4-0 Minnesota Blizzard FC
The brand new Blizzard, fresh from a narrow defeat in their opening game against TwinStars, met a Fusion side who have retooled under a new coach and the departure of league-leading goalscorer Yu Tsukanome to MLS Next Pro side Tacoma Defiance. It was the hosts who would have the bulk of possession and the most threatening chances.
Within the opening three minutes, Fusion had pinned Blizzard in their own half and the first chance came soon after, with Toshiki Makimoto on the front foot – a recurring theme in a busy game for the man from Hiroshima.
Blizzard’s first chance came on a long free kick into the Fusion penalty area from midfield, eventually cleared for a goalkick after a scramble, but only a minute later, Alberto Romano Sanchez made it 1-0 Fusion from a Makimoto assist in the 12th minute.
Chances continued to come for the hosts as Blizzard defenders, and goalkeeper Shae Wirt, blocked the way to goal until the 27th minute, when Makimoto drove in from the left and Lucas Peruzo slotted home for 2-0. With more pressure from Fusion to finish the first half, it could have been a more emphatic scoreline if it weren’t for shots over the crossbar and so the first half ended with the score only 2-0.
Four minutes after the break, Makimoto himself made it 3-0, with the Fusion high press forcing a turnover before he slotted it past Wirt from close range.
It was the 65th minute before Blizzard had a sustained period of possession, down their left, but they could not threaten the Fusion goal. The home side yet again threatened Wirt’s goal in the 76th minute, but a curled shot rose just past the angle of post and bar. It would be academic as half time substitute Kairi Saito blasted one low past Wirt in the 78th minute for a 4-0 scoreline. There would be further shots on target but the game finished as a comfortable home win.
Coming Up:
Wednesday
Sioux Falls Thunder FC v Joy St Louis Park
Saturday:
Siouxland United FC v Minnesota TwinStars FC
Dakota Fusion FC v Duluth FC
Joy St Louis Park v Minnesota Blizzard FC