Foul finish for Shadow

The Spokane Shadow’s United States Open Cup game with Sacramento had a realty show ending.

It came down to location, location, location.

A Spokane foul on the boundary line of the penalty area at Joe Albi Stadium gave Sacramento a penalty kick a minute into sudden-death overtime. Jeremy Field tucked his kick just inside the goalpost on Kris Wright’s far right side to give the Knights a 2-1 victory and a date in Salt Lake City for a second-round game.

“On the line is still a penalty kick,” midfielder Tim Seely said. “The thing is, he made the same call against us earlier and moved the ball outside the box.”

To add salt to Spokane’s wound, the Knights were playing a man short in overtime after its best player, forward Chris McDonald, collected his second yellow card with a minute left in regulation.

The heartbreaking finish handed Spokane its first loss of the season in a game they clearly dominated.

The Shadow took a 1-0 lead on a beautiful pass by Seely in the penalty area in the 30th minute of the first half.

“I started down the line and saw Troy (Ready) out of the corner of my eye and I flicked the ball to him and he did a great job putting the ball on goal,” said Seely, who collected his 18th career assist on the play.

The Knights, 5-2 in the Men’s Premier Soccer League, played a conservative game in the first half – something the Shadow expected.

“It takes a while to get used to the (artificial) turf,” Seely said. “We expected them to be conservative and not want to make mistakes early.

“But the thing is, I didn’t think they were that dangerous and I still don’t. They don’t have a real breakaway threat. They have some guys with good experience in an upper league. Chris McDonald has a lot of experience and he’s a smart player.”

McDonald pulled Sacramento even when McDonald headed in a free kick from Anthony Chimienti in the 59th minute of play.

Chimienti was tackled chasing down a ball that was clearly headed for out-of-bounds across the end line, which made the call of a penalty 2 yards in from the end line questionable.

“The officiating crew isn’t getting very high marks from either team tonight,” Spokane coach Stuart Saunders quipped.

“The thing is,” he added, “we didn’t play very smart. We have a lead and we didn’t play very smart with it.”

The Shadow put tremendous pressure on Sacramento goalkeeper Nic Platter, especially after the Knights tied the game. Platter was credited with eight total saves.

“In the first half, I had some room to move around in front of the goal and create some things,” Seely said. “In the second half, they cracked down and I wasn’t able to find any room. I have to take the blame for some of that.

“But it’s like the boss said at halftime: It’s going to be hard to score against those guys because they’re putting six guys on a line in front of their goal.”

Sacramento was called for three yellow cards in the first half and two more in the second – all for dangerous tackling. Spokane received two: one by defender Rob Anderson late in the first half; the other to Brett Hite in the final minute of regulation.

Seely said the loss doesn’t mean the end of the season for the Shadow, now 5-1-1.

“The thing is, we have a really good team,” he said. “We have a good captain (in defender/assistant coach Kieran Barton) we have some exciting players with a lot of experience, and we have a young guy in Brett who can really do some special things.

“We just have to get back to work and make it happen in the rest of our league games and in our game with the Seattle Sounders here at home.”