Nashville Unimpressed With New-Look Zodiac
Reinforcements for the Zodiac defense arrived Friday, but the Nashville Metros apparently were not impressed.
The Metros took advantage of Zodiac breakdowns, scoring two goals in the first 18 minutes and went on to a 4-1 A-League victory in front of an announced crowd of 850 at Santa Ana Stadium.
The Zodiac had two new defenders on the field--Tayt Ianni (released from the San Jose Clash of the MLS) and Alfred Partida (from Cal State Fullerton, making his professional debut)--to start the game. And two more defenders who had missed the last several games with injuries--Peter Lak and John Bovetas--were on the field as well.
But it was clear that this group hasn’t played much together. “We seemed like we weren’t organized in the beginning,” Zodiac Coach Tony Cerna said. “We were making mistakes all over the field.”
Two were most costly. First, Mourat Dahlal got behind Ianni and scored in the 11th minute. Ianni and the rest of the Zodiac believed Dahlal should have been called off side, but the linesman kept his flag by his side.
Then seven minutes later, the Zodiac defense was careless in clearing the ball from its end and Jon Atherton controlled the free ball and sent a perfect cross that Jamel Mitchell headed past goalkeeper Mike Gartlan.
Nashville (8-6) took a 3-0 lead in the 32nd minute when Oleg Chinkanov took a throw in along the Zodiac endline, and driving toward Gartlan took a shot crossed the goalmouth and found the upper corner.
That seemed to assure a third consecutive loss for the Zodiac (5-7). In the 37th minute, the Zodiac made it 3-1 when Gerardo Laterza crossed the ball to Lak for a header from dead center in front of the goal.
Jake Darcy hit the post with a header late in the half and the Zodiac played stronger in the second half, leading to a few more opportunities. But the Zodiac again failed to finish.
The game was delayed for more than 30 minutes in the second half when Darcy was accidentally kicked in the face by a Metro player. Darcy lost consciousness briefly and was taken by paramedics to St. Joseph Hospital in Orange. After play resumed, Dahlal scored in the 87th minute.
