And just like that, it’s do-your-best, pray-for-the-rest time for Detroit City FC.
Whatever hopes City had of controlling its own fate, of marching swaggering into a second-consecutive NPSL playoff berth, may have melted into the blisteringly-hot turf at Keyworth Stadium today, as Le Rouge fell, 0-2, to Grand Rapids FC.
The full-blooded contest again saw the Boys in Rouge control most of the passages of play, only to see the superior chances fall to the visitors. The conditions – with game-time temps in the mid-90s and a field-level reading well in excess of that – augured that hard-pressing football would be virtually impossible; that did little to dissuade the two sides, who left absolutely nothing in the tank, blasting into each other with abandon, hacking and grabbing and diving in two-footed.
One of the hoariest cliches in football is that ‘goals change games,’ but when a goal finally came to this contest, it didn’t change it so much as make it even more like itself – a lumpy, misshapen, exhausting pile of acrimony and frustration, In the 74th minute, just seconds after the second-half hydration break, Grand Rapids winger Anthony Bowie, played onside by a weak-side defender after a quick restart, glided into space on the City right, then cracked a sharp cross to substitute striker Scott Doney, who was lively in his 21 minutes. Doney beat Jimmy Fiscus to the cross and volleyed it past a helpless Nate Steinwascher for a lead the visitors would never relinquish.
Trailing and desperate, the Boys in Rouge began to surge through the visitors midfield routinely, with winger Rafa Mentzingen creating havoc off the dribble time and again, breaking the pattern to carry the ball forward on mazy runs. Grand Rapids’ response was both simple and infuriating, simply grabbing the quicksilver Brazilian repeatedly, to the chagrin of both the Detroit City bench and the fury of City’s support, who responded to these provocations with flamboyant and florid profanity.
The dagger came deep in stoppage time, with City pressing wildly upfield in search of an equalizer. A flip throw from Le Rouge defender Sebastian Harris went out for a Grand Rapids throw, which they took quickly, catching Harris forward by playing fresh sub Morris Kamara in behind him, into the very same space Bowie created the first goal from. Kamara was sufficiently untroubled not to need help, forcing Steinwascher to commit before finishing cleanly to the back post.
After the game, City’s players shuffled off looking furious and wounded, their fundraiser game-worn kits adorned with unfakeable blood stains. Detroit City FC (4-1-3) hosts Kalamazoo FC next Saturday, June 23. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m.; tickets are available at http://tickets.https://www.detcityfc.com.
DETROIT CITY FC 0, GRAND RAPIDS FC 2
Detroit City FC 0 0 – 0
Grand Rapids FC 0 2 – 2
Goals: GRFC – Doney (Bowie) 74’, Kamara 90+’.
Shots: DCFC 10, GRFC 10.
Shots on goal: DCFC 5, GRFC 4.
Corner kicks: DCFC 4, GRFC 5.
Fouls: DCFC 15, GRFC 12.
Discipline: DCFC – Cautions, Garcia 45’, Deakin 58’, Harris 90’. GRFC, Cavanaugh 31’, Groenewold 45’, Doney 90’.
Detroit City FC (4-2-3-1): Pina (Steinwascher 16’); Kenton (Bentley 84’), Carroll, Fiscus, Tomasino (Harris 78’); Moyes, Centala (Bartel 46’); Saydee, Garcia (Deakin 46’), Green (Mentzingen 46’); Shrimpton (Lawson 59’).
Grand Rapids FC (4-2-3-1): Brown; Groenewald (Geldenhuys 64’), Vetger, Deakin, Atkeba; McCarren (Vitale 69’), Sutton; Howell (Kamara 88’), Cavanagh (O’Riordan 64’), Bowie (Swiech 90’); Whelan (Doney 69’).
