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Crystal Palace begin stretch with 2-0 win over Western Mass

19 Jul, 2008

Crystal Palace FC USA got the perfect start to their stretch of four games in nine days with a convincing 2-0 victory at home last night against the Western Mass Pioneers courtesy of two fine pieces of finishing by Gary Brooks and Shintaro Harada.
 
Coach Pete Medd summed up the evening’s performance: “We’ve got to be pleased - that has to be the most convincing two-nil win possible.  We were easily five goals better than them.  It was good to come out and dominate in every aspect of the game.”
 
The 1,011 fans were greeted with a slightly unusual Palace starting lineup.  Medd’s fellow manager Jim Cherneski made his second start of the season, coming in at right back.  Andrew Marshall moved from that position to center-back alongside Mike Lookingland who got the call in place of Ibrahim Kante.  That back line formation allowed former Japanese A-League player Shintaro Harada to move up to his more natural position as a playmaker in the middle of the park.  Veteran utility man Val Teixeira had become a familiar sight coming in off the bench recently, but he took full advantage of his starting opportunity at left wing last night.  “We found some new combinations tonight that really worked well,” remarked Medd. Though he applauded the entire team for their performance, he did single out several players for praise:  “Pat Healey did extremely well up top and Shintaro just did a great job in midfield.  Mike Lookingland was incredible tonight, blocking shots, always in the right spot.  Gary Brooks probably had his most menacing game to date, holding the ball up for us well and his movement off the ball was excellent, and what a great goal.  With Val whipping in crosses and getting behind defenders the way he did tonight, we should create a lot more chances for Gary.”
 
Palace looked a little tentative in the opening moments of the match, but soon found their attacking rhythm.  Gary Brooks, Matthew Mbuta, Val Teixeira and Pat Healey all had good efforts that were either saved or that narrowly missed their target, while Shintaro Harada and Bryan Harkin kept good control of the midfield.
 
As halftime drew nearer, Palace were starting to rue their missed opportunities.  Then, on yet another surging attack, Val Teixeira found Gary Brooks with his back to goal at the top of the box.  The ball took a hop as the Jamaican striker brought it under control and, in the blink of an eye, he launched a beautiful bicycle kick past the unsuspecting Matt Glaeser in the Pioneers’ net to give Palace a well-deserved lead heading into the break.
 
In the second half, it was still Palace who dominated possession and created almost all of the chances, with the usual suspects - Brooks, Mbuta, Healey and Teixeira - joined by outside-backs Jim Cherneski and Paul Robson in not quite converting the final ball into another goal.
 
The home side enjoyed a lucky break in the 82nd minute when Joe Germanese’s shot beat Brian Rowland in the Palace net and the ball ricocheted down off the crossbar and into Rowland’s back.  The Canadian ‘keeper pounced on the loose ball and Palace went off in search of the killer blow.
 
Pat Healey came closest to finishing the game off four minutes later as his 25-yarder wasn’t quite accurate enough to beat the towering figure of Western Mass ‘keeper Matt Glaeser.  In the 89th minute, Shintaro Harada capped a marvelous night of football with a goal from almost the same spot as Pat Healey’s effort just three minutes earlier.  This time, the shot was inch-perfect, sealing the win for the Baltimore side and marking his first goal as a Palace player.
 
The rivalry between the two clubs reached a new level on Friday night.  Pioneers’ head coach Leszek Wrona was reported to the local police for opting to use the wall of the visiting team’s locker room to diagram his team’s tactics before the match.  When Palace played at Western Mass in May, the hostile atmosphere reached boiling point when a fan smashed a window on the Palace team bus as it was leaving Lusitano Stadium after the game.  Medd spoke candidly about the incidents: “Who does something like that?  No wonder they have the worst disciplinary record in the league when their coach behaves like that. The league has to do something - there’s always some incident with this team every single game, everywhere they go, guaranteed.  It’s embarrassing. They’re completely out of control and it gives our league a bad name.”

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