US Open Cup Game Report
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
WEST CHESTER, Pa. - For the second consecutive year, the Harrisburg City Islanders saw their U.S. Open Cup run come to an end at the hands of their MLS partner, the Philadelphia Union. Tuesday night at PPL Park the City Islanders watched a late lead evaporate and Andrew Wenger score twice in extra time to produce a 3-1 margin for the Union.
The short-handed City Islanders side kept the Union on their heels primarily through the outstanding play of goalkeeper Brian Sylvestre, who finished with 10 saves. Harrisburg struck first in the 38th minute after Jason Pelletier finished off a rebound in front of the Union goal.
“If you look at the first half the passing was sloppy, sluggish,” Union manager Jim Curtin said. “We’ve had a long layoff and getting back and only having a day and a half or day of training to go against the Harrisburg team it was definitely difficult. I think if we were a little cleaner with the ball in three plays in the first half we could have scored the first goal, the key in these games is to score the first goal and make them actually have to come out and play us.
"To their credit, they sat behind the ball and they were hard to break down, and we didn’t have the quality to break them down. We were a little rusty, sloppy, but my guys fought hard in the end, they could have laid down but they didn’t, they kept pushing and got the goals.”
At the brink of regulation, Union midfielder turned central defender Maurice Edu hit a right-footed shot from the top of the box to level the match, 1-1 in the 89th minute. Wenger scored in the 110th and 117th minutes, the latter a great run past a Harrisburg defender into the box to create space and drill his shot into the roof of Harrisburg’s net.
“Good for me to finally break a little bit of a drought,” Wenger said postgame. “It was even better for us to dig ourselves out of that and move forward, that’s the most important thing. Defensively, we played pretty well tonight and we were lucky to get a lucky chance in a sense, but we kept pressing and we figured it out. There’s always a little bit of frustration when you feel like you’re knocking on the door for a long time, but it’s reassuring how we came through tonight.”