By: Pedro Heizer
The Atlanta Silverbacks won their first away game of the season this past Saturday as they defeated the slumping Fort Lauderdale Strikers 3-2 at Lockhart Stadium in front of 2,661 “Striker Likers”.
The Silverbacks looked lost at the begining of the game allowing Abe Thompson to score early in the 7th minute from a free kick by Coudet. Eduardo Coudet took a quick free kick and found Abe Thompson who hit it past Atlanta goalie Jimmy Maurer. The goal was Thompson’s second of the season and Coudet’s team-leading fourth assist of the season.
Exactly 10 minutes later, Atlanta struck with a goal by Paulini to tie the game at one.
The Silverbacks seized a 2-1 lead in the 32nd minute on a beautiful bending free kick by Ciaran O’Brien from 22 yards out past Strikers goalkeeper Matt Glaeser. It was O’Brien’s third goal of the season.
The Silverbacks took a 3-1 advantage in the 53rd minute when Matt Horth scored his fourth goal of the season splitting the Strikers defense and dribbling past Glaeser and scored into an open net.
Glaeser, the NASL Defensive Player of the Month, had given up four goals in the previous seven matches for the Strikers, but int he past two games has allowed seven.
“It’s disappointing,” said Strikers coach Daryl Shore. “We had a good start to the game and got the goal. Then we fell apart defensively. You would think that when you get that many corners you are going to get a goal off one of them.”
There’s a saying that says “You play the team not the record” and Coach Shore knew exactly what that felt like, “We knew Atlanta wasn’t what their record shows, they got three goals and made it tough for us.”
The Strikers cut the deficit to 3-2 in the 74th minute when Bryan Arguez scored his first goal of the season on a blast that went right by Atlanta’s Jimmy Maurer, but it wasn’t enough as the Strikers dropped their first game at Lockhart Stadium since April 9th against FC Edmonton.
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Strikers who will be on the road for the next two games. The Strikers will play Montreal Wednesday night at 7:30pm, the game can be seen live at strikers.com.