Soccer News: Corinthians, Chattanooga & Miami United All Lead The Way
It was a busy weekend in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) land across the Region 3 area, with 12 matches littering the region from East to West and plenty of goals to boot.
Friday kicked us off as Miami Fusion welcomed Weston FC, with the home side looking to bounce back from their opening days 5-1 defeat to their city neighbors Miami United, and although they were welcoming to the Weston side off the field, they were not welcoming on the field, scoring two without return to secure their first points in NPSL.
Corinthians FC continued on from last weeks result with another emphatic win, this time 5-0 victors over Liverpool at the Dallas sides home field to build on the win over Houston Regals last week.
Chattanooga FC left it late to grab a winning goal while on the road to Atlanta Silverbacks on Saturday, completing the double over Georgia teams. Chris Ochieng scoring on 81 minutes was enough to separate the two sides, giving Nooga the three points, following on from last weeks 6-0 win over Georgia Revolution.
Carolina Railhawks u23’s opened their account with a tremendous 5-3 victory over the Upwards Stars. Leading 4-1 at halftime, they benefited from the visitors going down to 10 men to help secure the victory after the Stars had pulled themselves back into the game early in the second half to a scoreline of 4-3 but scored again to finish off the game and take the three points.
Myrtle Beach Mutiny kicked their season off with a 4-3 away victory against FC Discoveries. Despite losing a late goal, they held on for the win.
New Orleans Jesters opened their account with a hard fought draw along with Nashville FC at Pan American Stadium but the game was far from an uneventful spectacle. Scoring the opener on 69 minutes, the Jesters could rightly believe they could take the match but a red card near the end made things difficult for them. The man advantage allowed Nashville to press this home and eventually grabbed the equalizer 3 minutes into extra time at the end, which caused controversy, but the points were shared between the two.
Tulsa Athletics and Dallas City FC shared the spoils with their 7:30pm kick off. Tulsa took the lead but Dallas grabbed a point thanks to a Kyle Grimes equalizer.
Georgia Revolution were looking to pick themselves up from their heavy defeat last week at the hands of Chattanooga and this weekends match was much more an even affair as they welcome Knoxville Force.
The game swung from end to end, as did the scoring. Knoxville opened the scoring early on but the Revs tied things up to keep things all square at the half. The home side took the lead on 54 minutes but within 120 seconds had conceded two to find themselves behind to the visiting Force but they couldn’t hold on as the home side pushed home the equalizer on 70 minutes to round off the scoring in an excellent match.
Fort Worth Vaqueros and Houston Regals both failed to hit the net in their second match of the season when the game ended 0-0. Vaqueros have drawn both their 2015 opening matches. Regals take their first point of the season from this match after last weeks defeat to Corinthians.
Sundays matches opened with FC Wichita defeating Texas side Liverpool in a quite comprehensive 4-1 match that saw three penalties. It was the home sides first ever NPSL victory and Liverpool’s second heavy defeat of the season.
Jacksonville United and Kraze both kicked off their season in Sundays round of matches and it was the away side that overcame the 2011 NPSL winners with a pair of goals a couple of minutes either side of the half hour mark in the first half to take the points.
Miami United and Storm FC rounded off the Region 3 NPSL land matches for the weekend with Storm opening their season but the home side proved too strong, taking a 2-1 victory despite Storm opening the scoring on 26 minutes. The win for Miami builds on their opening day 5-1 victory over Fusion.
With all Region 3 NPSL land clubs now having taken to the field at least once, this is how they would stand in the Region 3 league.
Source: Region3Soccer.com, Official Media Partner to National Premier Soccer League.
