Shadow, Sockers Advance To Final Second-Seeded Chicago, 4Th-Seeded Spokane Win Semis
The Chicago Sockers hadn’t played on artificial turf all season. So the plan for their semifinal with the New York Freedoms in the United Soccer League’s Premier League National Championship was nothing fancy.
The second-seeded Sockers outshot No. 3 seed New York 8-7, 5-2 in the first half, on the way to a 1-0 victory Saturday at Albi Stadium.
The Spokane Shadow, on the other hand, are very comfortable on the artificial surface at Albi. Spokane’s 2-1 victory over top-seeded Willamette Valley in the other semifinal was the Shadow’s eighth win in nine games at home.
Chicago and Spokane will play for the championship tonight at 8. Prior, Willamette Valley and New York will play to determine third and fourth places. That match will begin at 6 p.m.
The Sockers (19-5) gave themselves a number of opportunities and were effective in making passes to open space, allowing their forwards to run onto the ball.
They took a 1-0 lead in the 25th minute on an unassisted goal by Jimmy Harkness. The 5-foot-3, 200-pound forward, who led the Chicago Stingers to their first D3 national title in 1998, faked a shot with New York defenders Rodney Rambo and James McElderry applying pressure. He got past Rambo on the left side and launched the scoring shot from about 14 yards out.
New York (18-7) was playing without four players because they mistakenly checked in with their college teams too early, making them ineligible for this tournament because of NCAA rules. Two of those absent players were the team’s leading scorers, Aboucar Camara (26 goals) and Moussa Sy (13 goals).
The Freedoms struggled on their offensive half of the field. New York had scoring chances in the second half but couldn’t capitalize. Chicago forward Hernan Campuzano came up with some big plays for his team on defense midway through the half.
The Freedoms had a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box with 10 minutes left in the game but Leonard Doramodou’s kick sailed high.