Detroit City FC faces another road test when they take on AFC Ann Arbor at Hollway Field this Sunday, May 21, at 1 p.m.
As their sole weekend match, Le Rouge will be coming off a full week of training and recovery after a busy opening weekend. The team earned two draws last weekend against Milwaukee Torrent and Michigan Stars FC, earning them two points in the league and an 0-0-2 (W-L-T) record.
The Mighty Oak are off to a 2-0-0 start having already defeated Milwaukee and Kalamazoo FC. The early conference leaders face Kalamazoo again on Friday night before squaring off against the Boys in Rouge on Sunday.
City has a 1-0-1 all-time record against Ann Arbor. Last season, Detroit met Ann Arbor twice in league play, earning a 1-1 draw at home on May 20 and a 3-1 away win on July 3. DCFC scored three goals in nine minutes to secure the 3-1 comeback win last year.
Head Coach Ben Pirmann said last weekend was a physical test for many players trying to avoid early-season injuries.
“We’re dropping like flies physically,” Pirmann said. “We’ve got a crazy amount of injuries.”
Despite the hardship, he added in an interview after Sunday’s match there are no excuses for giving up two-goal leads. Detroit went up 2-0 against both Milwaukee and Michigan, but were unable to hold on for wins in either.
“Two games in a row, we’ve only kicked ourselves in the foot,” Pirmann said. “It’s not a field, a referee, a smoke bomb, an injury. We just have to finish out games. Sounds probably like a record player, but I still think it’s two points dropped. Obviously when you’re up two goals at halftime, you can’t give that away.”
Looking forward to Sunday’s match, Pirmann said the team must improve on closing down space in the defensive end. He said the team’s positioning against the Stars was off in the second half, allowing for both their goals to tie the contest.
“We got a little disjointed,” Pirmann said. “I think we got caught… Then at the end of the game, we didn’t close down the service and the guy got in. We just have to be sharper on that, whether it’s individual defending or it’s closing down spaces as a team.”
