Match Recap: Huntsville City FC draw Crown Legacy FC 3-3, lose shootout
In front of a home crowd numbering 4,271, Huntsville City took on Crown Legacy FC on Friday night. Much like the first meeting between these two, 90 minutes was not enough to separate the sides.
However, this game featured much more offensive firepower from both sides, and a different winner in the shootout.
Huntsville thought they were to start very fast, only for Christian Koffi’s 4th minute penalty to be saved. This opened the door for Crown Legacy’s Andrej Subotic to open the scoring in the 12th minute, though a fast one-two punch from Huntsville in the name of 19th and 22nd minute goals from Alan Carleton and former Crown Legacy man Phillip Mayaka would soon follow.
Then, after the half, Crown Legacy’s Dylan Sing leveled the scores in the 61st minute, only for Carleton to again follow with a quick reply in the 71st.
Then, late on in the 85th minute, Crown Legacy found another equalizer from Brian Romero. This score would hold, and eventually the sides would head to a second shootout in this fixture this season.
New man Alioune Ka’s penalty for Huntsville missed the target in the fifth round, handing Crown Legacy the extra point. The result drops Huntsville one spot to 4th in the Eastern Conference, behind Philadelphia Union 2.
Lineup
Brian Schwake got the nod in goal for the second time in Next Pro this season, with a back four of Isaiah Jones, Kevin Carmichael, Zach Barrett and Gabi Alonso ahead of him.
The midfield pair of Moises Véliz and Phillip Mayaka was unchanged from the previous game, while the front four did see alterations. Christian Koffi and Alan Carleton retained their spots, but were joined by Adem Sipic and Ethan O’Brien.
Off the bench, Blake Bowen, Pep Casas, Tyshawn Rose, Alioune Ka and Gunnar Studenhofft saw time on the pitch.
The Numbers
Huntsville City FC
Shots: 16
Shots on goal: 6
Corners: 3
Possession: 63%
Yellow Cards: 2 (Gabi Alonso, Tyshawn Rose)
Red Cards: 1 (Blake Bowen)
Crown Legacy FC
Shots: 9
Shots on goal: 3
Corners: 0
Possession: 37%
Yellow Cards: 4 (Andrej Subotic, Baye Coulibaly, Assane Ouedraogo, Nick Holliday)
Analysis
Huntsville have shown a bit of a worrying trend. They have struggled with holding leads for some time now, but they’ve often been able to score their way out of trouble. That didn’t happen here, and it’s a bit concerning.
As an aside, the red card from Blake Bowen was just unacceptable, especially from the captain, but I’m sure he knows that already. The worrying part is that there are only unproven options behind him.
Isaiah Jones played right back to start this one, and was directly responsible for Crown Legacy’s first goal. Other than that, I do think he played better at that spot for the remaining portion of the half than he did at fullback last year, but that’s not a high bar.
Outside of those two? Who knows.
Luckily, Huntsville stays in the top 4 here, to keep pace for a home playoff game. But the result does offer up some concerns moving forward, for sure.