By David Rogers. MATTHEWS, N.C. — In many respects, the U.S. Open Cup second round soccer match between Charlotte Independence and Appalachian FC was Goliath vs. David. Unlike Biblical times, Goliath prevailed on this occasion.
At Mecklenburg County Sports Complex on a beautiful, early spring evening, April 5, in front of 2,564 enthusiastic soccer fans — including a large, vocal and drum pounding contingent supporting Appalachian FC — Charlotte won, 2-0.
All photographic images by David Rogers, including BONUS PHOTOS at bottom of article.
Charlotte center forward Khori Bennett scored his team’s first goal in the 25th minute on a penalty kick, banging a “worm burner” just under the outstretched arms of a diving Appalachian FC goalkeeper, Jake Agnew.
Back row defender Clay Dimick rallied to the front for the second Independence goal, in the 66th minute. From the center of the box, Dimick received a pass from Avionne Flanagan on a cross and right-footed the ball into the bottom right corner for the score.
Charlotte applied offensive pressure early and often, Bennett coming close to scoring with his first shot in only the 3rd minute of play, his right footed shot from outside the box missing left.
Appalachian’s chances were few. Max Landau took a free kick in the attacking half of play in the 83rd minute, just moments after teammate London Williams had taken one in the attacking half at the 80th minute. Williams was also awarded attacking half free kicks in the 56th minute and 38th minute.
A hold-your-breath moment came early in the second half when FC’s Thomas de Graauw went down on a bad foul by Charlotte’s Luis Alvarez, who was shown a yellow card for the infraction. Play was stopped for approximately two minutes while the medical staff attended to de Graauw.
Of note, four minutes of injury time were added to each half.
A total of 26 fouls were called in the match, 11 against Charlotte, 15 against Appalachian FC. While there were no red cards, the officials pulled a whopping eight yellow cards, five against Independence and three against the Sasquatch crew.
Ever attacking, Charlotte was flagged for offsides on four occasions, Appalachian FC only once. Each team had four corner kick opportunities, Appalachian FC’s coming mostly in the second half.
Reflecting how little offensive punch the visitors from Boone could put together on this night, Appalachian FC only had three shot attempts, none on target, so veteran goalkeeper Austin Pack recorded no saves for Charlotte. By comparison, Charlotte Independence took 17 shots on goal, five of which were on target, so Appalachian FC goalkeeper Agnew had three saves on the night.
Even in losing, however, you have to give the High Country visitors credit for a performance that limited Charlotte Independence, a professional team, to just two goals over the 90 minutes of play.
“I am disappointed in the result but the reality of the situation is that there is a big gap between the two teams,” said Appalachian FC head coach Dale Parker. “Our job the last two weeks (since winning the first round game) was to bridge that gap as much as possible. I thought we applied ourselves pretty well in the first half and in the second half we competed really, really well and created a few chances. Again, disappointed in the result but I think that second half showed that we can compete at this level. I am so, so proud of our boys.”
Parker said that his players initially tried to apply the same kind of attacking pressure for which Appalachian FC has become known in National Premier Soccer League play, but they quickly backed off.
“Charlotte was just too good,” said Parker. “We tried to test their ability to play out of the back and their ability to break our press was evident. After two or three times it was difficult for our boys to run 50-60 yards in recovery. The second half we changed the game plan a little bit to absorb and tried to hit them on the break. The second half looked better. That second goal was unfortunate because I think if we could have kept it at 1-nil and created one or two more (offensive) chances, we could have been back in it. But the level that Charlotte put out in the first half put us on our back foot a little bit, more than we would have wanted.”
Parker conceded that the “gap” between the two teams included some combination of talent, fitness and preparation, the latter made more of a challenge because the players on the Appalachian FC roster are coming from far and wide.
“To give you an idea, over the last month we have had eight practices,” said Parker. “Independence is three weeks into their (regular) season and sitting at the top of their league in USL1. They train together virtually every day. We brought our guys together three days in advance to prepare for this one.”
Parker pointed out that by being able to train together every day, Charlotte’s players are at a peak level of fitness, especially being three games into their season.
“By comparison, our guys aren’t training full time right now. They have been asked to do things on their own, but the differences in the physical levels is to be expected in this kind of competition,” said Parker.
To understand the value in being a highly trained, full-time soccer player, Glassdoor, the job search site, reports that a Charlotte Independence player’s base salary is a little more than $55,000. The median is more than $75,000. As a semi-professional team, Appalachian FC players might get some food and lodging stipends, but most have other jobs.
Appalachian FC now returns to preparing for the upcoming National Premier Soccer League schedule, starting in May. Charlotte FC travels to Cary, to play North Carolina FC on April 8 before returning to the Queen City for two home matches against Union Omaha (Nebraska) on April 19 and Central Valley Fuego FC, based in Fresno, Calif. (April 22).
BONUS PHOTOS
