Cleveland Falls 2-1 At Crystal Palace Baltimore
Published on June 13, 2008 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Cleveland City Stars News Release
The Cleveland City Stars came out flat after a week of traveling and ran into a tough Crystal Palace Baltimore club in dropping a 2-1 decision Friday night.
Baltimore opened the scored in the 26th minute by Pat Healy on an assist from Paul Robson.
The early goal put Cleveland in a tough position as Crystal Palace played back for the remainder of the half.
"In the first half we came out flat and we really didn't play well. That really put us in the back seat after their early goal," said Godfrey Tenoff. "We tried to pick it up in the second half and we did a good job of doing that, but it was tough."
The style of play remained similar into the second half. The Stars tried to loosen up the Baltimore defense but had trouble getting any clean looks.
Crystal Palace then scored again in the 59th minute on a break-away by the recently substituted Gary Brooks.
Success did not come for Cleveland until late in the second half when the offense began to spread out and open the field. After an attack deep into Baltimore's end, Adriano Sella set up with a free kick. Sella responded with a long cross from the left side that floated over the entire defense and into the far back corner for a 2-1 score.
It was not enough for Cleveland as multiple chances were cleared off the line by the Crystal Palace defense in the closing minutes.
"I thought we moved the ball quite well late," said Dana McGregor. "We were getting good chances and we really opened them up by passing. We were a little unfortunate tonight, we worked hard and had some good looks but we just didn't get them to go in when we needed it."
The Stars will have little time to rest as Cleveland travels to Pittsburgh for a match with its rival on Saturday.
"Every game we look at as a final from here on out," said Tenoff. "These games are preparation for the U.S. Open Cup and for the regular season championship. If we want to compete for the championship we need to treat every game like its the final. We need to rest up and get energized for Saturday so that we can bounce back."
Cleveland sits at 5-2-3 with 18 points and are now tied with Crystal Palace Baltimore for 2nd place in the USL-2 table. Saturday's match with 0-6-2 Pittsburgh kicks off at 7:05 pm.
United Soccer League Championship Stories from June 13, 2008
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