With a heavily rotated lineup usually comes uncertainty. Huntsville City FC put those doubts to rest Sunday evening as they demolished Chicago Fire II by a jaw-dropping score of 5-0.
Let’s dive in.
Lineup
Six changes were made to the side that defeated Crown Legacy last weekend.
Academy goalkeeper Ammar Delic made his Huntsville debut, commanding a backline consisting of Jordan Knight, returned from injury, Zach Barrett, Kevin Carmichael, and the captain Blake Bowen.
Ahead of them was a midfield consisting of Ethan O’Brien and Bryan Acosta, who is working his way back to fitness, and back to the first team.
At the front four now, Alan Carleton made his second successive start, with Phillip Mayaka also getting the nod. Gunnar Studenhofft held onto his starting role, with Real Gill making his first start in Blue.
Off the bench, five players made an appearance. Those players were Pep Casas, Adem Sipic, Malik Henry-Scott, Isaiah Jones and Moises Véliz.
Between the Whistles
Chicago started this game fast, getting good looks at Delic’s goal in the first five minutes. However, as the game settled, Huntsville took control. Then, in the 20th minute, a penalty was called for a foul on Huntsville’s Real Gill, and Ethan O’Brien slammed home the spot kick to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.
Then, in the 24th, Peter Soudan brought down Gunnar Studenhofft as he was clear on goal, and was promptly shown a straight red for his DOGSO offense. This opened the floodgates.
In the 38th, it was Kevin Carmichael heading home Huntsville’s second off a corner, followed by a goal from Studenhofft just into stoppage time to make it 3-0. Chicago may have thought they were going to go into the break down three, but Carmichael had other ideas. Following a corner, Carmichael found himself in position to volley home his second and Huntsville’s fourth, extending the advantage.
The second half went much the way of the latter stages of the first, albeit with no goals to show for it. In the end, after a cascade of chances, Adem Sipic found the game’s fifth and final goal in its dying moments following an assist from Malik Henry-Scott, on loan from USL Championship side Lexington.
The Numbers
Huntsville City FC
Shots: 30
Shots on Target: 10
Possession: 63%
Corners: 6
Yellow Cards: 1 (Gunnar Studenhofft)
Red Cards: None
Chicago Fire FC II
Shots: 10
Shots on Target: 1
Possession: 37%
Corners: 2
Yellow Cards: 2 (Oluwaseun Oyegunle, Jhoiner Montiel)
Red Cards: 1 (Peter Soudan)
Analysis
I won’t lie to you. The “doubts” I referred to in the intro? I held them. The absences of Christian Koffi (injury) and Damien Barker John seemed troubling given how important the two of them had been to Huntsville’s attacking success early in this season.
I was thoroughly proven wrong, even before the red card. Alan Carleton has serious MLS potential, and has looked the part at the number 10 slot the past two games and change.
Bryan Acosta getting minutes, and playing very well, is a great sign for the first team. He put in several good set pieces, which frankly I didn’t know he had in him. Shows what I know I guess.
Hats off to Kevin Carmichael on two great finishes as well, and Ammar Delic on getting a clean sheet even though he only had to make one solitary save on the evening. Big ups also go to Gunnar Studenhofft, who’d played well, but hadn’t been on the scoresheet in recent games.
This team is significantly deeper than I thought they were. This win catapults the Rocket Men into fourth in the East, just one point off second place Orlando, with Huntsville having a game in hand as well.
This team should be treated as a serious contender moving forward, and I think we’re going to see that reflected in the attendance figures in the Rocket City. Next up for Huntsville is the second of a three-game home stand, this time against Inter Miami II, should be an interesting revenge game of sorts for the likes of Pep Casas and Gabriel Alonso. We’ll talk about that more later in the week, until then, thank you for reading as always!
Was the attendance announced for this game?