Despite a valiant fourth quarter attempt, the Blast had too wide of a margin to overcome, losing to the Silver Knights, 18-7. (Photo Courtesy of the Baltimore Blast)
I, like many of you fine people, was eager for tonight’s Baltimore Blast 2011-2012 home opener against the Syracuse Silver Knights. How would the Blast respond, coming off a lackluster championship defeat at the hands of the hated Milwaukee Wave? How would the fresh new (and barely pubescent) faces of the 2011 roster gel? How would the stalwart Blast stand up to a league full of new teams?
I don’t know about you, but an 18-7 loss to an expansion team was not the answer I was expecting, and I’m a little bit uneasy to see how the season unfolds.
“We have seven new faces on the team, but I’m not using that as an excuse,” said head coach Danny Kelly. “These guys are professionals. They’re expected to do their job and tonight we didn’t do our job. It’s very tough to swallow here in front of our home fans, and we had a great crowd. Just very disappointed with the result.”
In front of 8,078 home fans, the Blast got off to an uncharacteristically slow start in the first half, unable to score once, despite out-shooting the Silver Knights, 16-6. A hangover from last season perhaps? Maybe Syracuse was simply riding the wave of momentum following last night’s 23-7 win over the Norfolk SharX?
Regardless of the reason, forward Alex Megson scored first for the Silver Knights off an assist from forward Cory Elenio just over two minutes into the game. Midfielder Andre Berenzon followed up with a two-pointer six minutes later, and the second quarter was a snooze, with the Blast failing to cash in on a power play opportunity.
Berenzon widened the margin scoring an unassisted three-point goal 4:37 into the third quarter. Shortly after, Pat Healey earned two minutes in the box for kicking (sorry if this is ignorant, but isn’t kicking kind of essential to soccer?). Unlike Syracuse, Baltimore was unable to kill the power play, and Megson scored off a Berenzon assist at the 7-minute mark.
And the Silver Knights continued to pile on the goals, with Slavisa Ubiparipovic (say that three times fast) taking an assist from Andriy Budnyy and finding the back of the net on a hard shot right up the middle before the end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter didn’t look much better, with defender Jeff Hughes taking yet another pass from Berenzon for a goal, just over one minute into the quarter. Max Ferdinand quickly followed up with an unassisted three-point goal, to an eruption of cheers from the best fans in the MISL.
Defender Mike Lookingland found the back of the net next, just over four minutes into the fourth quarter, on an assist from Healey. Almost 10 minutes in, the game began to get interesting, with midfielder Carlos Garcia scoring off a pass from fellow veteran Adauto Neto, bringing the score to 13-7. Shortly after, Kelly brought Lookingland in as a sixth attacker.
Unfortunately, with an undefended net, Syracuse’s Danny Hall sent one from past the midfield line that rolled into the net for three points with just over a minute left in the game. And it continued to get worse as Megson outran Garcia to find the back of the net again. Syracuse improves to 3-0, and the Blast begins the season at 0-1.
“We were too casual with the ball,” Kelly said. “That’s unacceptable.”
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Now in his eighth season with the Blast, veteran goalkeeper Sagu has been named the team captain, replacing the retired Robbie Aristodemo. Sagu is a three-time goalkeeper of the year, six-time All-League selection and most importantly, homeboy named himself after a dessert. If that’s not awesome, I don’t know what is.
The new captain’s diagnosis of what ailed the Blast tonight?
“In my opinion, we need to step inside the field ready,” Sagu said. “Because the last game we played against Milwaukee here, it was the same situation. The game tonight, same situation. When you step inside the field, you have to be ready. If you’re not ready, the team coming in will be ready for you.”
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In awesome sweatband news, Ferdinand must have decided that too many other players were sporting neon shoes (which go so well with red socks), and he needed to set himself apart further. Tonight he sported an awesome sweatband, the likes of which are only rivaled by those of Doug Neely and Josh Rife.
It’s a little black number with a white spot on it. From up here in the sky press box, I can’t tell what logo it is, but it looks like one of these guys or one of these. (That last guy is kind of unfortunate, huh? Kind of like tonight.)
