Portland Hearts of Pine v. Forward Madison: Three Thoughts
A tough, busy week, plus two more thoughts.
Portland Hearts of Pine lost 3-1 to Forward Madison on Saturday night, only their second home loss of the campaign.
Here are three thoughts from the game.
A Tough, Busy Week
Hearts lost 1-0 at Union Omaha in an afternoon game on Wednesday. Three days later, they were defeated by Forward Madison.
It’s not the week they wanted, as four points would’ve secured a playoff berth.
With four games left—three at home—postseason soccer is still likely, but it’s now questionable if Fitzpatrick Stadium will host. This will likely be decided in the final week when Hearts play three home games.
Late Push Not Enough
A poor start put Portland down 2-0 at halftime.
Jake Keegan made the game interesting in the 72nd minute when he created a goal with fellow substitute Jay Tee Kamara. Ten minutes later, Hearts went down a man when Kamara was shown red. Omaha scored a stoppage-time goal to seal three points.
Head coach Bobby Murphy provided an accurate summary of the game: “I thought we started really poorly, really slow, lacking energy, and when you’re doing that, you start to dig yourself a hole. The best thing you can do is put down the shovel, not keep digging. But we proceeded to keep digging, and it wasn’t until the last ten minutes that we sort of livened up.
“I thought we got the goal, we got back in the game, and then the red card essentially ended it for us.”
The Next Play
Former U.S. Men’s National Team coach Bora Milutinović is notorious for reminding players that the most important play in soccer is the next one.
Hearts need to heed this advice.
It wasn’t a good game, or a good week, but that’s in the past. The pieces are there for Hearts to finish strong, but they need to avoid conceding first.
A packed week surely led to tired legs, but there are times when the team needs to be more patient. Tonight, the first goal—and then the second—hurt them.
The home team had 67% possession and completed 111 passes in the final third, but they only had one goal.
Here’s Murphy again: “We weren’t very respectful of our opponents, and that’s what happens.
“We should be frustrated, but it’s how you handle the frustration. You’ve got to be more mature in those moments. You’ve got to just rise above a little bit. You have got to keep going and sort of channel that frustration, not act out. You can’t be petulant…I thought for the first time in a long time, we looked really emotional, immature.”