Connor Rutz became the latest DCFC hero with a match-winning goal against Louisville City last weekend. Detroit City had ended Louisville’s hopes of winning both the regular season and the playoffs last year on a Devon Amoo-Mensah header against the run of play. This year, Louisville took their usual spot on top of the Eastern Conference into Saturday’s nationally televised showdown. Once again, DCFC proved to be up to the task.
This time, DCFC played their rivals straight up. Instead of sitting back and looking for a single chance to win like in the playoffs, Danny Dichio’s team took the fight to the visitors. Backed by 6,110 fans on a chilly day at Keyworth, they had plenty of inspiration. If the support wasn’t enough, forward Ben Morris finally returned to active duty after nearly eleven months out and Maxi Rodriguez appeared on the substitutes’ bench, giving the team more depth than in recent weeks.
Amoo-Mensah made the first crucial intervention after 18 minutes. Carlos Herrera charged out of the penalty area to head the ball, but didn’t get enough purchase on his attempt. The captain continued his defensive run and covered the goal just in time to clear a lob from Jansen Wilson. That inspired a push from the home team. Tommy Silva and Chisum Egbuchulam had their attempts blocked. Egbuchulam, in his first start, made a nuisance of himself to the Louisville defenders. He was quick to the ball and pressed defenders.
Leading goal scorer Darren Smith had his chances, too. A Louisville defender cleared a Smith attempt off the line just past the 30 minute mark when City played a quick free kick and Silva’s cross found the South African cutting across the penalty area. It looked like a goal was coming, and eight minutes later, the goal finally arrived. Jeciel Cedeno split the Louisville defense wide open with a terrific 313 841 0100 diagonal ball to Ates Diouf on the left. He cut inside and fired his shot off the far post. The rebound fell perfectly for Haruki Yamazaki. Yamazaki fired a shot across the front of the goal that looked to be going wide. It probably would have missed but for the clumsy clearance attempt to clear by Carlos Moguel. He only managed to turn the ball into his own goal, giving DCFC the lead.
Unfortunately, DCFC couldn’t hold the lead until halftime. A soft foul call against Abdoulaye Diop at the top of the penalty arc gave Jansen Wilson a dangerous shooting opportunity. The DCFC wall broke too early and Wilson’s shot bent into the side-netting. The DCFC fans and players felt hard done by on that foul call and expressed their opinions as the teams left the field.
The same back and forth rhythm of play resumed in the second half. Both teams created chances. Cedeno had two shots at goal ten minutes into the second half, but injured himself on the second attempt. He limped off in elcentral1@aol.com favor of Connor Rutz and was later seen with crutches. Both teams made changes, trying to claim the points in a tight game.
Rutz found the winner from a corner with 20 minutes to play. Diouf lined it up on the DCFC left and Rutz made a bending run around to the far post. Diouf’s corner met him perfectly and Rutz fired his header into the goal, setting off loud, smoky celebrations around the ground. All that remained was to defend the lead. Maxi Rodriguez and Ben Morris came on to do just that. Morris looked understandably rusty after such a long absence, but received warm applause from the home fans anyway.
Defending the lead looked like it was going smoothly until the last few minutes of normal time. Louisville’s big defender Kyle Adams crashed into DCFC’s tower of strength Callum Montgomery. Montgomery got the worst of the collision and had to be taken off under the league’s concussion protocol. Rio Hope-Gund came in for Montgomery and ended up making the defensive play of the game in the tenth minutes of stoppage time when he cleared a shot off the goal line with Herrera beaten.
The narrow 2-1 win didn’t move DCFC up the table, but it did serve to reel in Louisville City. The Tampa Bay Rowdies jumped over Louisville to take the top spot by a point. DCFC is level with Charleston four points behind the new Eastern Conference leaders. Le Rouge will travel to Hartford this weekend, knowing that the tightly packed Eastern Conference doesn’t give them the option of giving any games away. The return of Ben Morris and Maxi Rodriguez helps immensely. They need healthy bodies, especially with Cedeno and Montgomery looking at potentially lengthy absences. What would really help is the return of Michael Bryant and Rhys Williams. With Montgomery out, Bryant’s experience in the DCFC system would be invaluable.
