(St. Louis, MO, June 13, 2015) – In another battle involving a poor start and a tremendous comeback, Saint Louis FC drew the Harrisburg City Islanders 1-1 at the World Wide Technology Soccer Park. This is Saint Louis FC’s fourth straight league draw, and the third in the row in which they came back from down a goal. This is the sixth straight match in which Saint Louis FC finished 90 minutes tied as both Open Cup matches went to extra time.
Saint Louis FC is now 3-3-5, with 14 points. Harrisburg is 4-3-3, good for 15 points.
The match started off slow, with the two teams feeling each other out. Harrisburg appeared to be having better of the play in the first half. In the 37th minute, Neil Shaffer found Eric Ayuk in stride. Ayuk cut inside and beat goalkeeper Alec Kann to open the scoring.
At the end of the first half, Ayuk delivered a corner that found the head of Shane Johnson. The ball bounced before Kann was able to stop it on the goal line and Chad Vandergriffe swept in to clear it out of harm’s way. That was the first of six saves for Kann on the night.
The second half begin with Mike Ambersley subbing on for the Chicago Fire loaned player, Kingsley Bryce. Bryce has been with Saint Louis FC for several weeks, but wasn’t able to create much with Jermie Lynch in the first half.
Saint Louis FC again had trouble in the second half. In the 48th minute, Cardel Benbow made a run and fired a shot from the top of the box that rattled off the cross bar.
Rain began to fall in the 50th minute and the game was suspended due to lightning in the area at the 56th minute. The match was only suspended for 35 minutes (the USL protocol calls for a minimum of a 30 minute delay due to lightning).
The rain delay proved to help Saint Louis FC as they came out and completely changed their style of play out of the break. They began to spread the field more and deliver long balls into space for their wide players.
In the 67th minute, Charles Renken came on for Brandon Barklage and he adapted to the tactical change perfectly. Renken won a corner in the 70th minute and delivered a short corner to Bryan Ciesiulka, who laid it back to him. Renken then chipped it into the box and Sam Fink ran onto it with a head of steam to smash it into the back of the net.
The two sides traded scoring chances for the remaining 20 minutes, but neither were able to find the back of the net. The match ended in a draw, 1-1.
Saint Louis FC have just two days to recover before heading to Kansas City to take on Sporting KC at Sporting Park in a 5th round match up of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
Main Photo Courtesy of Mark Guthrel, team photographer of Saint Louis FC.
