California Cougars' Streak Snapped in Chicago
Published on March 26, 2006 under Major Indoor Soccer League 2 (MISL 2)
California Cougars News Release
CHICAGO (Sunday, March 26, 2006) - A team that's built its reputation on its unrelenting second-half heroics was unable to complete yet another comeback on Sunday as the California Cougars fell 7-4 on the road to the Chicago Storm on Sunday at the UIC Pavilion, snapping a five-game winning streak, and dimming the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) expansion team's chances for an MISL Championship Series berth.
The Cougars had defeated Chicago on three-consecutive occasions, and had not lost any game in more than a month. Still California was unable to overcome the strong play of Storm goalkeeper Jeff Richey, who saw his first action against the Cougars this season and was able to slow what had recently been a scorching Cougars' attack.
Chicago, which had lost four consecutive games, and had not won since Feb. 19, moved two games ahead of the Cougars for the fourth and final MISL postseason bid. Chicago (10-16) has four games remaining in the 2005-06 MISL Regular Season. The Cougars (9-19) have two games remaining - both at Stockton Arena.
On Sunday the Cougars led only once, on an opening score by San Jose native Enrique Tovar. True to form they successfully fought off 3-1 and 4-3 deficits, and tied the game at 4 at the 11:09 mark of the third quarter on a Seyi Abolaji score, but did not answer a pair of successive Storm goals that came at 12:12 and 12:31 of the third.
Tovar and John Ball each had one goal and one assist for California, which had averaged 3.7 goals after the halftime intermission in winning eight of its previous 10 games. Chicago's Richey stopped 12 of 16 shots overall, six of seven in the second half, and improved to 3-2 in limited duty behind regular goalkeeper Danny Waltman.
"Chicago just outworked us tonight," Cougars head coach Troy Dayak said. "They seemed fresher. We seemed sluggish. We were constantly second to the ball. We had a lot of tired legs and we did not play the way I like us to play. We were second to the ball and we didn't always match their physical play."
Tovar's 11th goal of the season, off an assist from Craig Scheer, opened the scoring at 8:00. Chicago, held in check for the first 9:34 then struck with scores Mark Ughy and Matthew Stewart against Cougars' goalkeeper Jim Larkin, who made his first start since being knocked out of a Feb. 24 game following a collision that resulted in an injured back. Stepping in for rookie Dominik Jakubek, who'd won his past five starts but had injured his wrist during the road trip, Larkin (4-14) saved 12 of 18 shots in 57:09 of play. Defender Ryan Hall added four blocks.
Chicago's Ughy finished with a game-high three points (two goals, one assist) striking again 46 seconds into the second quarter, stripping the ball at midfield and burying a shot high inside the goal from 40 feet.
Counter-attack goals by Ball, who scored the 199th goal of his 11-year career at 3:21 of the second quarter off a Tovar pass, and Bernie Lilavois at 8:54 of the quarter off a Brian Farber assist tied the game at 3 at halftime.
Aboliaji's goal off a pass from Ball evened the game for the last time with less than 19 minutes to play. The Storm's decisive scores - first the tie-breaker by Tamas Weisz at 12:12 of the third quarter, then a rebound goal by Awadalla Morad (12:31) made it 6-4. Morad added his second goal of the game more than 15 minutes later, at 12:51 of the fourth quarter with Larkin out of the game and Ball in as the Cougars' sixth attacker.
"We were on top of them, but mostly those two plays killed us," Dayak said. "Two bad plays, a foul and a soft pass negated our positive play and our momentum. We hit the corner three times and missed other chances."
The California Cougars close out their inaugural regular season with home games at Stockton Arena against Philadelphia (Saturday) and Milwaukee (April 9), where they will continue their pursuit of an MISL postseason bid.
Major Indoor Soccer League 2 Stories from March 26, 2006
- California Cougars' Streak Snapped in Chicago - California Cougars
- KiXX Drop 6-2 Decision in Baltimore - Philadelphia KiXX
- Steamers Clinch Regular Season Title, Home Field Advantage In Playoffs - St. Louis Steamers
- Wave falls to Steamers, 7-6 - Milwaukee Wave
- Wave falls to Steamers 7-6 - Milwaukee Wave
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