The Des Moines Menace was the beneficiary of fortuitous subbing and a late penalty call from the assistant referee.
The Menace eked out a 2-1 win against the Chicago Fire U-23’s Saturday night on goals from Christian Okeke and Ricky Hoegg in Des Moines’ Premier Development League regular-season opener. The latter came on and knocked home a penalty kick in the 79th minute for the eventual game winner.
“We’ll take the three, but you make your own fortune,” said Menace head coach Mike “Matko” Matkovich. “I think we’re fortunate to take the three. I think it’s good, it’s a good sign. A lot of games are won that way.”
In the away fixture in 2015, Des Moines was on the wrong end of questionable penalties that led to both goals in a 2-1 loss.
This year, Des Moines got the call needed to pull ahead for the second time in the game.
“It was a foul off the ball,” assistant referee Justin Mack said.
On the play, two players on the right wing were engaged in jockeying for position while the ball was on the other side of the field. The ball was knocked out for a throw-in for the Menace, and Menace head coach Mike “Matko” Matkovich, confused about the stoppage, was more worried about retaining possession.
“I was thinking there was something going on and he was going to caution someone,” Matko said. “I was wanted to make sure we got the throw-in. I didn’t know he was giving a pk. I went down and said, ‘hey, is it still our throw-in?’ They said, ‘relax, you’re going to get better than that.’”
Matko said he did not see the foul.
The subs made the difference again for Des Moines. Hoegg, who came on in the 60th minute, knocked home the penalty, while halftime-sub Okeke put the Menace ahead in the 57th minute.
After receiving the ball near midfield, Okeke found midfielder Marcus McCrary in the offensive half. The winger turned his defender around, while Okeke continued his run on McCrary’s right. The mid slid through a ball to the forward, who toasted his defender in the penalty area, and finished a shot to the far post.
“[Marcus’] ball was a perfect ball,” Okeke said. “I just looked up and slid it into the corner.”
In Des Moines’ win over Tulsa Wednesday night in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, super subs Sean Hoek and Elvir Ibisevic provided goals in the second half to send the Menace through with a 2-0 win.
Between Des Moines’s goals, Chicago equalized on a free header in the 70th minute. Elliot Collier got near-side on his defender and substitute Mark Segbers found Collier at the center of the goal area. Collier nodded the ensuing cross off the far post and watched it bounce home.
Des Moines now boasts an undefeated streak in 16 of the last 17 PDL openers. The only loss came during the Menace’s debut in Valley Stadium in 2008 (St. Louis Lions, 2-1).
Next up, Des Moines will have the Lions in St. Louis next Saturday. The Menace will hope to have the regular starters back in the lineup, after Matko gave the Starting XI from Wednesday’s win the night off.
“I don’t do back-to-back guys this early,” he said. “We needed to be smart and it paid off. We’ll take [the win], but we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and get back to work.”
Lineup
Des Moines Starting XI: Nico Campbell; Alex Marsbruch, Nick Edington, Andrew Morrison, Austin Bergstrom; Sean Hoek (c), Mueng Sunday, Garet Christianson Marcus McCrary; Chris Mueller, TJ Ifaturoti.
Chicago Fire Starting XI: Andrew Putna; Michael Jimenez, Jeremiah Gutjahr, John Freitag, Andrew Gutman; Rece Buckmaster, Mauricio Pineda, Brody Kraussel, Oscar Gonzalez; Charlie Mertz, Elliot Collier.
Stats
Shots DSM/CFU: 9/11
Saves: 8/3
Corners: 7/6
Fouls: 9/2
Offsides: 1/1
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