FC Dynamo used a keeper blunder, a well-taken penalty and a stroke of master class to earn a 3-0 shutout win over Concordia Ale House.
Dynamo went ahead around the 15th minute. Jon Bial’s long throw-in gave the keeper fits. His bobble fell right to Brian Hildenbrand whose timely run saw him in the right place at the right time to chest the ball in for a 1-0 lead.
Around the 30th minute, Shiloh Rodriguez played in Chris Stevens down the left side with a nice through-ball. Chris got run over by a much larger Concordia defender in the box and the referee immediately pointed to the spot. Shiloh stepped up and put the ball past an out-stretched keeper in the bottom left corner to go up 2-0. We had a few more chances in the first half, and, although we gave them a few chances through some simple mistakes in the back… we were able to hold firm and go into halftime up 2-0.
The second half got off to a scary start. After a run of a few nice passes between several Dynamo players along the touchline… a Concordia defender stepped up to clear a ball and booted it right off Scott McDowell’s face from point blank range. It was tough to look at, and McDowell went down immediately. He was able to walk off the field under his own power, and kudos to the guys on the sideline for giving him treatment so promptly. McDowell would later return and play a role in our third goal.
Around the 80th minute, McDowell was able to free up Victor Calderon on the same sideline after a series of triangle passes between the two of them and Dave Trausneck. Calderon took 2 touches inside and let a shot go from about 20 that took a Darlington Nagbe-esque curve away from the keeper and into the top corner of the near post.
Dynamo’s defense held serve the rest of the match to help goalkeeper Russ Israelov record his first shutout this season.
Several people earned Man of the Match accolades, but this week, it goes to Erik Hardt with a solid display at stopper. Both firm in the tackle and also serving as a fulcrum to spring attacks, Erik played solid on both sides of the ball, and had a wonderful game from start to finish.
Honorable mention goes to Scott McDowell simply from bouncing back from a gnarly incident to provide an assist on the clinching third goal.
Final score, FC Dynamo 3 – Concordia Ale House 0
Scoring Summary:
Hildenbrand (Bial), 15
Rodriguez (PK), 30
Calderon (McDowell), 80
FC Dynamo Starting XI
GK
Israelov
D
Trausneck, Kelly, E. Aguilar, Hardt
MF
Calderon, Hildenbrand, McDowell, Stevens
F
Bial, Pradhan
Subs
Rodriguez, Broderick
