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 Henry Aiyenero succinctly summed up the past few days for Madison 56ers.
"It's been a weird week," the player-coach said after guiding the team to a 5-1 thumping of Minnesota Kings FC in a National Premier Soccer League Midwest Division match Sunday afternoon at Breese Stevens Field.
North Carolina midfielder Carlos McCrary, University of Wisconsin defender Colin Mani (Madison Edgewood), UW-Green Bay's Sam Krenzien (Wauwatosa West), UW-Milwaukee's Cody Banks (Madison Memorial) and veteran forward Jed Hohlbein (Middleton/UW) all scored for the 56ers, who spent most of the week at Breese Stevens.
Madison took the field at the 85-year-old stadium four times in six days. They played only 18 minutes Tuesday before a lightning storm forced their U.S. Open Cup second-round match to be moved to Wednesday, lost to the Chicago Fire PDL 2-0 in the replay and looked out of sorts in losing to the St. Paul Twin Stars 3-2 in a league match Saturday night.
The loss to the Twin Stars was especially frustrating as the 56ers could have pulled within three points of the league-leading Milwaukee Bavarians in the Midwest, but instead remain six points back with three matches left.
"I thought we came out strong, ready to play," said Aiyenero, in charge of the team because coach Jim Launder was scouting for U.S. Soccer at the U.S. Youth Soccer Region II Championships in Appleton and De Pere. Aiyenero left himself on the bench as an unused sub.
"We're playing to survive. We need to continue to play, and play well, and try to win the rest of our games and hope that somebody else helps us out. ... The league is unpredictable right now, you never know who's going to win."
That certainly is true, considering Kings FC (2-4-2) handed the Bavarians their first loss of the season, 2-1 on Saturday night in Milwaukee. But the Minnesota team had little left in the tank against Madison.
"They looked tired," Aiyenero said of Kings FC, which lost to the 56ers 2-0 back on May 21 in St. Michael, Minn. "They were not putting any pressure on us."
McCrary gave the 56ers (4-3-2) the lead in the 15th minute, scoring his third goal of the season off a corner kick. Madison doubled the lead off another set piece, with Mani headed home a free kick by Trevor Banks (Madison Memorial) in the 36th, and Krenzien extended the lead to 3-0 in first-half stoppage time.
Cody Banks came up with what Aiyenero called the goal of the day early in the second half, scoring on a 20-yard blast. "He just took a touch and ripped it," Aiyenero said.
McCrary was involved in the fifth goal, drawing a penalty kick that Hohlbein converted to make it 5-0. Kings FC broke up the 56ers' bid for a clean sheet in the final 15 minutes with a goal against UW-Platteville goalkeeper Jared Kuehl (Oregon/MATC), who was making his debut with the team in relief of starter Kyle Dillman (Madison La Follette). Dillman saved Minnesota's only other shot on goal.
Still, "I thought our back four played really well today," Aiyenero said of the quartet of center backs Mani and Sean Ronnekleiv-Kelly, left back Carl Schneider (Madison La Follette) and right back Aaron Nichols (UW).
There are only two NPSL Midwest matches scheduled this holiday weekend, and both involve the 56ers.
They play host to Eau Claire Aris FC (1-5-2) – Madison rolled to a record-tying 9-0 rout in the teams' first meeting June 4 – at 7 p.m. Saturday at Breese Stevens, then travel to Bridgeview, Ill., to face the Chicago Fire (2-4-2) at 4 p.m. Sunday. The visiting Fire scored in the final seconds of stoppage time to beat Madison 2-1 on May 28.
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Madison 56ers |
3 |
2 |
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5 |
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Minnesota Kings FC |
0 |
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Madison 56ers – Carlos McCrary (Colin Mani) 15
Madison 56ers – Colin Mani (Trevor Banks) 36
Madison 56ers – Sam Krenzien (Trevor Banks) 45+
Madison 56ers – Cody Banks 52
Madison 56ers – Jed Hohlbein (penalty kick) 76
Minnesota Kings FC – Information not available
MADISON 56ERS: Kyle Dillman (Jared Kuehl 76); Carl Schneider, Sean Ronnekleiv-Kelly, Colin Mani, Aaron Nichols (Derek Pitts); Carlos McCrary (Josh Thiermann), Keith Dangarembwa, Trevor Banks; Cody Banks (Luke Klees); Andrew Wiedabach (Jed Hohlbein), Sam Krenzien (Robin Forslund). Substitute not used: Henry Aiyenero.
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