The Real Monarchs of MLS NEXT Pro played host to El Farolito of the NPSL on a chilly night in Herriman, Utah. Despite less than 30% possession and less than half of the passes completed than their opponents, El Farolito came out as underdog victors again.
After a first quarter of hour that was dominated by the Real Monarchs, El Farolito got their first real chance in the 18th minute with a ball played into the top of the box, which found Judas Higuera. He was able to play the ball through traffic and find Dembor Benson at the back post, who slotted it past the keeper and open the scoring.
Both teams played about the same from the opening goal on until halftime – Monarchs enjoyed most of the possession but could not out any solid chances to score. The frustrated hosts went into the locker room, looking for answers for the second half.
The Monarchs found their answer in the 58th minute when a quick free kick got the ball to Monarchs’ captain, Noel Caliskan, who dribbled to about five yards outside the box before slipping, but playing the ball through a line of defenders and finding halftime sub, Antonio Riquelme, who found himself one on one with the keeper. Riquelme was able to power the ball past the keeper for the equalizing goal.
El Farolito’s keeper, Johan Lizzaralde, kept them in the match with two massive second half saves. One came just shortly after the Monarch’s goal on a shot from just outside the box almost slipped in at the near post, but he was able to react and parry it out for a corner. Just minutes later, Monarchs had a create looping ball into the box that led to a snap-header, but Lizzaralde was up to the task again.
The second half ended with the score level at 1-1, so we played 30 more minutes. El Farolito had their first real chance since their goal with a free kick from about a ten yards outside the box. The shot was on target, but was punched away by the Monarchs keeper, Max Kerkvliet.
The game really changed when Monarchs’ defender, Kobi Henry, received his second yellow card for a foul right outside of the box in the 104th minute. The Monarchs were able to defend the ensuing freekick from the edge of the box and any other threat and get into halftime of extra time still level, but that would not last long.
Up a man for the rest of the match, El Farolito was finally able to create more in the attack. They found their moment when Herbert Soto made a great run into the box and was dragged down by a Monarchs defender and was awarded a penalty. He stepped up and buried it to give the guests the late lead.
Monarchs committed too many forward and were caught a couple times in dangerous situations, but El Farolito finally put the match to bed in the fifth minute of stoppage time after a save from Kerkvliet fell straight to Eric Arias, who hit a wide empty net to make it 3-1 with the last kick of the match.
After the match, assistant coach Marcos Da Silva, said that this win was not just of El Farolito, but everyone back in San Francisco – especially their head coach who missed this match for a special reason, stating “when we leave San Francisco, we’re not just representing those guys are over here. We are family, over there, everybody, all the crowds we left over there in San Francisco. We fight for them. Also, we play for them today, especially, we fought for our head coach! He couldn’t come because his daughter was born, and he couldn’t make it, you know that we could go for him for his family too because of you know, he’s supposed to be over there, but he wanted to be here, you know, we fought for him too.”
When asked what it is like to return such an experienced team from last season’s Open Cup and NPSL successes, Da Silva said, “everybody knows what they’ve got to do, and everybody’s really committed with the team with a group because of here, we’re not just a soccer team, an amateur soccer team. We are a family, we have more than that when someone made a mistake. The other one is over there to recover, and that’s why we keep going. And that’s a pretty good feeling, because there’s a family is not just a soccer team.”