Ukrainian Nationals Obolon
U16 M
Heads it is! Two terrific headers gain the Obolon a win and a draw.
After a disappointing Draw on Saturday vs Ocean Milan the Obolon gain a hard-fought 1-0 result over #1 NJ, #10 in Country Washington Township.
After falling behind Saturday the Obolon stormed back in second half only to see several chances go begging. Finally Isaiah Johnson buried a header to gain the draw off a beautiful well-struck free-kick by Roben which curled over the wall. The Obolon controlled play but stellar saves by the Milan keeper kept them from from gaining a W.
On Sunday the Obolon knew they would have their hands full with Washington Township. Playing a defensive formation to begin the 1st half ended scoreless. With 15 min left and the score-sheet still blank the Obolon pushed a second attacker with almost immediate results. Matt Ammendola gained possession on a key tackle and pushed the counter attack slipping a ball to Danny Mac into the right corner. As D-Mac lined up his cross and Luke heading short-post he played a perfect ball to Abdul on the back post and 'Jiggy' made no mistake beating his defender and the keeper to the ball. The defense had to come up huge and keeper Ryan Hemsley made seberal huge save to preseve the win, including stoning a point-blank shot in the waning seconds.
Great job Boys!
The Obolon had a successful debut to the 2013 campaign going 2-0-1 to take their group in the Showcase I Flight in the Annandale Premier Cup.
In their first game on Friday vs McClean Academy they fell behind on a wind swept goal only to level. The boys saw plenty of chances to get the win go begging and had to setting with a draw. In their second game they had the better of play but needed a blistering goal from Roben to get the win against a stout Louden team from VA.
In the deciding game of the group the boys found themselves down 2 nil despite out-chancing Beadling SC from Pittsburgh. In the second half the offense came to life with 3 unanswered tallies from Matt Ammendola (from D-Mac), Isaiah (D-Rem) and B-Marsh from Jake Saba to seal it.
All in all the team is coming together with contributions from everyone and great defensive efforts from the D-line and keeper Ryan Hemsley as the boys fill in while Danny Kelly recovers from a shoulder injury. Matt A and Roben took turns manning the fort with the always reliable Octo at center back.
