The first round of group matches in the inaugural Jägermeister Cup are over! If I were a younger man, I might have celebrated with a few rounds of the stuff.
Now that we’ve all had a chance to process what we saw this weekend, here are a few storylines and notes.
First, The Results
Spokane 1-1 (2-4) Fuego
Greenville 1-1 (3-5) Richmond
Tormenta 1-1 (4-5) Charlotte
Chattanooga 0-1 Knoxville
Lexington 1-0 Madison
Image provided by Tormenta FC
Where Were All the Goals?
This tournament is designed for high scoring affairs. The winners of each group will advance, along with a wild card determined by goals scored in the tournament.
And yet no match this weekend saw more than one goal scored by any of the eight sides involved. Three of five went to penalty kicks with 1-1 draws at the end of regulation. What happened to all the goals we were promised?
One answer: stellar goalkeeping. Greenville’s Christian Garner especially stood out, saving four, including a Nil Vinyals penalty shot in regulation. In the same match, Richmond keeper Ryan Shellow came up with three solid saves, and then saved another during the end-of-match penalty kicks. Both sides were in the double-digits on overall shots, so the low score did not come from lack of trying. Elsewhere, Spokane’s Carlos Merciano saved four while Andre Zuluaga, opposing keeper of Central Valley Fuego saved three. Both ends faced double-digit shot totals. Lexington’s Amal Knight also stood on his head, making five saves, including four coming while his side was playing with nine men.
Another answer: lackluster offense. We’ve grown to expect it from Lexington and Madison. The former only mustered eight total shots, but managed five of them on target, one of which was the match winner. The latter also managed five on target, but had none in the 33 minutes they were up a man after Lexington’s red card in the 56th minute. Four of the shots came after Lexington went down another man after Yannick Yankam‘s second yellow in the 88th minute. They all ran into the brick wall of Amal Knight.
Elsewhere, Chattanooga managed only eight shots total against Knoxville, and Charlotte only six against Tormenta. While Charlotte’s second shot of the match found the back of the net via a set piece headed by Juan Carlos Obregón in the 8th minute, they went on to have only one more shot on target.
We recognize this is a new thing for everyone, including the coaches. And while stellar goalkeeping can keep a team alive in a tournament like this, lackluster offense in a tournament designed for high scoring is pretty questionable.
Richmond and Fuego Victories: Call it a Cupset?
In a normal table match, road draws are almost always acceptable. Especially when a lower ranked team draws a top ranked team. In these cases, 10th place Richmond took 1st place Greenville to the end of regulation and 11th place Fuego took 2nd place Spokane, both on 1-1 draws. But these aren’t table matches, so the lower ranked team gets an additional chance of trying the skill (and luck) of penalty kicks. In both cases, the lower ranked teams came out on top.
Are these cupsets? Or do these tournaments provide a bit of an equalizer for lower ranked sides? It has to be considered a valid strategy for a team lacking some of its offensive weapons due to injury (as both Richmond and Fuego were): get the opponents into penalty kicks, and see what happens. Chance it to advance it.
After all, something like 85% of penalty kicks make it into the net, so the odds are pretty good. They’re also good for your opponent, but if you’re the lower ranked side, you’ll take the chance.
Redemption for Knoxville
One Knox took an early exit from the US Open Cup, but had very little issue taking three points at Chattanooga. The defense gave the Red Wolves very few chances, only allowing one shot on target, just ten minutes into the match. The offense struck early and often, culminating in a Jordan Skelton goal just after the half.
Knoxville also saw the debut of off-season acquisition Kingsford Adjei, replacing Rich Ballard at halftime. While the 26-year-old winger did not contribute to the goal, he did showcase some excellent pass accuracy, giving us an idea of what to expect moving forward. It’s another weapon in Mark McKeever‘s already strong arsenal of offensive talent.
Tactical Review
Many teams this weekend made offensively-driven tactical substitutions. Knoxville, for example, brought in Kingsford Adjei and Charlie Machell at the half, replacing Rich Ballard and Yesin van der Pluijm. The latter substitutions took out a defensive midfielder in favor of an attacking central midfielder. A few minutes later, Knoxville scored its match-winning goal. In all, four of five Knoxville subs were offensive players.
Chattanooga also removed defensive midfielder Ualefi in favor of striker Stefan Cvetanovic, and used Mayele Malango and Chevone Marsh as their other two subs. No defenders came off the bench.
Of the 40 substitutions in four matches, 28 were offensive players coming on, with 25 offensive players coming off. In at least three instances, a coach subbed defensive player off for an offensive player.
It makes sense, given the incentive to score more goals, and the fact that all of these matches were low-scoring heading into the Jägermeister cutoff time.
What’s Up Next?
First of all, Omaha and Northern Colorado need to complete their first matchup on Wednesday. Maybe this is where we see two sides raining goals on each other. Of course, they also have two of the best goalkeepers in the league. This could go either way.
After that, the Jägermeister Cup continues on the weekend of May 11th, a rare Saturday where every single club will be in action. Charlotte and Madison will kick things off at 1:00 PM ET, followed by Knoxville and Northern Colorado, Greenville and Tormenta, Lexington and Fuego, Chattanooga and Richmond and Spokane and Omaha.
Cheers!
Cover and social base image credit Lexington SC