Joel Teston etched his name in the history books of Baltimore pro soccer as he scored the first goal in Baltimore Kings history in a 1-0 win over the South Central PA Lions at John Carroll. The visitors were down to 10 men as one of their players was injured after some contact to his knee as he slid in to recover a ball and they had no substitutes available to them. There was a lot to analyze from this game, both positives and a large negative. The first mention I would like to make is that John Carroll did not have any extra water dispensers available to the team when they ran out of water, but that is a venue issue, not an on-the-field issue. The first on-field comment from me today was the amount of passing done and the improvements made within the span of a week to address some key possession issues. The Kings played the ball very well and made that small field theirs from the start. There wasn’t a single thing South Central could have done to stop them, with the exception of reacting quicker to Baltimore’s possession.
The second take away from me with regard to this game was the amount of chances created by turnovers for the Kings, which was lacking last week because SAC never let go of the ball. They were very incisive with their passing, which led to some goal-scoring opportunities. This could have (and should have) been a wider score margin with the amount of chances the Kings got throughout the game.
There can also be an argument made that South Central deserved something out of this game due to the amount of pressure they put the Kings under from about the 75th minute on. It looked like South Central, a team with just the 11 players required to play a game, was fitter than the Kings, who had a whole 18 players with them, and that is flat out unacceptable. It seemed that they collectively got a second wind at the same time to mount a continuous attack for the last 15 minutes of the game, and it looked like South Central were the ones with 18 players. It also must be said that the Kings were just waiting out the time at that point, but if those players wish to move up to the professional ranks, they have to take every minute as seriously as any other -- in other words, do not let up when you are up late because that lead can disappear in a flash. That is the most important thing the Kings need to work on in practice: fitness. They closed this one out… barely. Had that game gone on for another 5 minutes, I could see South Central scoring due to the momentum shift that occurred.
Next Sunday, the Kings travel to Lancaster, PA to play the same team. Time and venue to be confirmed.
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