North Carolina FC 0 – 0 Birmingham Legion FC
Cary, NC—In a game where they had several chances to grab all three points, North Carolina FC settled for a 0-0 draw against newcomers Birmingham Legion FC.
“It was frustrating night. I thought we should walk away the three points tonight,” North Carolina head coach Dave Sarachan said after the game.
As the game got started, both sides got a feel for each other and the warm temperature on the pitch. In the 24th minute it looked like NCFC forward Marios Lomis would get the home team on the scoreboard but his point-blank shot hit the left post and bounced favorably for Birmingham.
North Carolina’s 4-2-3-1 formation gave Birmingham a lot of problems throughout the game. They had particular trouble containing Manny Perez and Steven Miller on the flanks and Ben Speas, who was all over the middle of the park for NCFC. In the 31st minute, Perez made a penetrating run down the right side and made a backward cross to Miller, who was wide open for another point-blank shot. Birmingham goalkeeper Trevor Spangenberg had to come back across his goal to fling his body toward the near post, just managing to deflect the ball out for a corner kick.
Birmingham Legion FC head coach Tom Soehn made some adjustments at halftime in an effort to neutralize Perez, Speas, and Miller’s impact on the Legion defense. “He [Perez] was getting isolated one on one. And so that’s where we made some adjustments. We were letting them go east-west too easy. They were hitting long balls and creating those isolations. You know he’s a handful when he gets space. Second half we were able to get a little tighter on him and it made it a little more difficult.”
Set pieces were plentiful for NCFC on the night with 12 corners and 13 free kicks. However, the Dead Whales would be frustrated on the night, not converting their chances. “It was one of those nights you know we hit a couple posts and there were skirmishes where I think we should get on the end of it and we walk away with one point instead of three,” Sarachan reflected later. “So I feel we’ve lost two points tonight. It wasn’t for a lack of effort, I just think the final product and the end result wasn’t quite there tonight.”
North Carolina looked to open up the game in the second half. In the 67th minute, there was a series that was reminiscent of the chaos that got NCFC on ESPN SportsCenter last season. The series started when Speas sent a high cross into the penalty area that squibbed off the top of Aaron Guillen’s head. Sam Brotherton collected the ball at the edge of the six-yard box and slid it back to an onrushing D.J. Taylor. It looked like Taylor got the ball tangled in his feet, but got unsnarled just enough to get off a shot that went through Guillen’s and the defense’s legs and looked to beat Spangenberg. However, defender Femi Hollinger-Janzen cleared the ball away from the goal line and then brilliantly ran down the ball and drew a foul on Brotherton to get his team out of trouble.
Alex Tambakis did not see much action at his end of the field during the game, but in the 68th minute, he came up big, with a jumping save to punch a rocket from J.J. Williams over the bar. Five minutes later, he snatched a shot off of the foot of Birmingham forward Brian Wright to preserve his clean sheet.
The NCFC goalkeeper talked about the challenge of mentally staying in a game when there isn’t much action around him versus games where he’s peppered with shots, “because you never know what’s gonna happen. In one chance they can end the game.”
Sarachan had high praise for his goalkeeper’s focus in his post-game remarks. “To be engaged in the game when you’re not being challenged a whole lot is a mental discipline. And he was alert on those plays and make two huge saves for us. I mean. I don’t know [that] there’s too many better goalkeepers in the league.”
The hardware would stymie NCFC once more, late in the game when Dre Fortune’s long-range shot looked to curve underneath the crossbar but hit it instead.
As the game wound down, play started to get a bit chippy with referee Adam Kilpatrick handing out yellow cards to Birmingham’s Zachary Herivaux in the 88th and Brotherton a minute later. Herivaux would be ejected in stoppage time when he got a second yellow card for another hard foul. Unfortunately for North Carolina, they weren’t able to convert the man advantage and the game ended in a scoreless stalemate.
Soehn was happy to leave Sahlen’s Stadium with the point. “I mean any time you go on the road you know it’s hard on the road and getting the point obviously is always. Something you strive for. We always look for three. I think they’ll be frustrated they didn’t get three. So, in the end, you take the point today and then you get ready for [the next match].”
Final Notes
- North Carolina FC’s next three games are on the road against Eastern Conference leaders New York Red Bulls 2 and Tampa Bay sandwiching a trip to Hartford.
- Birmingham forward Brian Wright recently returned to the club from New England. Head coach Tom Soehn thought he made some good contributions on the night, despite a drop in his fitness level from not getting minutes with the Revs.
- Though Dave Sarachan tends to sub forwards earlier in the game, Marios Lomis was creating some good chances for himself, so the coach kept him in until subbing him for Robert Kristo in the 85th minute “Lomis scores goals you know and I thought it just took one good moment where we got a proper cross or… He’s a guy that still can get on the end of things and I felt the game was opening up…so I hung in there with him a little longer. You know I wanted to try to get Robbie on a little earlier but just the way the game was played.”
Lineups
North Carolina FC: A. Tambakis; A. Guillen, S. Brotherton, A. Comsia, DJ Taylor; D. Fortune, V. Igbekoyi; S. Miller © (Y. Chester, 71’), B. Speas, M. Perez (D. Ewolo, 80’); M. Lomis (R. Kristo, 85’)
Birmingham Legion FC: T. Spangenberg; K. Culbertson, M. Laurent, F. Hollinger-Janzen, E. Avila; D. Johnson (T. Turner, 83’), M. Lopez ©, Z. Herivaux; P. Kasim (R. Cromwell, 46’), B. Wright, E. Opoku (JJ Williams, 57’)
Score:
North Carolina FC: 0
Birmingham Legion FC: 0
Goals:
NCFC: none
Birmingham: none
Discipline
North Carolina FC: S. Brotherton, YC, 89’
Birmingham Legion F. Hollinger-Janzen, YC 45+’; Z. Herivaux YC, 88’, YC/RC, 90+’
Attendance: 5,448
Photo Gallery: North Carolina FC v Birmingham Legion FC
All photos by Victoria Klum
