(Photo by StockadeFC.com)
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — It was a game characterized by stretches of skilled, attacking play from the visitors, but in the end it wasn't enough to overcome the hosts, as Kingston Stockade FC fell to Brooklyn Italians, 1-0, on the road on Saturday night.
Stockade more than held their own over the first third of play, but Brooklyn jumped ahead in the 33rd minute courtesy of a composed finish from Tom Suchecki.
Kingston fought gamely for the rest of the match, though, even after Afonso Pinheiro was sent off with a red card in the 69th minute. Stockade goalkeeper Steven Skonieczny had a number of wildly impressive saves that kept Kingston in the match. From an attacking perspective, winger Pedro Espindola looked especially lively on the left side, and forced a handful of saves from the Brooklyn goalkeeper.
With the loss, Stockade falls to 2-2-4 (wins-draws-losses) on the season, and has two matches left to play. Brooklyn moves to 4-1-2, and has three matches remaining.
After the match, Stockade coach David Lindholm answered a few questions about the game and the stretch run for Stockade.
Thoughts on the Brooklyn Italians match:
Lindholm: "It's a disappointing result, and it's a hard pill to swallow. I thought we had chances to take control of the game, and to influence the game more than we did. It's a tough place to play, and they're a good team, and if you make mistakes — and I think we did both make physical mistakes and mental mistakes — you're going to be in trouble, and we were tonight."
Thoughts on Stockade's level of play over the last few weeks:
Lindholm: "The way I would describe it is that I think we are capable of playing at an incredibly high level. And that for whatever reason, and I haven't been able to figure it out as a coach, we haven't been able to put that together for 90 minutes. You saw it last week (in the 4-4 draw against Elm City), the second half was about as good as a team can play, and the first half was about as bad as a team can play. And here in Brooklyn, I thought in the first 25 minutes, I said, 'We're in control of this match, and we've got things under control. We're ready to win.' And then after that we just couldn't get the ball on our feet, and we lost our heads in the second half."
Thoughts on the final few weeks of the season:
Lindholm: "We'll have to assess the playoff picture after the weekend's results. I don't think it looks good for us at this point, so what we have to do is make our fans proud. We have a home game on Sunday that I want to use to show our fans that we've got depth in our squad, and we've got good players throughout, and I know the guys that go out on the field are going to represent the badge well. And then, same thing, next week, the 30th at home, we've got another opportunity to make our fans proud. And then we get an opportunity to play against one of the best teams in the country at this level. And that's really exciting, and again, the primary goal is to make our fans proud, and to represent our team and our badge well on the field."
Man of the Match: Steven Skonieczny