Lemont derails Young’s game plan
Indians win 2-0 over Dolphins in Windy City Ram Classic opener
By Gary Larsen
LEMONT — Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson once famously said that everyone has a game plan until they get punched in the mouth.
It’s fair to say that Lemont stopped Young’s game plan cold Tuesday. The host Indians scored once in each half and shut out the Dolphins 2-0 in an opening-round game of the Windy City Ram Classic.
“They outhustled us. They’re organized, and they made it very difficult for us to play our game,” Young coach Ian McCarthy said.
Young has skilled players all over the pitch and a possession game that figures to cause opponents fits as the 2019 season rolls forward. But Lemont’s high pressure made it tough for the Dolphins to find their attacking groove in the season-opener for both teams.
Lemont’s three forwards effectively kept Young off-balance for much of the game.
“Richard Myalik, Enis Ugljanin, and Sebastian Kowalczyk — those three in particular did a good job,” Lemont coach Rick Prangen said. “I was impressed with their ability to slide and shift and press. Those front-runners all pressing together makes a world of difference.”
Young threatened early when Elias Guzman swooped in up the right side and sent a ball across the box that Esme McCarthy shot wide at six minutes. Lemont cleared out a Young free kick sent into the box two minutes later.
The only goal Lemont ultimately neede for the evening happened at eight minutes.
Kowalczyk took a ball deep on the left side and attempted a low cross that Young’s Joshua Meyer blocked over the end line. Kowalczyk’s ensuing corner kick bounced once in the goalmouth to the far post, where Enis Ugljanin volleyed it to the back netting.
“We worked on (set pieces) yesterday, guys stayed true to their runs and the next thing you know, it’s in the back of the net,” Prangen said.
Young responded with intensity. Outside mid Rodney Bejabeng tore up the left side on the dribble at 10 minutes and centered a pass that forward Aidan Chapman dummied, allowing center mid Diego Nieto to tee off on a shot from 16 yards.
Nieto’s shot went off frame but that one play illustrated the dangerous potential of Young’s attack.
“We move the ball well and when we’re combining, anyone can score, really. So I’m excited to see how it pans out,” Chapman said. “I think we’ve got a lot of goal-scorers on this team. You can see it in practice. We missed a lot of passes today, but we saw the creativity.”
Nieto was one of a bevy of players that looked promising Tuesday as Young looks to replace a loss of scoring due to graduation.
“He really showed well in the summer,” McCarthy said of Nieto. “This is his first year on varsity but right after (Lemont) scored, he bends one upper-ninety that just misses. So he’s very capable. But again, this is his first varsity game.”
Lemont keeper Kenny Benoit charged out to intercept a ball served into the box with Bejabeng running on at 11 minutes. Young defender Nate Dixon blocked a potentially dangerous shot at the top of the box taken by Kowalczyk one minute later.
Kowalczyk sent a corner kick to the near post at 19 minutes and Myalik was there to turn on it, but Young keeper Daniel Moderhack slid over to make the save.
Ugljanin sent a shot wide from 16 yards with Moderhack charging out at him at 30 minutes. Benoit tipped a bending shot to the upper ninety taken by Bejabeng over the bar at 32 minutes to thwart the final quality scoring chance of the first half.
While Young showed strong flashes of the possession buildups that mark its attack, finding truly dangerous shots against Lemont proved difficult.
“Our pressing caused (Young) some problems today,” Prangen said. “They were having a hard time getting the ball out of the back and getting forward, and that created some opportunities at midfield for us. So for our first game, I thought we did that very well. We defended well as a unit, and pressed well as a unit.”
McCarthy agreed but also didn’t believe his boys brought their ‘A’ game to the pitch.
“I don’t want to take anything away from (Lemont),” McCarthy said.“But we collectively didn’t have a good night. We didn’t connect on twenty-four passes in the first half. We gave the ball away quite a bit.
“But it’s the first night of a long season and you’re going to have that. And I’ll take some of the blame for them not being as mentally prepared as they probably should have been.”
Nine minutes into the second half, Lemont went up 2-0 on a Kowalczyk free kick from 28 yards that got redirected by a defender and into the net. Lemont hit a post one minute later and for the remainder of the half Young kept fighting but struggled to find quality space to launch a shot.
With one goal and one assist in the game, Kowalczyk earned Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match honor.
Prangen also liked what he got from midfielders Lucas Otreba and Alex Gonzalez in the win.
“It was nothing flashy, but they put a good shift in,” Prangen said. “All the front-runners that went in there did a nice job, and our subs off the bench played well and kept it at a pretty good level.
“We didn’t get Alex Gonzalez the ball enough to let him exploit some stuff, but I thought he had a good game. He has all kinds of technical ability. He’s usually a forward, but we thought we’d put him at midfield to help him get the ball a bit more.”
Moderhack and the Young backline of Dixon, Meyer, Alex Espino and Alan Gaytan didn’t give up a goal in the run of play. Once they find cohesion they’ll be better served to handle the kind of high pressure Lemont threw at them.
“We still have Alex Espino in the middle and he’s lock-down,” Chapman said. “If they keep working together to build that chemistry, they’ll be able to play the ball out a lot quicker and smoother.”
And while Young’s attack was kept out of net Tuesday, there’s too much quality for the Dolphins to worry about their scoring.
“Aidan Chapman had a good goal-scoring campaign last year, and Elias Guzman on the wing should get forward quite a bit,” McCarthy said. “Diego Nieto is our central attacking mid and both Owen Anderson and Esme McCarthy in the middle had some quality chances, so we’ll see.
“It will be a matter of a guy knowing that — rather than playing hot potato and getting rid of the ball — saying ‘I’ve got this (scoring) chance, let me make the most of it’.”
Starting lineups
Lemont
GK Kenny Benoit
D James Locascio
D Andrew Juarez
D Peter Borzecki
D Johnny Chraca
M Andrius Alinkevicius
M Lucas Otreba
M Enis Ugljanin
M Alex Gonzalez
F Sebastian Kowalczyk
F Richard Myalik
Young
GK Daniel Moderhack
D Alan Gaytan
D Joshua Meyer
D Alex Espino
D Nate Dixon
M Owen Anderson
M Esme McCarthy
M Rodney Bejabeng
M Elias Guzman
M Diego Nieto
F Aidan Chapman
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Sebastian Kowalczyk, jr., F, Lemont
Scoring summary
First half
Lemont — Ugljanin (Kowalczyk) 8th minute
Second half
Lemont — Kowalczyk (FK) 44th minute
Indians win 2-0 over Dolphins in Windy City Ram Classic opener
By Gary Larsen
LEMONT — Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson once famously said that everyone has a game plan until they get punched in the mouth.
It’s fair to say that Lemont stopped Young’s game plan cold Tuesday. The host Indians scored once in each half and shut out the Dolphins 2-0 in an opening-round game of the Windy City Ram Classic.
“They outhustled us. They’re organized, and they made it very difficult for us to play our game,” Young coach Ian McCarthy said.
Young has skilled players all over the pitch and a possession game that figures to cause opponents fits as the 2019 season rolls forward. But Lemont’s high pressure made it tough for the Dolphins to find their attacking groove in the season-opener for both teams.
Lemont’s three forwards effectively kept Young off-balance for much of the game.
“Richard Myalik, Enis Ugljanin, and Sebastian Kowalczyk — those three in particular did a good job,” Lemont coach Rick Prangen said. “I was impressed with their ability to slide and shift and press. Those front-runners all pressing together makes a world of difference.”
Young threatened early when Elias Guzman swooped in up the right side and sent a ball across the box that Esme McCarthy shot wide at six minutes. Lemont cleared out a Young free kick sent into the box two minutes later.
The only goal Lemont ultimately neede for the evening happened at eight minutes.
Kowalczyk took a ball deep on the left side and attempted a low cross that Young’s Joshua Meyer blocked over the end line. Kowalczyk’s ensuing corner kick bounced once in the goalmouth to the far post, where Enis Ugljanin volleyed it to the back netting.
“We worked on (set pieces) yesterday, guys stayed true to their runs and the next thing you know, it’s in the back of the net,” Prangen said.
Young responded with intensity. Outside mid Rodney Bejabeng tore up the left side on the dribble at 10 minutes and centered a pass that forward Aidan Chapman dummied, allowing center mid Diego Nieto to tee off on a shot from 16 yards.
Nieto’s shot went off frame but that one play illustrated the dangerous potential of Young’s attack.
“We move the ball well and when we’re combining, anyone can score, really. So I’m excited to see how it pans out,” Chapman said. “I think we’ve got a lot of goal-scorers on this team. You can see it in practice. We missed a lot of passes today, but we saw the creativity.”
Nieto was one of a bevy of players that looked promising Tuesday as Young looks to replace a loss of scoring due to graduation.
“He really showed well in the summer,” McCarthy said of Nieto. “This is his first year on varsity but right after (Lemont) scored, he bends one upper-ninety that just misses. So he’s very capable. But again, this is his first varsity game.”
Lemont keeper Kenny Benoit charged out to intercept a ball served into the box with Bejabeng running on at 11 minutes. Young defender Nate Dixon blocked a potentially dangerous shot at the top of the box taken by Kowalczyk one minute later.
Kowalczyk sent a corner kick to the near post at 19 minutes and Myalik was there to turn on it, but Young keeper Daniel Moderhack slid over to make the save.
Ugljanin sent a shot wide from 16 yards with Moderhack charging out at him at 30 minutes. Benoit tipped a bending shot to the upper ninety taken by Bejabeng over the bar at 32 minutes to thwart the final quality scoring chance of the first half.
While Young showed strong flashes of the possession buildups that mark its attack, finding truly dangerous shots against Lemont proved difficult.
“Our pressing caused (Young) some problems today,” Prangen said. “They were having a hard time getting the ball out of the back and getting forward, and that created some opportunities at midfield for us. So for our first game, I thought we did that very well. We defended well as a unit, and pressed well as a unit.”
McCarthy agreed but also didn’t believe his boys brought their ‘A’ game to the pitch.
“I don’t want to take anything away from (Lemont),” McCarthy said.“But we collectively didn’t have a good night. We didn’t connect on twenty-four passes in the first half. We gave the ball away quite a bit.
“But it’s the first night of a long season and you’re going to have that. And I’ll take some of the blame for them not being as mentally prepared as they probably should have been.”
Nine minutes into the second half, Lemont went up 2-0 on a Kowalczyk free kick from 28 yards that got redirected by a defender and into the net. Lemont hit a post one minute later and for the remainder of the half Young kept fighting but struggled to find quality space to launch a shot.
With one goal and one assist in the game, Kowalczyk earned Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match honor.
Prangen also liked what he got from midfielders Lucas Otreba and Alex Gonzalez in the win.
“It was nothing flashy, but they put a good shift in,” Prangen said. “All the front-runners that went in there did a nice job, and our subs off the bench played well and kept it at a pretty good level.
“We didn’t get Alex Gonzalez the ball enough to let him exploit some stuff, but I thought he had a good game. He has all kinds of technical ability. He’s usually a forward, but we thought we’d put him at midfield to help him get the ball a bit more.”
Moderhack and the Young backline of Dixon, Meyer, Alex Espino and Alan Gaytan didn’t give up a goal in the run of play. Once they find cohesion they’ll be better served to handle the kind of high pressure Lemont threw at them.
“We still have Alex Espino in the middle and he’s lock-down,” Chapman said. “If they keep working together to build that chemistry, they’ll be able to play the ball out a lot quicker and smoother.”
And while Young’s attack was kept out of net Tuesday, there’s too much quality for the Dolphins to worry about their scoring.
“Aidan Chapman had a good goal-scoring campaign last year, and Elias Guzman on the wing should get forward quite a bit,” McCarthy said. “Diego Nieto is our central attacking mid and both Owen Anderson and Esme McCarthy in the middle had some quality chances, so we’ll see.
“It will be a matter of a guy knowing that — rather than playing hot potato and getting rid of the ball — saying ‘I’ve got this (scoring) chance, let me make the most of it’.”
Starting lineups
Lemont
GK Kenny Benoit
D James Locascio
D Andrew Juarez
D Peter Borzecki
D Johnny Chraca
M Andrius Alinkevicius
M Lucas Otreba
M Enis Ugljanin
M Alex Gonzalez
F Sebastian Kowalczyk
F Richard Myalik
Young
GK Daniel Moderhack
D Alan Gaytan
D Joshua Meyer
D Alex Espino
D Nate Dixon
M Owen Anderson
M Esme McCarthy
M Rodney Bejabeng
M Elias Guzman
M Diego Nieto
F Aidan Chapman
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Sebastian Kowalczyk, jr., F, Lemont
Scoring summary
First half
Lemont — Ugljanin (Kowalczyk) 8th minute
Second half
Lemont — Kowalczyk (FK) 44th minute