August 26, 2017 USL Toronto FC II--Charlotte Independence vs Toronto FC II game recap (from charlotteindependence.com)
Toronto's Second Half Rally Tops Independence By James Thomas, 08/26/17, 10:00PM EDT The Independence had their seven-game home unbeaten streak snapped on Saturday night as Charlotte fell to Toronto. Matthews (N.C) - The Charlotte Independence’s seven-game home unbeaten streak came to an end on Saturday night as Toronto FC II rallied 3-2. After Enzo Martinez and Jaime Siaj gave Charlotte the 2-0 halftime lead, a 49th minute red card to Alex Martinez flipped the game’s momentum and Toronto tallied three unanswered goals to finish the game. “Two-nothing lead at halftime in a game we’re managing pretty easily, to walk out and lose the game is disheartening,” said Independence Head Coach Mike Jeffries. “We’ll bounce back from it, but it’s disappointing.” Two bright spots for the Jacks were 2016 USL 1st Team selection, Enzo Martinez continued his blistering season by netting his 13th goal of the campaign. Also appearing on the scoresheet, rookie forward Jaime Siaj got his third goal in his second start of 2017. As for moving forward, the Independence will look to create a new streak at home next week when the Richmond Kickers come to town. Richmond fell to Charlotte 2-0 in the first meeting this season, but topped third place Charleston Battery on the same night that Toronto defeated Charlotte. Scoring Summary: 21’ CLT: Enzo Martinez (Jaime Siaj) 32’ CLT: Jaime Siaj (Bilal Duckett) 69’ TOR: Ashtone Morgan (Ben Spencer) 71’ TOR: Ben Spencer 76’ TOR: Jordan Hamilton (Jordan McCrary) Post Game Quotes: Midfielder Jun Marques-Davidson on the result- “Obviously it was very disappointing. To me, it was just another loss and we need to look back at ourselves and adjust or be better as a player and a team. We just need to focus on improving and try to bounce back our next home game and get three points.” Defender Bilal Duckett on moving forward- “The key to moving forward next week is to stay the course. The first 45-55 minutes of that game before we went down to 10 men we played really good soccer. We limited their chances and they didn’t really have chances going forward. I don’t know what the stats are but we feel like we had the lion’s share of possession and we were very much control in that game. When things go wrong, we have to do better, and we’ll stick our hands in the air and say that we have to do better. I don’t think we need to make big adjustments heading into next week, because for the most part of that game we played really well.” Next Game: Charlotte Independence vs. Richmond Kickers – Sept. 2, 7 p.m. ET, Sportsplex at Matthews
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