Portland Hearts of Pine Shifting Gears
The Hearts physicality and attack came in relentless waves against Forward Madison
Three would-be goals were pulled back by an offside call and an offensive foul in the box, resulted in the Hearts going on the road and getting just a point against USL League One draw kings Forward Madison FC.
The Hearts were certainly the more dangerous team throughout a large majority of the match. The Hearts were six of nine for shots on goal, forcing five saves out of Forward Madison goalkeeper Wallis Lapsley. The only shot on goal of the night for Forward Madison was the converted penalty kick. The Flamingos went one of seven shots on goal for the night. With the exception of the penalty kick, the Hearts’ defense took pretty good care of Hunter Morse.
In the seventh minute, the penalty was converted by Devin Boyce, which was created by a foul called on Shandon Wright in the box. On the play Patrick Langlois got tackled by John Murphy with his right foot somewhat planted in the turf. Langlois would not be able to continue, and head coach Bobby Murphy would be forced to use a substitute early to replace his captain with Michel Poon-Angeron coming on.
The hard-working Mickey Reilly had a run at goal from the left side of the 18-yard box, getting a shot at goal that would flash wide in the 11th minute. It was Reilly’s second consecutive start, and saw him play as a No. 10 while Masashi Wada played as a No. 6.
It’s theorized that Murphy may have wanted to take advantage of Wada’s excellent vision of space and passes to disrupt the Forward Madison midfield passing game. Taking away space and helping cut the width of the field in half isn’t something you’re going to see on a stat sheet.
Even though Forward Madison possessed 60 percent of the ball for the match, the tactic appeared to be very effective for the Hearts. The Hearts did more with the ball when in possession than Forward Madison did.
This helps prove to the fan base one of Murphy’s fundamental beliefs on playing style. It’s not how much you possess the ball that matters, it’s what you do with the ball when you have possession that matters most.
Another attack on goal started with Poon-Angeron passing to Walter Varela from about 30 yards away from goal in the right channel. Varela would “dummy” the pass, leaving it for Nathan Messer in the left channel. Messer ran toward the box and passed it to Ollie Wright, who had his back to goal in the box for the quick return pass to a left-footed running finish from Messer at the edge of the 18-yard box. The former Vermont Green FC outside back would find the back of the net and level the score.
At halftime, Murphy made a move to manage minutes for Mikey Lopez with Mo Mohamed making his debut for the Hearts. Mohamed made some solid plays in his first appearance for the Hearts and helped keep the right edge of the Hearts defense solid.
In the 62nd minute, Jay Tee Kamara and Azaad Liadi came on with Titus Washington and Reilly leaving the pitch..
It looked like Forward Madison did their homework on Kamara. When the forward ran down the edge of the 6-yard box with the ball, he was met by flamingo defenders stepping up to shut down any shooting lanes. Kamara would get a yellow card in the match for shouldering into the back of a Forward Madison player and would be fairly quiet out on the right wing for the Hearts.
Liadi contributed with his strength and ball-handling ability in the Hearts’ attack. Most notable was a goal kick that Liadi brought down and spun out of three Forward Madison defenders to press the attack against the flamingos.
In the 80th minute, Nathaniel James came on for Varela. James provided the late match energy for the Hearts and was involved in some half-chances on goal late in the match.
It was clear that the Hearts attack found another gear. The short passing in and around the box, and waves of attacks from the Hearts against a Forward Madison team that has only let in seven goals in seven matches.
The Hearts of Pine will be at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Jägermeister Cup competition against a very stout Detroit City FC Championship side on Saturday, May 31, at 5 PM.