FC Naples waited until the 91st minute of their First Round US Open Cup match to score the game-winning goal against local rival, Sarasota Paradise. Last night, in front of an energetic home crowd, the USL League One leaders needed less than one minute to put away the game winning goal.
Midfielder Jayden Onen received a ball from Ian Cerro just outside of the visiting Little Rock Rangers’ box. Onen’s speed created the space he needed to score while most of the crowd of 2,174 fans were still settling into their seats.
Head coach of FC Naples, Matt Polland, started a rotated line-up for the Second Round match including giving a start to FC Naples Academy player, Roscoe Rubinstein, at the striker position. The balance of regular starters and reserve players was the right mix to breakdown the USL League Two opponent.
In the 14th minute, FC Naples defender, Brecc Evans, rose above his mark off a corner kick to head the second goal of the game. The goal gave FC Naples some breathing room but Polland said post-game that “After scoring the second goal we kind of went into cruise control for a little while which I wasn’t happy about, but the second half response was excellent. The defensive pressure, the effort was there obviously scoring another goal kind of put the game away.”
The third goal came for the home team came in 77th minute as substitute Andres Ferrin dribbled his way into the box and threaded a right-footed shot past Henry Hampshaw to seal the victory.
“Anytime we can give guys meaningful minutes it’s important,” said Pollard. “It allows for development. It’s a long season and you never know when you’re going to need to call on people so the ability to get more and more players meaningful minutes in these sorts of moments in very important for us for continuation through out the year.”
Little Rock played almost the entire game chasing a goal. Being the visitors, having to travel and face a team from a higher division was always going to be tough, but Little Rock did create problems for Naples.
It was not until the 60th minute when a foursome of FC Naples regulars subbed on that the imbalance between the two sides was truly exposed. In that last 30 minutes the home team constantly created dangerous chances barely letting the opposition out of their own half.
For FC Naples, the solid defensive performance combined with sustained attacking pressure was effective to secure their place in Round 3 in the club’s first appearance in the US Open Cup.
“We are feeling good, we are rolling right now,” said FC Naples defender Gustavo Fernandes. “Our mentality before the game was come out strong, come out with a lot of energy and I think we saw that in the first minute when we were able to get a goal so it was a good showing from us.”