Salsa Comes Up Short in a Shootout, 2-1 : Soccer: Vancouver’s Steve MacDonald scores the game-winner in sudden death.
It’s that time of year again in the American Professional Soccer League, when goals become as precious to a team as Burt Reynolds is to the National Enquirer.
The playoffs are two weeks away and five of the league’s seven teams still are in position to claim the four post-season slots.
The fourth-place Salsa is one of them and, with a final-week schedule stacked against it, the only thing left for one of the APSL’s newest entries is to keep kicking and hope something hits the nets.
Not enough did on Saturday as the Salsa suffered a 2-1 sudden-death shootout loss to first-place Vancouver before a season-high crowd of 7,308 at Titan Stadium.
The teams played through 15 minutes of overtime, a round of five shootout kicks and then five more sudden-death shootout kicks before finally, on each team’s fifth attempt, Steve MacDonald nailed a shot for Vancouver (14-8) and Lawrence Lozzano missed for the Salsa (12-9).
Now, with one game against first-place Vancouver out of the way, the Salsa must travel to Vancouver for another game on Wednesday. Then, the Salsa closes the regular season with back-to-back games in the grueling Florida heat on Saturday (at Tampa Bay) and Sunday (at Ft. Lauderdale).
The Salsa lost this one mainly because back-up goalie Bob Ammann, a former standout at Mater Dei High who has been superb in the Salsa’s past four games, didn’t get any offensive support.
Ammann is one sign of how things are getting hotter for the Salsa. With Ian Feuer, the APSL’s best goalie, recuperating from knee surgery, Ammann was called upon for the fourth consecutive game.
He has come up big each time. Coming off of his first shutout, 2-0, over Montreal last week, Ammann had a 1.33 goals-against average entering Saturday’s game. He held the 86ers to only one goal during regulation.
And as if playing Vancouver without Feuer was not daunting enough, the Salsa also was without three other players--midfielder Thor Lee (one game suspension after receiving his fifth yellow card), defender Jose Vasquez (suspended for receiving a red card against Montreal last week) and forward Salvador Coreas (torn tendon in lower right leg).
After a scoreless first half, Vancouver finally scored at the 50-minute mark when Carlo Corazzin punched a header past Ammann off a Dale Mitchell crossing pass.
Then with 13 minutes remaining in regulation, Paul Wright took a pass from Paulinho and chipped it past the Vancouver goaltender with his left foot to tie it, 1-1.
Salsa Notes
Although four Salsa players were missing, defender Richard Ryerson did return after missing one game for accumulating too many yellow cards. . . . Paulinho (32 points) and Paul Wright (29) continue to be one-two in the APSL in scoring. . . . Saturday’s game was the Salsa’s final at home. If the Salsa hosts a playoff game, it will be on Sept. 19 at 4:05 p.m. in Titan Stadium.
