Vancouver, British Columbia (Saturday, June 4, 2016) – Amass Amankona scored his first professional goal in the most spectacular circumstances to earn the Real Monarchs a valuable three points and end the Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2’s undefeated start to the USL season. Amankona buried his shot from an Eti Tavares free kick deep into stoppage time at the end of the second half to send the Monarchs home with 4 points from two back-to-back matches at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver.
After a pulsating and high intensity affair looked set to conclude in another stalemate after last week’s 2-2 draw, Amankona scored the game’s only goal with the last kick of the contest. The goal came straight from a free kick that saw Whitecaps FC 2 defender Sam Adekugbe receive his second yellow card and marching orders for a poorly timed challenge.
With this being the second meeting of the two sides within a week both squads came into the match with an added sense of readiness for each other. The only Monarchs change saw Danilo Acosta start in place of Elder Torres who is away with the Honduran U-23 national team. It was quite clear early on that both squads had a lot on the line. The work rate of both sets of players was outstanding and despite a lack of goals there was a lot of good football for the local crowd to enjoy. This hard work was epitomized by Monarchs veteran Alec Sundly making two crunching challenges to break up two Whitecaps advances.
Fresh off scoring two sensational goals last weekend, USL Player of the Week Ricardo Velazco had the game’s first real chance midway through the first half. Velazco picked the ball up on the left and ghosted by two defenders only to hit his shot just over Vancouver goalkeeper Spencer Richey’s crossbar.
Down the other end Monarchs goalkeeper Lalo Fernandez was doing his part to preserve the clean sheet pulling off a contender for save of the week with an astounding save that prevented the Vancouver midfielder from scoring a 35-yard screamer destined for the top corner. Vancouver created two more chances in the first half but were unable to find a clinical finish as two close range shots were blasted well over Fernandez’ crossbar.
As the teams came out of their respective dressing rooms for the second half, the match was finely poised and the second half did not disappoint. The intensity heightened and the tackles began to fly in leading to a frantic pace. Defensively, both teams remained strong and did very well to stifle each other. Second-year Head Coach Freddy Juarez waited until the 70th minute to introduce his first substitution bringing on Colin Rolfe and Amankona for starters Kevaughn Frater and Omar Holness. Amankona was immediately thrust into action after captain Velazco thread a lovely ball through to him leaving with only the keeper to beat but his shot was scuffed and easily gathered by Richey.
That was the last chance of note for the Monarchs in the 90 minutes as the home side began to press for the winner. With first place in the division on the line after the Switchbacks win earlier in the day, the Whitecaps created a number of opportunities but continued to lack the final piece of quality to truly test Fernandez. After a flurry of yellow cards were given out to both sides the defining moment of the match came in the final minute of stoppage time. Adekugbe, already on a yellow, made a rash challenge from behind on Tavares earning himself his second yellow and giving the Monarchs one last chance to earn victory. Tavares stepped up himself to whip a delightful ball into the Vancouver box. The ball floated over everyone’s head and made it to the back post where Amankona, completely unmarked, finished well on the half-volley across the keeper to spark amazing scenes on the pitch and hand Vancouver its first defeat of the season.
The Monarchs will fly home on Sunday before they head out on a five-day road trip where they will come up against Sacramento Republic twice in the space of 4 days. The first battle will take place on Wednesday in Sacramento before both teams will head to Reno for second encounter on Saturday.
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC 0-1 REAL MONARCHS
SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 2016
THUNDERBIRD STADIUM
Goals by Period 1 2 F
Real Monarchs 0 1 1
Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 0 0 0
Scoring Summary:
RM: Amass Amankona (Eti Tavares) 90’
Misconduct Summary:
VW: Brett Levis (Caution) 36’
RM: Omar Holness (Caution) 48’
VW: Will Seymore (Caution) 49’
VW: Marco Bustos (Caution) 51’
VW: Sam Adekugbe (Caution) 62’
RM: Colin Rolfe (Caution) 79’
RM: Danilo Acosta (Caution) 83’
VW: Sam Adekugbe (Second Caution and Ejection) 90’
Lineups:
Real Monarchs (4-2-3-1): Lalo Fernandez; Boyd Okwuonu, Phanuel Kavita, Chris Schuler, Max Lachowecki (Riley McGovern 72’); Danilo Acosta, Alec Sundly (Tyler Arnone 85’), Andrew Brody, Omar Holness (Amass Amankona 69’) Ricardo Velazco (Eti Tavares 83’); Kevaughn Frater (Colin Rolfe 70’).
Substitutes not used: Connor Sparrow, Emilio Orozco.
Vancouver Whitecaps II (4-4-2): Spencer Richey; Sam Adekugbe, Cole Seiler, Jackson Farmer, Sem de Wit; Brett Levis (Fatawu Safiu 62’), Will Seymore (Matthew Baldisimo 70’), Ben Mckendry (Giuliano Frano 75’), Marco Bustos (Sahil Sandhu 83’); Kyle Greig, Daniel Haber.
Substitutes not used: Sean Melvin, Kadin Chung, Thomas Gardner.
Referee: Juan Marquez
Assistant Referees: Jasmain Parr, Stefan Tanaka-Freundt
Fourth Official: Scott Milliquet
Attendance: 938
Weather: 65 degrees and sunny
