The Philadelphia Fury match against Icon FC this past Saturday was completely opposite from their opening match against the AC Crusaders from the week before. Using a 4-4-2 formation that turned into 4-3-1-1, the Fury played a more defensive-oriented match than they did last week. The midfield was where most of the action took place this week, with both teams battling for control of the ball.
Both sides were able to get clear chances. The Fury's Ansger Otto, who was coming off a hat trick in the last match, had many chances to get on the scorecard in this one. In one play he stole the ball from an Icon defender and raced to the goal. Otto saw their goalie Sheldon Dorleans off his line, so he tried to chip it over him, but the shot was too high and it went over the crossbar. For Icon FC, their main scoring threat was player/coach Phil Swenda who had multiple chances to give Icon the lead but came up short. Michael Collis for Icon had many chances as well, but Fury keeper Chase Clement kept the clean sheet. The first half would end scoreless for both sides.
The second half saw high intensity from both teams. The two saw play get chippy as multiple cards were issued for rough play. In the 75th minute it looked like the Fury had gotten on the board. Fury defender Brad Vanino ran up the field and passed the ball to a winger on his right. The give and go worked as Vanino got the ball back and shot it into the goal and sent the 600+ fans in attendance into a frenzy. But it was later called off when the assistant referee disallowed the goal saying the ball bounced off Vanino's arm.
But new signing Scott McCoubrey created the spark that the Fury needed. Having multiple shots throughout the game, he assisted on the winning goal. Another streaky winger, he ran down the side around defenders and did a left footed cross into the box that was collected by Nic Kolarac who slotted it past by the Icon keeper Dorleans for the score.
It got even more chippy near the end of the match. Defender Amadou Sheriff of the Fury, who received a yellow card earlier in the match, received a second later on after a hard challenge. Then near the end of the match Fury midfielder Seydou Ba had a breakaway chance for a second goal but was taken out by Dorleans. The keeper received a red card for impeding a scoring opportunity and was ejected from the match. Minutes later the whistle blew for full time.
Philadelphia are now 1-1 and are stating to get a feel on how they want to play. Chase Clements started in goal and looked impressive and the new look defense definitely looked like it was more comfortable playing together.
The Fury play again on September 6th at home at Washington Township High School when they play the Evergreen Diplomats at 7 pm.