From The Forest, To The Tide: Hearts of Pine vs Hartford
Bobby Murphy’s Hearts of Pine treated the traveling supporters to an all action first half
A bright and sunny 51-degree Trinity Health Stadium was the site for Hearts of Pine’s final preseason match. The Hearts were facing a Hartford Athletic team filled with Academy Players and two or three squad players from the first team. Hartford’s first team had just played the New York Red Bulls 2 the day before and were clearly not eligible for selection after a rough outing against the Red Bulls 2.
A small but jovial group of Hearts supporters carpooled and made the drive down from various hometowns throughout Maine. This was the first opportunity for Hearts of Pine supporters to see their team play in person. After as long as three to four years for some supporters, game day was here.
Full on Bears Smokehouse BBQ, the Hearts Supporters were busy collecting information as fast as they could after kick-off. Ollie Wright is playing Left Wing, stated one supporter. What formation are they playing, asked another. Who’s the guy at striker, one supporter quizzed to another.
Early on the Hearts rotated defensive midfielder Patrick Langlois in between the two center backs Kemali Green and Sean Vinberg to create a back three while the two outside backs bombed forward to attack in Hartford’s end. In the 7th minute the ball was lost and a Hartford striker was behind the Hearts back line running free towards goal. Sean Vinberg made the recovery run and executed a goal saving tackle in the box on the Hartford striker that seemed to be caught in between two minds with how to finish his chance.
In the 11th minute, a strong pass headed towards goal by Wright nearly found Mickey Riley for the misdirection attempt. The hard pass was headed to the bottom right corner of the goal, but the Hartford keeper managed to parry it away out to his left. The Hearts of Pine Trialist was there to clean up the offering.
The second Hearts of Pine goal came in the 32nd minute. Wright sent a pass in from the left wing to Walter Varela who had a defender on his left side. Varela bobbled the first touch and the ball drifts slightly away from him and away from the defender, but Varela made a quick adjustment to the ball and leather one into the back of the net from around eight yards out.
Green, Nathan Messer, Reilly, and Wright were the main conduit to get the ball into the attacking third for the large part of the first half. This flow actually helped set up the third goal in the 38th minute by Jaden Jones-Riley. Michel Poon-Angeron lobbed a ball in front of a streaking Jones-Riley into acres of space in the right channel. The outside back chested the ball down off the hop, cut to his left and patiently took a few strides before striking the ball into the back of the net with his left foot.
Dark clouds rolled into Trinity Health Stadium, 20-30mph gusts of wind dropped the temperature considerably, and fans were headed to the cars for warmer clothing. The second half of soccer would be played under very different weather conditions.
At Halftime Head Coach Bobby Murphy made four changes.
Hunter Morse off, Kash Oladapo on.
Sean Vinberg off, Samuel Camacho on.
Kemali Green off, Shandon Wright on.
Mickey Riley off, Trialist on.
Within about 30 seconds of the second half starting Wright struck a ball in off the post. Hearts supporters still talking amongst themselves on what they saw in the action-packed first half, ran to the fence to celebrate with Ollie, who was celebrating his 26th birthday that day
Coach Bobby Murphy substituted Wright immediately following the goal in favor of a trialist
The second half was largely uneventful with possession changing back and forth at midfield. Murphy made another sub with Langlois being replaced by Khalid Hersi in the 70th minute.
The Lewiston, Maine native got some more minutes under his belt beside Poon-Angeron. The last twenty minutes drifted by uneventfully and the Hearts of Pine won their final preseason match at Hartford, 4-0.
Hearts of Pine were missing Jay Tee Kamara from the squad. The club reports the permits for Kamra are just about complete, and he should be joining the team very soon.
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