Despite the lack of stream for the AFC fans at home, those following the match's events were gifted a pleasant surprise as the Mighty Oak found the back of the net in second half stoppage time through Brandon Katona's boot to send them to take on Lansing United on the Fourth of July for the Michigan Milk Cup.
What Happened:
The AFC Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo FC Twitter accounts gave wonderful accounts of all the match's events. It seemed that the match was following the trend of most AFC matches early on as it was noted how the Mighty Oak managed possession well and did their best to pin their opponents back into defending. Alas, they could not find the goal they were searching for and the two sides went into halftime level. The match's first of two major events occurred in the 68th minute with Matthieu Braem, starting for the first time since his return from the CONIFA World Cup, giving up a penalty. Nick Barry was able to make the vital stop on the spot kick and the game remained tied. Kalamazoo continued immediately after the spot kick for several minutes with the better opportunities, but the dying minutes were AFC's and Brandon Katona punctuated them with his winner at the death.
Notable Points:
Like their first visit to Kalamazoo, I am unable to give a full description of the Ann Arbor side's performance and events of the match since I was unable to make the road trip and there was no match stream. However, we can take many things away from this match. Here are three key points I noticed from play-by-play on Twitter:
1. Nick Barry is plenty capable: It's hard to not be impressed by Barry's effort of stopping a spot kick in his first start of the season for the Mighty Oak. The former Milwaukee Torrent man and Albion College assistant coach is absolutely massive and this allows him to get big to make shots that much harder for opponents. I've seen both he and Novotny in practice and while the two men are vastly different especially in size they both have the uncanny ability to make themselves bigger than they are (no small feat for Barry, who I would estimate to be around 6'5") and alter the shooter's shot without even needing to make a save. But when Ann Arbor did need a save, Barry delivered, and I'm looking forward to seeing footage of the penalty stop.
2. Depth remains key: This was a match where depth needed to be key. With a huge match (that I will discuss in a bit) on the weekend, and a semi-final match on this evening, you had to find a balance. With regular starters like Serge Gamwanya, Moco Watson, and Frenchy Braem in the squad, and guys like Alec Lasinski, Jake Rosen, and Kyle Breitmeyer who see plenty of time off the bench in most matches, you had the right balance of players with regular minutes to assist in helping out those who needed to use this match to seize their chances. Kenny Vasquez, Zach Beuscher, and Marlon Freitas were just a few of the players who got to use this game as a chance to start and make an impact, and of course Catona came off the bench to deliver the key blow.
3. Defending stands tall: It seems that any Eric Rudland side can change pieces of its side in and out and manage to get clean sheets at will. You had the hiccup in Grand Rapids, of course, but in a match with some untested players as I mentioned, the defense held onto a clean sheet with help from its net-minder. You always want to be playing for accolades and trophies, but especially so if you're AFC Ann Arbor because with the sort of depth this side has, the more competitions they're in means the more opportunities for players to shine. This team gets to add on another match to the schedule, but this one is for a trophy.
What's To Come:
AFC have three matches remaining officially in their season: two home NPSL bouts and the Michigan Milk Cup final. The immediate concern is beating FC Columbus on Friday and sealing off postseason glory and the division. A win on Friday gives AFC their second straight Great Lakes Divisional title and clinches their spot in the NPSL National Playoffs, with a strong shout for a bye in the Midwest Regionals. A loss complicates matters further, but they would know what they need for a playoff bid that evening as Grand Rapids hosts Detroit City Friday as well in what is GRFC's final NPSL match. That is something no one associated with the Mighty Oak wants to think about as they'd rather be celebrating a divisional title on Friday evening and not concerning themselves with scoreboard watching.
Let's take a moment to talk about the Columbus match and some hypothetical situations around all three results for AFC, starting with the most negative and working up in positivity. A loss keeps Columbus heavily in the race. With the AFC loss, that would leave both teams with their max points at 26. Columbus has two matches in hand, and two against FC Indiana, and they could make up the eleven goal differential behind Ann Arbor, even if AFC defeat FC Indiana on the last day. While Indiana have yet to pick up a single point this season, you'd rather not tempt fate and get things sealed off as quickly as possible and not need to worry about going all-out on the final day of the season. A draw on Friday means just a draw against Indiana is guaranteed to be enough for the division. Then of course a win clinches the division with a game to spare and enables AFC to put all their focus into the Milk Cup final. FC Columbus is a tough team hitting a great stretch of form at the right time. They're on a three-match win streak having swept Grand Rapids 5-0 in that span and are led by Damani Camara who has seven in seven in the NPSL, to go along with speed demon Ezra Armstrong who was named to the Football Manager NPSL Team of the Week last week as a left-back (though he's more a wing-back with the attacking outlet he provides). Friday's match will be the biggest of the season for the Mighty Oak.
Playoffs?:
As Indianapolis Colts head coach Jim Mora once said, "Playoffs? Don't talk about playoffs. You kiddin' me?" While his NFL team were a bit worse than the Mighty Oak in that 01-02 (they finished 6-10 and, in fact, missed the playoffs), you never want to jinx a side with looking to the future. With that said, AFC lead the NPSL in points per match and have set themselves up to be a Great Lakes representative in the Midwest Regional. The bye would allow AFC another week to rest and gather the troops while looking ahead to a potential two matches in two days on July 20th and 21st at a venue to be determined. Their loss to Grand Rapids was dwarfed by the draw Minneapolis City SC (the North Division's leader) suffered to LC Aris FC who up to that point, like FC Indiana, had yet to pick up a point. Additionally, the East Divison's leader, Erie Commodores FC, only picked up one point out of six last weekend and still have the other three top four sides in their division to play as a closer to the season. It is a trend across the Midwest, the leaders dropping points and needing to hold off other teams in order to retain their divisional leads. AFC hope that they will do the best job of the three sides and perhaps even claim the right to the #1 seed in the Midwest. But at this point, there's no question that they'll want to take it one step at a time starting on Friday against Columbus.
Follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for live coverage of AFC Ann Arbor as well as Michigan basketball and Liverpool FC. I'm also discussing the World Cup plenty on Twitter and on my blog as well, so make sure to catch that out!
What Happened:
The AFC Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo FC Twitter accounts gave wonderful accounts of all the match's events. It seemed that the match was following the trend of most AFC matches early on as it was noted how the Mighty Oak managed possession well and did their best to pin their opponents back into defending. Alas, they could not find the goal they were searching for and the two sides went into halftime level. The match's first of two major events occurred in the 68th minute with Matthieu Braem, starting for the first time since his return from the CONIFA World Cup, giving up a penalty. Nick Barry was able to make the vital stop on the spot kick and the game remained tied. Kalamazoo continued immediately after the spot kick for several minutes with the better opportunities, but the dying minutes were AFC's and Brandon Katona punctuated them with his winner at the death.
Notable Points:
Like their first visit to Kalamazoo, I am unable to give a full description of the Ann Arbor side's performance and events of the match since I was unable to make the road trip and there was no match stream. However, we can take many things away from this match. Here are three key points I noticed from play-by-play on Twitter:
1. Nick Barry is plenty capable: It's hard to not be impressed by Barry's effort of stopping a spot kick in his first start of the season for the Mighty Oak. The former Milwaukee Torrent man and Albion College assistant coach is absolutely massive and this allows him to get big to make shots that much harder for opponents. I've seen both he and Novotny in practice and while the two men are vastly different especially in size they both have the uncanny ability to make themselves bigger than they are (no small feat for Barry, who I would estimate to be around 6'5") and alter the shooter's shot without even needing to make a save. But when Ann Arbor did need a save, Barry delivered, and I'm looking forward to seeing footage of the penalty stop.
2. Depth remains key: This was a match where depth needed to be key. With a huge match (that I will discuss in a bit) on the weekend, and a semi-final match on this evening, you had to find a balance. With regular starters like Serge Gamwanya, Moco Watson, and Frenchy Braem in the squad, and guys like Alec Lasinski, Jake Rosen, and Kyle Breitmeyer who see plenty of time off the bench in most matches, you had the right balance of players with regular minutes to assist in helping out those who needed to use this match to seize their chances. Kenny Vasquez, Zach Beuscher, and Marlon Freitas were just a few of the players who got to use this game as a chance to start and make an impact, and of course Catona came off the bench to deliver the key blow.
3. Defending stands tall: It seems that any Eric Rudland side can change pieces of its side in and out and manage to get clean sheets at will. You had the hiccup in Grand Rapids, of course, but in a match with some untested players as I mentioned, the defense held onto a clean sheet with help from its net-minder. You always want to be playing for accolades and trophies, but especially so if you're AFC Ann Arbor because with the sort of depth this side has, the more competitions they're in means the more opportunities for players to shine. This team gets to add on another match to the schedule, but this one is for a trophy.
What's To Come:
AFC have three matches remaining officially in their season: two home NPSL bouts and the Michigan Milk Cup final. The immediate concern is beating FC Columbus on Friday and sealing off postseason glory and the division. A win on Friday gives AFC their second straight Great Lakes Divisional title and clinches their spot in the NPSL National Playoffs, with a strong shout for a bye in the Midwest Regionals. A loss complicates matters further, but they would know what they need for a playoff bid that evening as Grand Rapids hosts Detroit City Friday as well in what is GRFC's final NPSL match. That is something no one associated with the Mighty Oak wants to think about as they'd rather be celebrating a divisional title on Friday evening and not concerning themselves with scoreboard watching.
Let's take a moment to talk about the Columbus match and some hypothetical situations around all three results for AFC, starting with the most negative and working up in positivity. A loss keeps Columbus heavily in the race. With the AFC loss, that would leave both teams with their max points at 26. Columbus has two matches in hand, and two against FC Indiana, and they could make up the eleven goal differential behind Ann Arbor, even if AFC defeat FC Indiana on the last day. While Indiana have yet to pick up a single point this season, you'd rather not tempt fate and get things sealed off as quickly as possible and not need to worry about going all-out on the final day of the season. A draw on Friday means just a draw against Indiana is guaranteed to be enough for the division. Then of course a win clinches the division with a game to spare and enables AFC to put all their focus into the Milk Cup final. FC Columbus is a tough team hitting a great stretch of form at the right time. They're on a three-match win streak having swept Grand Rapids 5-0 in that span and are led by Damani Camara who has seven in seven in the NPSL, to go along with speed demon Ezra Armstrong who was named to the Football Manager NPSL Team of the Week last week as a left-back (though he's more a wing-back with the attacking outlet he provides). Friday's match will be the biggest of the season for the Mighty Oak.
Playoffs?:
As Indianapolis Colts head coach Jim Mora once said, "Playoffs? Don't talk about playoffs. You kiddin' me?" While his NFL team were a bit worse than the Mighty Oak in that 01-02 (they finished 6-10 and, in fact, missed the playoffs), you never want to jinx a side with looking to the future. With that said, AFC lead the NPSL in points per match and have set themselves up to be a Great Lakes representative in the Midwest Regional. The bye would allow AFC another week to rest and gather the troops while looking ahead to a potential two matches in two days on July 20th and 21st at a venue to be determined. Their loss to Grand Rapids was dwarfed by the draw Minneapolis City SC (the North Division's leader) suffered to LC Aris FC who up to that point, like FC Indiana, had yet to pick up a point. Additionally, the East Divison's leader, Erie Commodores FC, only picked up one point out of six last weekend and still have the other three top four sides in their division to play as a closer to the season. It is a trend across the Midwest, the leaders dropping points and needing to hold off other teams in order to retain their divisional leads. AFC hope that they will do the best job of the three sides and perhaps even claim the right to the #1 seed in the Midwest. But at this point, there's no question that they'll want to take it one step at a time starting on Friday against Columbus.
Follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for live coverage of AFC Ann Arbor as well as Michigan basketball and Liverpool FC. I'm also discussing the World Cup plenty on Twitter and on my blog as well, so make sure to catch that out!
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