By Matthew Lacy
VANCOUVER, WA— On a beautifully sunny afternoon in front of over two hundred fans, our Vancouver Victory win their home opener over Yakima United FC, 2-1. Lead Assistant Coach Scott Lewis said, “It was a great first game for us, obviously to get a win on the first game is good. I thought the boys played well. Unfortunate about the goal we gave up, but for the most part it was a good first game of the season.” The Hoppers came out flying, but the Boys in Blue were ready.
Photo Gallery: by Alan Moditz
Wearing there red tops, white shorts, and red socks, the Hoppers immediately began testing the sides. Within the first few minutes, Muhammed Merenah ripped down the right side and sent a pinpoint cross to Jose Juan Maldonado who headed into the bottom right corner, forcing a Superman save from the Victory keeper, Marco Gonzalez Vanez. One of the other Hopper that was really making a difference during the first half was Juan Licez; a controlling mid-fielder, he was often the orchestrator of the most dangerous of Yakima runs.
However, our Victory squad, wearing blue tops, white shorts, and white socks kept working. As Head Coach Logan Emory stated, “I thought the guys did a very professional job figuring the game out. I thought it was very important for us to secure possession in the first half and I think in stretches we did that pretty well.”
He went on to say that, “The challenging thing is that they weren’t pressing and so we lost patience at times. We were playing through lines but there wasn’t anywhere to go beyond that so I think we kind of lost patience, got a little frustrated and tried to make something happen when it wasn’t on. This, in turn, allowed them to gain some possession and be dangerous… but at the end of the day we caused them problems which created a goal, not a beautiful goal but a goal none the less and one that was very good for us which took the monkey off our back and allowed us the breathe and to play our way into the game further.”
About that first goal of the game in the 35 minute, the V2FC goal scorer Nick Ballenger stated, “We kept looking at that right side, I was running inside, going over there whole time, trying to find a seam. We found a way through a few times, made a mistake a few times, shaked it a couples times, but kept going at it. I finally found a break through, keeper made a mistake and hit it off me and it happened to fall in the right spot and I had the chance to finish it. It was a great ball from Ferny (Fernando Inbanez, a pass at the beginning of the run) and a great team effort.”
The Hoppers kept pressing, forcing a yellow card for Victory left back, Seiya Takahashi who was sending in crosses and stopping attacks all game. And the first half ended at 1-0 in the Vancouver Victory’s favor.
The second goal of the game came in the 51st minute when V2FC player, Brian “Gonzo” Gonzalez, took a corner kick that careened straight to Joseph Kenney’s thoughtful noggin. “It was a tough ball,” said Kenney, “It angled back at me and I just had to put it up as high and as far back as it would go and hopefully test the keeper and luckily it went in.” And the Victory extend their lead to 2-0.
The Hoppers kept up the searching, forcing V2FC keeper, Marco Gonzalez Yanez, to a game saving save. “I saw the ball get crossed in, the guy was pretty wide open and he had his head down. I predicted that he was going to take a touch so that gave me time to come out and cut off his angle a little bit and I managed to get a poke on it with my foot. I got back up and he hit it back to his teammate at the top of the box and I tried to get as big as I could because I was kind of out of my goal and luckily he hit it right at me.”
The Hopper tenacity paid off with a goal at the 87th minute when Briskans Shibale, after a no-call foul, connected with Cesar Rodriguez who was able to find the back of the net to show that the Yakima bite was still there. Frustration mounted a bit, causing the reliable centerback, Bailey Thomason to earn a yellow card for decent.
Coach Emory stated, “I thought the second half was very good. Some questionable calls here and there made it a little challenging but the referees over all were very good. The crowd was good. I would have liked to see us keep a clean sheet, unfortunate with the no call on the break but for the most part our back line was super solid. Marco was brilliant today, kept us in the game a few times.”
Coach Lewis echoed this thought, “Both centerbacks, Joey (Joseph Kenney) and Bailey (Bailey Thomason) played really well.” He went on to say that, “Drew played really well at rightback.” When asked to name another standout player, he didn’t hesitate, “For me, the best player of the game was Javi (Javier Sanchez Figueroa) in the middle, when he plays as well and when he is on we are a very good team. He is a work horse and works his tail off the entire game so when he is on we’re a very good team.”
V2FC forward Ballenger perhaps sums up the game best, “We hung in there even when things weren’t going our way and sometimes that can make things really rough… it was good for us to hang in there and put in a great performance. Marco put in a great performance as goalkeeper. It should have been a clean sheet, we were unlucky on that foul at the end. It was definitely a good performance from us and I think we just can build off of that and keep going forward on that take the positives and forget about the negatives.”
Next up, a two week road stint, where the Boys in Blue will face Washington Premier FC, then the Seattle Stars. They will return home on June 3rd to against the Spokane Shadow. It is going to be an exciting season, Sea of Blue.
