Harrisburg City Islanders News Release -- www.cityislanders.com
Friday, September 2, 2011
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Harrisburg City Islanders are in Orlando preparing for the USL PRO Championship Game this Saturday night against Orlando City at 7 p.m. The game will be nationally televised on FOX Soccer. It is the first title game for the City Islanders since winning the 2007 USL Second Division Championship.
Harrisburg won the National Division Final last Friday in Rochester, defeating the Rochester Rhinos 2-1 behind first-half goals from Stephen Basso and David Schofield. The game was marred by controversial red cards, and the Islanders finished the match with only nine players and minus their head coach. With Harrisburg leading 1-0 on Basso's goal, defender Andrew Marshall was sent off along with Rochester's Tony Donatelli in the 27th minute when both teams were involved in a little shoving match. Schofield put the Islanders up 2-0 in the 38th minute, but only four minutes later Brian Ombiji was given a red card when he and Rhinos defender Connor Tobin went into the boards behind the Rochester goal.
City Islanders Coach Bill Becher went to talk to the refs at halftime, but was unsuccessful, as security stepped in and ushered him off the field. He returned to the bench at halftime only to be told he had been ejected from the game. All three team members will be unavailable for the Championship match.
Orlando City had an easier time in the American Division final against the Richmond Kickers winning 3-0. Luke Boden opened the scoring in the 19th minute, and Jerome Mechek added to the lead in the first-half stoppage time. Orlando came out flying in the second half and were rewarded with their third goal in the 70th minute. Dennis Chin found the net for the second time in as many playoff games and Orlando kept the Kickers at bay the rest of the game.
Harrisburg and Orlando met twice this season with Orlando coming out on top in both contests. Demar Stewart opened the scoring in the first meeting in Harrisburg back on May 22nd, and when Basso tied it for the City Islanders in the 80th minute it looked as though the game would end in a tie. Orlando City had other ideas as Max Griffen and Lewis Neal both scored in stoppage time to give City the 3-1 win. Just three weeks ago in Orlando Jamie Watson 's second-half hat trick led City to a 4-0 win over the City Islanders. Chin had given Orlando the lead midway through the first half.
This sets up to be a very entertaining final featuring the second- and third-highest scoring teams in USL PRO. The City Islanders finished second with 37 goals, and are led by All-League Second Team selection, Jose Angulo (9 goals, 3 assists), Sainey Touray (7 goals, 6 assists), and Andrew Welker (8 goals). Orlando is very balanced finishing third with 36 goals for and first in goals against allowing only 16. Their dominance was shown on the USL PRO All-League selections with four players named to the First Team; goalkeeper Miguel Gallardo, defender Rob Valentino, midfielder Yordany Alverez and forward Max Griffen. Orlando City also had midfielders Lewis Neal and Jamie Watson named to the Second Team.
"Orlando has been the best team in the league all season, and we know we will have to play our best game to have a chance in the final," said Harrisburg City Islanders Head Coach Bill Becher.