Sockers Beat 1st Place Tropics in OT
20.02.2021
The Sockers get their second win in the season with a 4-3 win in overtime vs. 1st place Florida Tropics. They improve to 2-2 while Tropics fall on OT again for the second day in a row and losing their consistency after a 7-0 winning streak.
Pre-game
Before kickoff, the match would be the first time both teams will meet in the 2021 season. San Diego was coming off a loss on Thursday to the Ontario Fury by 5-1. Their streak for the whole season has been L-W-L, scoring 9 and allowing 13. Meanwhile, for the Tropics, they were coming off a loss as well, a close one in OT to the Tacoma stars on Thursday 6-7. They, too, are on an L-W-L streak coming to this match; scoring 58 goals in the season so far and allowing 40 still makes them top of the league.
Recap
The game would start quickly for the Sockers as they first go up the scoreboard with a set-piece play that Jurado slots in for his first season. Afterward, the Tropics played a lob passing style of soccer with long passes to the top striker and making plays off the wall when pressed by a defender from behind. After several of these plays, San Diego gets their 2nd goal off a counter after breaking up a play in their own half, and Oliveria sprinting from that point to double the lead. However, the Floridian team had more possession throughout the match, in fact, and the Socker's strategy for that is to find the counter.
In the second quarter, the Tropics respond when after SD keeper William Vanzela makes a mistake, and Sandoval earns his first of the night to cut the lead in half for the Tropics. Then, they tie the match with 3 minutes in the 2nd quarter off a power play that saw a setup on the right side for Carvalho. Then the Tropics will persist when Arico makes it in after a messy play that finds him open after a shot was off the post and the keeper out of his line to get the lead for the first time. San Diego has made mistakes like this in the game where they were too comfortable trying to build from the back, and it has come back to haunt them.
In the 3rd quarter, the Tropics would maintain their possession, but Vanzela has made a couple of great saves. Nonetheless, it was back and forth between the two teams and was very choppy. The ball was booted plenty of times by both teams that they were a lot of dead plays and restarts. In the 8th minute, the Sockers applied high press to force the Tropics keeper Jorge Navarrete to get rid of the ball, and Cerda pounces on the mistake to tie the game.
The final quarter was Florida having most of the possession and San Diego playing defense to find a moment to counter, but the Tropics were physical in winning and keeping the ball. For both teams, the keepers had a busy night and have made key saves to force it to overtime. The hero would be Oliveria with a low shot from the left that hits the right post and pings in to help the Sockers win a sloppy game.
Both teams will play Sunday to close week 8. The Tropics will play the undefeated Ontario Fury, and the Sockers will play another OT winner Tacoma Stars.
Photo credit- San Diego Sockers Social Media
