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Late Shot By Ribeiro Hands RailHawks Loss
The Carolina RailHawks hosted the Montreal Impact on Friday
night in a rematch of last Sunday’s heated tie in Sherbrooke, Canada.
Over 4,000 fans cheered the RailHawks on as they tried to tame the Impact. A
late goal by Antonio Ribeiro broke the tie and fixed the result on 1-0 for the
Impact handing the RailHawks their second home loss of the season.
The RailHawks started out strong with McColm
Cephas, in for suspended Anthony
Maher, who found himself in the box taking a shot that was
then cleared by Impact defender Patrick Leduc in the 10th minute.
Only two minutes later Cephas handed the ball to Jonny
Steele who shot it in goalkeeper Andrew Weber’s hands.
“Our first twenty minutes were great,” said RailHawks
assistant coach Damon Nahas. “We
then proceeded to lose focus and control of the game. It was a tough loss but
they deserved to win especially the way they played in the second half.”
The Montreal Impact responded rather quickly, Martin Fabro
shot a rocket from 25 yards that went high in the 23rd minute and
two minutes later took a free kick that was headed in by Charles Gbeke and
saved by Chris McClellan. The first
half ended with a shot by Chris Carrieri
that ended to the left of the Montreal
goal and beautiful header by Dombrowski
also inches wide.
“We played very disciplined,” said Montreal assistant coach Peter Pinizzotto. “We
persevered and waited them out. The RailHawks are a great team that plays a
physical game but we knew that if we kept pushing we would’ve gotten one in.”
 The second half was controlled mostly by the Impact with a
lone opportunity by McColm Cephas
who headed a ball, served by Jonny Steele
on a free kick, just over the bar. In the 71st minute Phil Long
served a ball to Steele at midfield who proceeded to take it all the way into
the box only to give it away to the Impact.
The match’s only tally came in the 84th minute
when Simon Gatti crossed a ball into the box, Kupono
Low intercepted it but it ended on the feet of Antonio
Ribeiro, the midfielder then proceeded to shoot it towards McClellan and a
lucky bounce brought it into the net. The match ended on this last note with
the RailHawks giving up the second home loss of the season to Montreal who, this year, is still undefeated
in away matches.
The Carolina RailHawks will have a chance to bounce back
this Sunday, July 15th as they host the Chicago Fire of the MLS in the
third round of the US Open Cup at SAS Soccer Park
in Cary.
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