
Switchbacks FC Earn 11th Win against Indy Eleven
June 18, 2022 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC News Release
Colorado Springs, CO - The Switchbacks FC earned four huge goals tonight in front of a sold out crowd to earn their 11th win of the season 4-2 against Indy Eleven.
The Switchbacks dominated early, and the first 15 minutes of the match saw 40% of action in Indy's defensive third of the pitch. The Switchbacks earned the first goal of the night in the 17th minute, when #11 Michee Ngalina chipped the ball just outside the six yard box to lift the ball over Indy's goalkeeper and land in the top center of the net. Indy Eleven tied it up in the 28' by Manuel Arteaga.
Indy Eleven earned a penalty foul in the 45' after Arreguin denied a goal scoring opportunity to Elvis Amoh. #10 Hadji Barry earned the second goal of the night for the Switchbacks in a penalty kick, and the score was 2-1 going into halftime.
Barry and Amoh both had shots in the early minutes of the second half, but Indy Eleven was able to tie it up in the 63'. Three minutes later the Switchbacks took the lead again when Barry's shot rebounded off an Indy player, #8 Zach Zandi was able to get a beautiful half volley off the left foot from the bottom left corner of the box to the bottom right corner of the net.
The Switchbacks final goal of the night would come in the 69' from an incredibly tight angled cross by #11 Michee Ngalina, as he winged the ball from the very top right corner of the pitch to curve it in just around the post and into the net. Indy Eleven would earn one final goal in the final seconds of the game, but it wouldn't be enough to equalize and the match ended 4-3 Switchbacks.
Brendan Burke
Overall Thoughts:
"Sloppy performance at times. But our attacking talent can win us games. I thought the first 45 minutes we dominated the game, there was one little slip up but that happens. Second half I thought was a little more disjointed and we didn't dominate the game the way we would expect to or want to. But that's a very good team that we just beat, at 11-2 you can't have any complaints."
On what to work on to put teams away:
"That's what we talked about in LA too. We weren't good in the first 25 minutes out in LA and we had big spells where we weren't good tonight. When we are good we're almost unstoppable. I'm really happy where we are as a group but we do need to put together a 90 minute performance. And it probably has to happen next weekend."
On the importance of next week's San Antonio match:
"It's still early in the season, so you don't wanna over emphasize it. But believe me there's no love lost there."
On Ngalina's and Zandi's goals:
"Speechless. I mean [Zach] Zandi's was with his left foot and his technique was out of this world. I can't say enough about those guys; someone asked the other day about giving one word to describe Zach [Zandi] and I said complete. Just as complete as any player I've ever worked with - he's intelligent, he's technical, he has a mobility and he reads the play well. There's no hole in his game."
On seeing Zandi live up to his potential:
"We knew that since he was 18 years old, that if he stays healthy for a whole season he can put together these types of performance. And he spent a great deal of the off-season preparing his body for this."
Zach Zandi
On his volley tonight:
"I was able to catch it on the half volley and it's one of those that's as soon as I hit it, it was flying out, and it was lucky enough to go in but as you said three points are more important. A big team win a big performance against a good Indy team and now we have an even bigger game against San Antonio coming up."
On how to clean things up for San Antonio:
"Oh, I think San Antonio is one of the best teams in the league in the west with us can't really have any slip ups little mistakes like the goal at the end was tough to concede. And the SEP pieces have been a big problem for us we need to go back and look at the film and really try and learn and get better and improve for next game."
Michee Ngalina
On his two goals:
"We've been working for that, and we've been waiting for this game to put out a performance like that."
On the importance of three points:
"The Indy Eleven team is very good and I respect them and it's not easy to play against that team in a tough game but it feels good to get The three points."
Hadji Barry
On the importance of his goal:
"It gave us momentum going into the second half. I thought we played a really good first half, we made that one mistake and they punished us for it, but we're a resilient team and we don't go down after a goal. We've been through it, we've been down before and it's about how we respond. This is the time of year that you want to make those types of mistakes and just learn from them for later on in the season."
On cleaning up for San Antonio:
"We definitely have to do better, we've got a good team but we're giving up a lot. Indy 11 has a good team they've got a lot of good guys with lots of experience over there so you have to give them credit. They're going to score some goals but at the end of the day we scored more goals than them."
On Michee [Ngalina] and Zach [Zandi's] goals:
"That's class, we're all happy for them we were all jumping in buzzin for them. That's what you want to see, you wanna see your teammate succeed and when they succeed that means your team is doing well. We see that every day and training and it's good to do that in front of the fans. The Home crowd couldn't be better."
On seeing [Deshane] Beckford next week:
"We're excited, at the end of the day we're excited it's a family when he was here he was a very important player for us. But for the 90 minutes there's no friends on that field. Before and after the game will talk but when that whistle goes we're trying to win."
Game Statistics:
Man of the Match// Michee Ngalina
Scoring Summary// COS: Ngalina (17')(Lindley), Barry (45+1'), Zandi (66'), Ngalina (Barry) | IND: Arteaga (28'), Aguilera Jr. (63')(Law), Arteaga (90+6')(Rebellon)
Saves// COS: Caldwell (2) | IND: Meredith (2)
Discipline// COS: YC: Ockford (60'), Makangila (72'), Lindley (76'), Erdmann (89') | IND: YC: Asante (22'), Jerome (64'), Aguilera Jr. (75')
Images from this story
![]() Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC in action (Ethan Mito) |
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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
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