Wisconsin Soccer Central

The Madison 56ers played perhaps their best soccer of the season Tuesday night, which helped make their friendly against University of Portsmouth FC quite enjoyable for pretty much everyone at Breese Stevens Field.

"It's fun when you have success," 56ers coach Jim Launder said after his team's 3-1 victory over the English team in an entertaining match that saw plenty of scoring chances on both ends, especially in a wide-open second half.

Launder, though, was especially thrilled with what he saw in the opening half hour.

"I felt like the first 30 minutes might have been the best rhythm of play we've had all year," he said. "I thought we had really good rhythm, movement, circulated the ball really well, played quick – that was how I would hope we would play."

Carlos McCrary capped that stretch of play for the 56ers' starters with the opening goal in the 29th minute, a play that owed much to Chris Brown (McFarland/UW-Platteville).

The left back was on the receiving end of a crunching tackle, but managed to touch the ball ahead to McCrary just in time. McCrary then beat two defenders on the left side before flicking a shot past UPFC goalkeeper Nathan Headley at the near post.

"I think we were playing well, trying to find the right moment," said McCrary, who has a team-best six goals in all competitions this year. "I think this is one of the better games we've played as a team. We looked organized, we looked like we wanted to play. It was good."

The goal came against a UPFC side set up in a quite defensive style.

The visitors started in a 4-5-1, with the five midfielders spread across the field and making it difficult for Madison to work through the middle. After the 56ers started finding some of the gaps between the midfielders and backline, UPFC coach Bruce Suraci switched to a 4-1-4-1 with a holding midfielder offering support in front of the defenders.

"They were sitting in quite far and then they were pressing us right as a team," said midfielder Jack Keeling, one of three Englishmen who played for Madison. "That's something none of the teams do in this conference, it's something different. ... It reminds me of playing back home. They have a distinct style of play – they get stuck in, they play that long ball over the top. It was nice."

But the game changed noticeably at halftime. "They decided to try to go for it and they opened up a lot more," Launder said.

Suraci's changes instantly resulted in more opportunities for UPFC after the break – after generating just three shots in the first half, they had four in the opening 5 minutes of the second half.

"We spotted a few defensive weaknesses in the Madison team, so we dicided to go 4-2-3-1 and start to target certain areas of the pitch," said Suraci, whose team fell to 0-2-1 on its American tour. "We looked to get the ball into those areas and we did. And a result, we created a few chances. Managed to get a goal, but obviously as a result of going to a more attack-minded team, we also got hit on the counter attack.

"One thing we also have problems with sometimes is because we look to play expansively and play out from defenders, we sometimes leave spaces and those spaces get exploited."

Despite the increased offensive pressure by UPFC, the 56ers managed to add to their lead.

UW-Milwaukee's Luke Goodnetter (Brookfield East), who came on at halftime as Launder used 10 players off the bench – the teams used open substitutions – scored the second on an impressive strike in the 63rd. He got the ball from Jed Hohlbein (Middleton/UW) about 30 yards out and ripped a powerful, low shot that beat substitute keeper Kevin Johnson to the right post.

"The thing stayed like 6 inches off the ground all the way the in, and it was on a rope," Launder said.

Johnson, who is from Cary, Ill., but joined UPFC because Headley is nursing an injury, made two fine saves to keep it a two-goal game.

First, Max Campos picked off an errant pass and let loose with a shot from just outside the top of the box, but Johnson went up and stretched out to his left to deny the Costa Rican in the 70th. Ten minutes later, McCrary won a 50-50 ball in a challenge with a UPFC defender and broke in alone on the left, only to see Johnson stop him at the near post.

"I thought he was cheating right, and to be honest I probably should've played it across to Jesus (Miranda), who was wide open, but I was greedy at that point. I had a 1-on-1 so I wanted to take it," McCrary said. "The keeper played pretty well – it could have been worse maybe, because he made some really good saves."

Miranda (Madison La Follette) would get a goal a minute later, though, as he pounced on a poor clearance about 25 yards out, worked his way in on the left side and converted in the 81st.

"It was a good move," Launder said. "He kept going like a guy who wants to get back on his right foot and then he took it with his left."

UPFC kept going, too, and were rewarded less than a minute later. Forward Charlie Quigley played a through ball for midfielder Kiri Portou on the right and he finished against UW-Oshkosh keeper Nick Barry, who was making his 56ers debut.

"Personally, I think we were the better team," said Portou, who has scored in each of UPFC's first three matches on their tour, accounting for all of the team's goals. "They finished their chances better than we did. I think we created more chances, they were just more ruthless in the final third. Other than that, it was a fair game and I thought we played pretty well, to be honest."

The English side had chances to cut the deficit to one, but fired just wide in the 83rd and saw Barry make a one-handed save on a header by Simon McManus off a short corner kick that Quigley served to the far post in the 86th.

The teams combined for 32 shots, including 22 in the second half, with 15 of those shots on frame.

"I thought Madison were a nice team, good team, broke us down well, had some good players," Suraci said. "And because they tried to attack, we tried to attack. It made for an open game, entertaining – hopefully it was enjoyable for the spectators. and hopefully some of our boys showed quality.

"Soccer, for me, is a form of entertainment for fans, and that's what ultimately drives soccer, is fans. The more entertaining games can be, the more fans will come, the more people fall in love with the game."

From the touchline

Launder played most of his regulars for approximately 45 minutes, looking ahead to Sunday's National Premier Soccer League Midwest Region match against the Quad City Eagles (7-0-1) in Riverdale, Iowa. To repeat as Central Conference champions, the 56ers (5-2-2) likely need to win their final three matches and have the Milwaukee Bavarians beat or tie Quad City in a season finale July 14. "It's good for us building up to the Quad City game, because it's early in the week, we're going to be rested in time for Sunday," Keeling said. "This was a good run out." ... English right back Dominic O'Connor played the second half for the 56ers, his first appearance since suffering a knee injury on June 8. ... Suraci and 56ers general manager Cristian Brei had discussions about a possible partnership that would allow UPFC players to play for the 56ers, among other things. "We'll look at the some links, see if we can set something up between us and Madison on a number of levels," Suraci said. "We're really pleased with that and we definitely hope to do it again in the future."

MADISON 56ERS 3:1 (1:0 HT) UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH FC

July 2, 2013 Friendly at Breese Stevens Field
Madison 56ers – Carlos McCrary (Chris Brown) 29
Madison 56ers – Luke Goodnetter (Jed Hohlbein) 63
Madison 56ers – Jesus Miranda 81
University of Portsmouth FC – Kiri Portou (Charlie Quigley) 81

MADISON 56ERS: Ryan Onwukwe; Chris Brown, Andrew Stone, Matt Balshaw, Mike Prudisch; Ryan Buda, Luke Goodnetter, Jack Keeling, Trevor Banks; Carlos McCrary, Anthony Santaga. Substitutes (open): Claudiu Aionesei, Jade Johnson, Keenan Newallo, Josh Parulski, Dominic O'Connor, Max Campos, Jed Hohlbein, Bryan Minogue, Nick Barry (GK), Jesus Miranda.

UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH FC: Nathan Headley; Josh Remedios, Kieron Lewis, Simon McManus, Tom Skidmore; Kiri Portou, Jack Woodward, Mason Gardener, Ralph Brown, Alex Disch; Charlie Quigley. Substitutes (open): Polys Avgousti, Anthony Keeton, Andronikous Kekliloglou, Kevin Johnson (GK), Nathan Kent.

Saves: M (Onwukwe 2, Barry 3) 5, UPFC (Headley 2, Johnson 4) 6. Shots: M 17, UPFC 15. Corner kicks: M 3, UPFC 5. Fouls: M 6, UPFC 8. Offsides: M 2, UPFC 3.