By Luis Diaz
Ball possession was the key in helping the East Los Angeles College Men’s soccer team against Victory Valley.
The Huskies have won three games in a row and their record stands at 5-4-2.
The Huskies made their presence known in the first half by dominating the ball.
Great passes by the team helped open up the spaces on the lateral sides. Attacking the laterals made Victor Valley’s defense collapse in the first 10 minutes.
The Huskies were composed on offense and defense. They maintained control in the midfield to win the ball, not letting Valley on their half of the pitch.
After suffering a concussion during the first half of the Cypress game, Luis Zometa was back in action. He was a key player on defense in the first half. He did not let any attacker through.
Opportunities were created on offense for the Huskies, but the plays were never quite finished. The Huskies pressured Valley’s midfielders and Valley found themselves passing the ball back rather than moving forward.
This led to mistakes from Valley , but the Huskies were not able to score in the first half. “I think we played a good first half. The problem was we did not finish we will make some personnel changes” ELAC Eddie Flores head coach said during halftime.
Overall the team looked really solid defensively and offensively. Chances to score were created but the execution was not present for the Huskies. The team had clear opportunities to make three goals.
“Keep your shape in the midfield… we need to finish, that’s all we need.” Flores said to players at halftime.
“Be patient.. Outsmart them” Assistant Coach Joseph Gomez said.
In the second half, the Huskies’ intensity grew, but the game finally reached a level of balance.
There was a tough battle on the defense for both side. The defense for Valley finally figured out how to stop the lateral attacks.
This sudden change in tactic for Valley made the Huskies switch the attacks to the middle. In the fifty-fifth minute, midfielder Adrian Macias scored the first goal with an assist from forward Anco Veigo.
From that moment, Valley’s defense fell apart and the Huskies gained momentum.
In the seventieth minute, Husky forward Viktor Negreiro entered the match and added more options for the Huskies to explode in the attack.
Three minutes later the Brazilian forward extended the lead making it 2-0 for the Huskies.
The Huskies did not lower the intensity on offense and kept attacking and creating chance after chance,making Valley’s defense tired.
In the eighty-fourth minute, Husky midfielder Daniel Mora would go on to score a magnificent goal from outside the box to make it three to nothing.
The second half ended with a score of three to nothing, with the huskies taking their third straight win. The Huskies looked better in the second half creating chances, and taking them and keeping their shape in the midfield.
The Huskies ended with 19 shots in total and 3 corner kicks.
“I told Viktor Negrerio to go for redemption, but we made it a little bit difficult for ourselves, but we will take the win” said Flores.The Huskies go on the road to face Santa Barbara City College on Friday.
“We have a real tough game on Friday. to prepare we build upon this win, and formation has to be changed but it will all come down to resting our good players to be ready”, Flores said.