Cincinnati Kings defeat Ft. Wayne Fever 3-1
Last night the Kings defeated the Ft. Wayne Fever 3-1 on the road. The Kings came out strong and were almost rewarded in the first minute when winger Jasmin Lazado had a break though saved by the Ft.Wayne goalkeeper. The game swung in the Kings favor when in the 35th minute Seth Eckerlin headed a long throw in from Aaron Miller in to the goal. The Fever responded by picking up the tempo and forced several saves from Matt Williams and a renewed effort by the defense. In the 45th minute center back Miller was shown the second yellow card resulting in a red card forcing the Kings to play a man down for the entire second half.
At half time we made several changes; taking Seth from the midfield and playing him at center back with Kyle Segebart and introducing Josh Albers and Matt Bahner wide to exploit their flank defender with pace. Unfortunately John Williams who was having a solid game needed to come off as well with a stomach virus. We also replaced forward Nick Weightman with Brandon Stelmak as we switched to a 4-4-1 and Brandon was given the lone task of holding the ball for us up top.
The halftime move worked out as in the 72nd minute Aaron Miller chipped the goalkeeper from 35 yards out to make it 2-0 Kings. In the 82nd minute Bahner threw the ball in to Stelmak who under pressure held the ball in the eighteen yard box and then laid the ball back to Judson McKinney who hit a low hard bomb past the Ft. Wayne GK. Ft.Wayne scored in the 91:00 on a Kings mistake in the back.
Coach Stahl’s comments:
At halftime we stressed that we were on top of the game and made the appropriate changes. We stressed that it was okay playing numbers down not to chase the ball unnecessarily and as long as they were not getting quality chances or goals to just to be patient and we would get some further opportunities. We did get behind them several times in addition to the goals.
Defensively we felt we were too far off our players and diving in too much. We asked the players to stop pointing at players but put names to the marking assignments and not to chase Ft.Wayne around the park when they played square or back. The players improved in these areas and it made a difference.
Offensive adjustments were to hold the ball more in order to maintain a good clock management. We stressed that near the end of the game we are not simply playing the opponents but in reality the clock. Great composure on the ball and playing the ball harder to feet was a necessity.
We have also become good a defending free kick…something we were weak in early in the season.
The Kings play in Cleveland Wednesday night.
