House Drops Inaugural Home Opener

Bridgeview, IL-Off the road, the Chicago House FC started its journey in National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) with a win and a loss.

They had high expectations for its inaugural home match on Saturday night, but the House didn’t see the same type of intensity of its first two matches as New Amsterdam FC made the best of a visit with a 4-0 victory over the House at SeatGeek Stadium.

“It wasn’t the result we wanted,” Chicago House coach CJ Brown said. “You have to try to reflect what we’ve been through and all the hard work we’ve been putting in. That was not the result or the way we thought we would com in for our first (home) game. For some reason, we didn’t bring the energy. We tried a little bit with the game plan, but from our first two games, we looked like a completely different group. It’s a little bit disappointing. We have to look at ourselves and see what we have to fix.”

The first appearance for most of the House players might have been nerve racking and trying to deal with playing at home in their own place added some extra pressure.

“Some of these guys have grown up in this city, where they’ve come to watch international and Fire games,” Brown said. “Maybe, some of them played in high school championship games. Maybe to play on this field, there were some nerves and could’ve gotten to them. Hats off to New Amsterdam, I was impressed, physically on how fast they are. They had a really good game plan and stuck to it. They just beat us clean and clear cut soccer up and down the field. Being in this stadium is a big stadium to play and it can get to you.”

Chicago did have a couple of opportunities of scoring in the first 15 minutes, however they were turned away the New Amsterdam defense and they also had a goal waived off for offsides.

New Amsterdam FC scored the opening goal in the 16th minute, when Mayelle Malongo scored off the post after taking a pass from Salvatore Barone.

Jesus Batiz made it 2-0 in favor of New Amsterdam FC by taking a deflected pass and scored into the back of the net in the 44th minute.

Malongo scored his second goal with control and a good move splitting a couple of House defenders from a Danny Vicente assist for a three-goal advantage.

“I’m just happy that the best thing was that we won the game,” Malongo said. “I just wanted to put the ball into the back of the net. I want to work hard and be able to score.”

Chris Bermudez added an insurance goal for New Amsterdam in the 74th minute for a 4-0 lead.

“First of all, I want to congratulate the boys,” said New Amsterdam FC coach Bouna Coundoul, whose team is now (2-0-1, 7 points). “We had a rough first season, but this season is going on so well. These boys have been hungry. Showing up in this kind of field and the fans, before the game, they were really hyped up. Every single game is history making for us. So far, so good. This team can score from anywhere. What matters the most is how we play.”

New Amsterdam FC will next host the Michigan Stars next Saturday night at 7 p.m. ET, while the Chicago House (1-2-0, 3 points) host Detroit City at 6:05 p.m. on Sunday.

NewAm-Mayelle Malango (Salvatore Barone) 16′