Lane United FC hosted Ballard FC in a 2-2 draw full of late drama at Civic Park on Thursday night. The Reds were within a few kicks of avenging their 5-1 loss to the newly established Seattle soccer franchise. The loss was the first game of the United Soccer League 2 2022 season on May 21.
Torrential downpour, two red cards, a saved penalty kick and a follow up goal from Ballard’s Declan McGlynn tied the match in extra time right before the final whistle blew.
A last minute shot from Reds’ Tommy Case deflected off Ballard Captain Angelo Calfo and went into the goal, putting LUFC up 2-1. During stoppage time a BFC cross was headed toward an open LUFC net and was cleared off the line by Reds’ midfielder Robin Terry’s hand.
The referee called for a corner, Ballard’s Bailey Leatherman disputed the call in the official’s face and received a red card for violent conduct. Moments later, the call was changed to a handball and Terry was given a red card for denial of goal scoring opportunity.
The penalty was initially saved by Albert Escuín but McGlynn followed up the deflection with the tying-tap-in goal. Escuín has saved six of seven penalty kicks he’s faced.
On Friday, however, he was no match for the rebound.
“I’m not going to get into the referee calling one thing and the assistant completely changing it,” Escuín said. “It happens and you got to deal with it. We just didn’t deal with it. The boys did an amazing job and deserved the three points.”
The red smoke and drum pounding began early for LUFC. In the fifth minute, Scott Gustafson lofted a perfect pass from just outside the opposing penalty box for Duncan Maguire to get his head on at the far post and put in the back of the net, giving LUFC an early 1-0 lead.
Besides a header directly to Akili Kasim’s in the Ballard goal, and a ricochet shot scooped up by Escuín, there were few shots by either team in the first half.
The Reds’ kept nine outfield players between the ball and their goal through the entire match. They were looking to contain the offense that scored five goals on them earlier in the year.
“We didn’t want to defend that much,” Assistant Coach Conner Cappelletti said. “They’re a good team, they kept the ball well. They have more athleticism on their team than we do. We have more soccer minded guys.”
Ballard equalized early thanks to a 30-yard long range effort from Letherman. With a touch to break away from the Lane defense, Letherman put a low powerful shot on a rope that skipped into the bottom right corner of Escuín’s goal.
The rain began to pour after the equalizer. The downpour was the cause of slips, slides and sloppy shots. After the aforementioned final minute fiasco the game concluded as a 2-2 draw.
“It’s kind of a victory,” Cappelletti said. “They know they just escaped with something. You want teams to have a sigh of relief at the end of the game. We’re much better than a 5-1 loss, and they got a taste of that in the fifth minute.”
Lane County FC will look to continue their unbeaten streak against PDX at Civic Park Thursday, Jun. 23 at 7 p.m.
