Steel FC 2 - 1 Pittsburgh Hotspurs
3/21 Pre-season Friendly
No Offseason Sports @ 10:30 AM
Steel FC 2 - 1 Pittsburgh Hotspurs
We traveled north of Pittsburgh today up to Russellton, PA and faced off against NPSL U-19 club, Pittsburgh Hotspurs. While we dominated play from start to finish, we only barely squeaked out a 2-1 win.
This match was our third pre-season game of 2021. Pittsburgh Hotspurs is a massive club with numerous boys and girls teams. We had the pleasure of playing their U-19 squad. We, again, used this game as a tryout for potential new players so, again, it was a mixed bag of talent without 4 starters.
The game started out in our favor and we dictated 90% of the match with more possession, more shots, more scoring chances, more corner kicks, etc. At this point our fitness started to return and it showed on the pitch. We were not only able to keep up with their young players but we were more physical and we wanted it more after drawing our first two pre-season matches. However, with all that said, our finishing capabilities were still lacking. We had shots fired high and wide or right at their keeper with no pressure around us. The Hotspurs had 1 chance in the first half but Will Marshall was up for the task and calmly collected a low shot. Halftime came and the score remained 0-0. After a few tactical changes at halftime, the boys took what was said on the bench and brought it to the pitch. We applied higher pressure on their backline forcing their defenders to just clear the ball. Eventually, one of their clearances found our CB's feet, Augustine, who played the ball out wide to our LW, Virgara. Virgara took his guy to the end line then turned around and passed back to our LB, McDyer. McDyer found our CDM, Bischoff, in the middle with a beautifully threaded pass. Bischoff turned up field and found our ST's feet, Scheirer. With his back to goal, Scheirer shielded off a defender and spotted Bischoff making a run in behind. A clean backheel timed perfectly found Bischoff's feet as he split their two CB's and drove one-on-one with their keeper. A well placed shot to the keepers right found the back of the net and put us up 1-0. From there we continued to apply pressure and gave the Hotspurs almost 0 chances. However, we squandered a few more chances but had the majority of possession and play going our way. Unfortunately though, in the 87th minute and with us trying to run out the clock, our CDM had his pocked picked and the Hotspurs were on the counter-attack. With uneven numbers in their favor flooding forward, their ST was played in behind and beat our GK far post to tie it at 1. This was their 2nd or 3rd shot on goal the whole game and it was nearly a killer. Upset with that sequence, the team rebounded and in the final few minutes a ball was played to our CDM, Nick Graeca. He played a long diagonal ball down the right hand side and found Scheirer. Scheirer took his man on and cut in on his left foot. He ripped a perfect shot that froze their keeper in his tracks. The ball flew past him and curled into the top left corner giving us a 2-1 lead. Moments later the whistle blew and we escaped with a 2-1 victory.
Goals: Bischoff, Scheirer
Assists: Scheirer, Graeca
Our next game is as follows:
3/28 Pre-season Friendly
Steel FC vs Amish Country United
Highmark Stadium @ 5:30 PM
Game Footage (black) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KICbppGU8LM