|
 Down a goal but fired up as the temperature dropped, the Milwaukee Bavarians had a shot.
Marquette midfielder Sebastian Jansson slipped a pass in from the left wing to UW-Parkside forward Cyril Simmons, who picked out the left corner of the goal. Hollywood United goalkeeper Raul Calderon was headed in the opposite direction, but was able to reverse course and grab the shot.
Calderon punted the ball downfield and moments later Brent Whitfield scored the first of his two goals as the Hitmen went on to a 3-0 victory over the Bavarians in a National Premier Soccer League semifinal Thursday night at City High School in Madison, Ala.
"If the goalie had taken one more step (in the wrong direction), it probably would have gone in," Milwaukee coach Andreas Davi said of Simmons' shot. "With an equalizer, the whole game would probably change."
Instead, it was more of the same: A smart display from Hollywood United (14-2-1).
Ghanaian midfielder Emmanuel Bentil opened the scoring in the 47th minute and Whitfield doubled the lead in the 67th and added another in stoppage time as the Hitmen advanced to Saturday night's championship game against fellow NPSL newcomer Jacksonville United (7-4-0), which beat the Erie Admirals 4-2 in the night's second semifinal.
Davi was quite impressed by Hollywood United, whose veteran roster includes several former pros in addition to Bentil, whose resume includes 40 matches for the Bayern Munich reserves, and Whitfield, who played for Chivas USA in Major League Soccer.
"They deserved to win. They were the better team," said Davi, who played in the Bundesliga in his native Germany. "You could tell those guys had more experience. ... The way they played, tactical and technical was, since I'm in the States, the best I've seen. And I've seen a lot of games."
The Midwest Division champion Bavarians (8-3-2), who play Erie (11-2-1) in the third-place match at 5:30 p.m. Friday, struggled with the heat in the first half.
"(The Hitmen) were totally in control of the game," Davi said of the opening 45 minutes. "We were so busy with defending. In the first half, we were chasing only the ball."
Bentil hit the crossbar from 35 yards out two minutes before halftime, then broke the scoreless tie two minutes after the break.
The Bavarians cleared the ball out of their box after a cross, but played it to the middle of the field and Bentil pounced on it. He had time to get the ball onto his right foot, then ripped a shot past UW-Milwaukee keeper Bryce Boyd (Milwaukee Marquette) to the upper corner from about 20 yards out.
Whitfield's first goal, just after Simmons' chance, essentially ended any chances of an upset for a Milwaukee side that had only three shots on goal on the night.
"I'm proud of my guys, don't get me wrong," Davi said. "They played really good. They have nothing to be ashamed of."
MILWAUKEE BAVARIANS: Bryce Boyd; Luke Davey (Kinkade Lo), James Ashcroft (Mark Haas), Andrew Krenzien, Collin Monahan (Shay Douglas); Charlie Hoover, Ryan Whitehead; Sebastian Jansson, Amilcar Herrera (Tim Lancina), Robbie Boyd; Cyril Simmons (Mark Ciszewski).
Facebook photo gallery
|
