LA United didn’t have enough players at kick off Saturday 3/20 to complete the make up game rained off earlier in the season, and having been forced to forfeit left the field still top of the division with shouts of ‘we’ll see who the better team is tomorrow.’
Of course, it being the day of The Los Angeles Marathon a number of the heroes of Dinamo Internazionale were upset by the road closures, not least substitute goalkeeper Chris Fernandez. Scott Hutz deputized while Sean found a pair of boots he could play in and Matt McGough ran onto the field just at Kick Off.
You’d have thought us a little depleted on paper – recent talisman Gavin Bates was out, as was Benny Scott, best defender in the universe Diego De La Riva and holding mid stalwart Ally Christie. Chris Juhlin’s eldest was hospitalized with pneumonia overnight. Ronny Mik’s work has taken over his life, Rosario is in Italy until tomorrow, goalie Greg is in Texas and Paolo is in an editing room somewhere dealing with deadlines.
What we did have on the field today was passion, we went to every fifty fifty expecting to win and we fought like shipyard dogs and ran our asses off. In spite of playing much of the game with one up, Benny got into a surprising number of one on one’s with their ‘keeper and though we had to wait until the second half Benny converted and we were one up and looking quite comfortable with it.
If the holding mid partnership of Cesar and Matty was the epitome of hard grind, it was the flair of Alex and Ivan that held the ball and worked it progressively through their defense to give openings for Benny and Sean when he was up top. Alex and Ivan play the antithesis of what has historically been comfortable for Inter – ball at their feet they create space and play so beautifully close to the ball that they invite the lunge and the uncultured tackle. Holding onto a 1-0 lead, Alex and Ivan proved themselves priceless and were always a threat.
The whole team suffocated the disappointment at not seeing Diego behind them today, Diego has dug us out of so many holes and is adept at sticking the ball and turning his striker. With little option but to use Mike Penman in central defense, Mike continued his revelatory period with an outstanding performance playing with composure, whisking the ball away from many an ambitious attacker.
Our hard work was shortly rewarded when in the two up front period, Benny again found himself in the box one on one with the ‘keeper. Benny dribbled round him, but was brought down. Cesar Molina put the ball into the net with his left sealing one of the most satisfying performances from Dinamo Internazionale.
Terra was there and captured the grit and grind at Ferraro 7 at 8:00am this morning:
