Tormenta FC Eyes a Playoff Spot
After a reassuring win against Greenville, Tormenta travels to California to face AV Alta FC with hopes of claiming the ever important 8th place.
Tormenta FC’s strong second half rolled into Greenville with the hopes of continuing to find points. After a 2-1 win they now sit just 2 points outside of the playoffs as they prepare to head to California to face 8th place AV Alta FC, but we will get to that later on.
As stated Tormenta went up the road a bit to face their USL 1 “Derby” mates Greenville Triumph SC in a clash of 2 playoff bubble teams. Tormenta set the pace early on attacking Greenville in waves with Oscar Jimenez firing a shot on Seth Torman in the 7th minute that he came up with the save. Greenville though would control the ball much of the middle part of the first half with Connor Evans taking a corner in the 33rd minute that a harmless header the Tormenta goalie Austin Pack came up with a nice grab to keep it out having to float backwards to snag. But in the 1st minute of stoppage time Mason Tunbridge would find Makel Rasheed off a free kick that Rasheed would head home to take a 1-0 lead for Tormenta just before halftime. For Rasheed it is his 3 goal since joining Tormenta and 2nd in 3 weeks.
The second half got off to a QUICK start as Niall Reid-Stephen almost doubled Tormenta’s lead in the 47th minute as he got free of his man and made a great run down the right side. Unfortunately he would come up just wide as Torman would take away the angle. Tormenta kept that pressure on the following Corner kick that Greenville’s Brandon Fricke would make a last second move on to head the ball out of play preventing a goal. Torman would continue to be tested as a corner in the 71st minute would make him come up with a save preserving a 1-0 deficit. Tormenta though would make it 2-0 in the 74th minute as Yaniv Bazinin would get a feed from Reid-Stephen and bury it home with a powerful shot. For Bazini it is his 6th goal of the season, his first since August 10th. Greenville would make it a 1 score game though in the 81st minute as Conner Evans would get one just past Austin Pack to make it 2-1 which is how the game would end with Tormenta grabbing all 3 points.
Tormenta heads to Lancaster California to face AV Alta FC for the 1st time on the road and 2nd time ever. In their 1st match up Tormenta came away with a 2-0 victory back in March with Bazini netting a brace for Tormenta in the first 16 minutes while Pack stopped all 6 shots he faced. Tormenta comes into this match up winning 4 of their last 5. Av Alta FC though have gotten points in 3 of their last 5 but have not won since July 26th when they beat Monterey Bay in the Jagermiester Cup.
The key for Tormenta will be to limite Eduardo Blancas’ chances as he leads Alta with 9 goals on the season and 12 points overall. Alta’s goalie tandem have 6 clean sheets on the season while conceding 1.4 goals per game on average.
Winner of this match up will hold on to a playoff spot while a draw would keep things how they are with Tormenta 2 points out of 8th place. A win would put Tormenta 1 point up in 8th place with just 5 games remaining after this upcoming weekend. It is shaping up to be an amazing finish to the season, one that just a few weeks ago seen Tormenta sitting in the bottom 2 of the table. The turn around has been nothing short of miraculous for this team.
Until next time, Vamos Tormenta.