Battery tie MLS champs 1-1.
The Dynamo got on the board in the 17th minute after the USL Division One side conceded a free kick on the left flank. Stuart Holden’s out-swinging free kick found Ryan Cochrane’s head as he rose above the pack of defenders just outside the six-yard box. Cochran’s snap header left Battery goalkeeper Dusty Hudock helpless as the ball slammed against the back of the net.
In the 27th minute Houston was unlucky not to double its lead when Kevin Goldthwaite slammed a shot off the crossbar. Alejandro Moreno was equally unlucky not to connect on the rebound.
The tide began to turn in the Battery’s favor with the beginning of the second half. Charleston made several strong runs on goal, and had Houston on its heels as coach Dominick Kinnear began toying with his lineup, inserting Dwayne De Rosario and Brian Ching, both of whom had been away from the team with national team duty.
Neither Ching or De Rosario were effective as substitutes, as they were both forced to fall into a defensive posture as the Battery continued to push the attack.
The Battery finally pulled level in the 83rd minute off a looping ball played into the penalty area by defender Tim Karalexis. Wells raced well out of his goal losing the challenge to the Battery’s six-foot-six Jamaican international Newton Sterling. With Wells well out of his goal, Sterling nodded the ball over the flailing Wells, who could do nothing but watch it bounce across the line for the equalizer.
“It was a bad decision,” Wells said. “It’s something you have to learn from.”
The draw keeps Houston in first place in the CCC standings after its convincing 2-0 win over Toronto last Saturday. Toronto holds second place with a 1-0-1 tournament record after beating New York 2-1 on Wednesday. New York and Charleston hold third and fourth place respectively.
For an expansion team, pretty much everything is a first. With Toronto FC’s first preseason all but completed, the team picked up a very, very big first, beating the New York Red Bulls 2-1 on Wednesday in the Carolina Challenge Cup. The win was the expansion club’s first – exhibition or otherwise – against an MLS team.
Toronto has admittedly taken a slightly different approach to preseason training. While other MLS clubs had faced league competition in preseason scrimmages varying in formality for nearly the last two months, Toronto did not face MLS competition until it opened the Carolina Challenge Cup last Saturday, struggling in a 2-0 loss to last year’s MLS Cup champion Houston Dynamo.
Against the Red Bulls – missing only Marcus Schopp and Jozy Altidore – a considerably less-than-full-strength Toronto side missing several starters fended off the Red Bulls for a much-deserved first win.
Toronto jumped out in the ninth minute when Alecko Eskandarian side-footed in a seeing eye ball from Ronnie O’Brien who, wearing the captain’s armband for the night, found Eskandarian alone in the six-yard box.
New York responded in the 21st minute when Dave van der Bergh found John Wolyniec with a perfectly placed cross from the left flank. Wolyniec calmly headed the Red Bulls level past a stranded Greg Sutton.
But it wasn’t until the 36th minute that Toronto experienced its first lead in a club history. After steadily pushing the New York goal for some time Toronto was awarded a free kick on the right flank.
O’Brien curled an in-swinging free kick into Ronald Waterreus’ goal area. Edson Buddle’s far-post run put him in the perfect spot. He rose over Carlos Mendes and nodded home the game-winner.
But probably the biggest hero of the night was Sutton, who made several key saves to preserve the win, including a well-taken van den Bergh penalty kick.
The call leading up to the spot kick was, at best, questionable. A hard-driven shot from outside the penalty area hit Jim Brennan somewhere above the waist. The referee whistled the foul and pointed to the spot, despite the welt Brennan showed him on his chest.
With Claudio Reyna having been substituted, van den Bergh stepped up and hit a powerful spot kick just inside Sutton’s left post. Sutton did well to get to the ball and pounce on the rebound.
It was the second consecutive saved penalty kick for the Red Bulls. Against Charleston Battery on Saturday, Reyna had a penalty saved in the team’s second-half injury time win over the USL First Division side.
Both teams are back in action Saturday as the Carolina Challenge Cup concludes with Toronto facing Charleston and New York taking on Houston.