Galati FC

Boston’s Kendall Wanderers moved into the First Round of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup for the first time in the Bay State Soccer League club’s long history with a 2-1 win over Mass United.

This season’s BSSL runners-up enjoyed more possession and chances than their United Premier Soccer League (UPSL) opponents in steady rain at Dilboy Stadium in Somerville, Mass. The Wanderers survived a late scare and held on to clinch a spot in the 105th edition of the tournament which is scheduled to begin in May of 2018.

Dave Sheehan broke the deadlock six minutes before halftime as the Wanderers left back ventured down the flank and chipped the advancing United keeper with a finish that was hacked clear in desperation, but had crossed the line. Mass United might have leveled deep into added time with the last kick of the half by Mohamed Saeed saw a chance roll agonizingly across the face of goal.

United had strong penalty claims for handball waved away after 62 minutes but Kendall had begun to take the upper hand with left wing raids through Francis Mulhern twice causing problems. In the 67th minute, Ian Sweeney saw a clear chance parried away and the loose ball fell to Mitch Justice, who was unable to react to the quick rebound, his finish deflected away for a corner.

Kendall Wanderers’ pressing paid off in the 73rd minute when the same three players combined to take a 2-0 lead. Justice picked up a loose ball 40 yards from goal, found Mulhern racing down the left, and his low cross was directed home from close range by Sweeney, formerly of Athlone Town of the League of Ireland.

Two minutes from fulltime, Mass United could have halved the deficit through Majid Saeed but he was unable to capitalize. However, United made the second half’s three minutes of injury time interesting, when a curling finish from Jeff Thomas wide on the left found the back of the net. That late goal would be too little, too late as the Wanderers would clinch a spot in the US Open Cup for the first time.

Sporting AZ FC earned its spot in the first round of the 2018 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup with their 6-1 win over Galati FC.

Alejandro Aguilar scored a pair of goals to lead Sporting, the club formerly known as the Arizona Sahuaros, to their first US Open Cup berth since the new club was launched last January.

At the 4:30 mark Sporting AZ’s Alejandro Aguilar put the ball in the middle with a deflection from Galati, and it went in for the early lead, setting the tone for the entire night.

It was 15 minutes later that teammate Jose Ramos would kick it in with an assist from Robert Paul. Galati would remain scoreless through out the rest of the first half.

Sporting head coach Aiden Davison said, “We were effective, that’s about it, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” when it came to his teams performance throughout the night.

Andrew Weber Sporting AZ goalkeeper, said, “First half was a little sloppy on our part,” but they would quickly change the tempo, “I think we cleaned it up and got one right away in the second half.”

Sporting AZ, with a goal kicked in by Alejandro Aguilar, made the score 3-0 46 minutes into the game.

The goals would keep on coming, the 78-minute mark of the game would finally prove effective for Galati, making the score 4-1.

The deficit would quickly go to 5-1 at the 79-minute mark with a goal by Aguilar once again, with an assist from Jaime Olabarria.

In the closing minutes Galati’s Pablo Ramirez was red carded for throwing the ball at a member of Sporting AZ, in not the best of areas.

Weber said, “I just think defensively we were really solid.” The team is now going to regroup and focus on the 2018 tournament.

Davison said about their performance, “We’ve just got to do a lot of work on the training ground, which we will be doing because there some huge improvements to be made.”

Weber agreed with his coach saying, “Just regroup and get things tighter you know, as the rounds go on it get tougher and tougher and I think this group can definitely make a run at it if we get things tighter.”

Sporting AZ would finish the game with a score of 6-1 and will see their next opponents in 2018 in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.