SOCCER: Michigan Bucks come close to history, but can’t capitalize late
ROCHESTER — In what has been a wild week for United States Soccer, the Michigan Bucks have been right in the middle of the craziness.After beating the Chicago fire from the MLS in an overtime thriller last week, the Michigan Bucks took aim at becoming the first Premier Developmental League team in history to advance to the quarterfinals of the United States Open Cup.Even after a dominant second-half performance, the Bucks came up just short as they weren’t able to top Division III Dayton as Michigan fell to the Dutch Lions, 2-1, in overtime.Michigan head coach Gary Parsons said that the toughest part about Tuesday’s loss wasn’t that the Bucks came close to making history, but rather that they came up empty on several opportunities to win the game in the second half and had chances to tie the game in overtime.
“the loss is tough to take because we had our opportunities to win the game and some good ones,” Parsons said. “That’s the hardest part, if we had gotten outplayed, then you’d walk away from here saying you played a better team and that’s the end of it. but we kind of let the opportunity slip away, I think that’s the part that sticks in your craw a little bit.”Shortly after overtime began, Dayton’s Gerrit-Jan Bartels drew a foul inside of the box giving Joel Delass a penalty kick opportunity. Delass took full advantage of the opportunity as he drilled a shot underneath the outstretched hand of the Michigan keeper, Adam Grunwis.the Bucks knotted the game at 1-1 as Anthony Grant shook off a Dayton defender, turned and took a shot from just inside the box and sent it past Dayton’s Matt Williams, less than 10 minutes into the second half.but Williams put together a lights out performance from there, making three diving saves and fighting off many of the 21 shots by Michigan on Tuesday night.“He kept us in the game,” said Dayton head coach Ivar Van Dinteren. “It’s what I expect from a goalie, he holds balls. his main job is to hold the balls and he did it.”the first goal of the game for Dayton was scored by Eli Garner, who snuck in behind a pair of Bucks defenders and sent a near-perfect chip shot over the head of Grunwis, giving the Dutch Lions a 1-0 lead early on. Continued…
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SOCCER: Michigan Bucks come close to history, but can’t capitalize late
