After nine weeks of exciting action, Detroit City FC concluded its sixth National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) campaign as runners-up in the Great Lakes Division with 30 points, earning City a fourth-seed qualification in the Midwest Region Playoffs.
Le Rouge (9-3-2, W-T-L) battled through its final week of the regular season with three matches in five days, including two home matches at Keyworth Stadium that saw crowds of more than 6,300 supporters.
On Friday, July 14, DCFC showed resilience and determination coming from behind to draw Lansing United at home, 3-3, to wrap up the regular season. DCFC was down 3-0 until the 70th minute, when Shawn Lawson scored his seventh goal this season to put Detroit on the board.
Detroit dropped to ten men five minutes later when Omar Sinclair was sent off with a red card. After making some adjustments, though, Detroit pressed onward.
Seb Harris scored Detroit’s second goal in the 79th minute with his head off a corner-attempt. Then, with three minutes left in the match, Owain Hoskins equalized on another corner for his first City goal.
After the match, head coach Ben Pirmann credited his team for working hard to complete the comeback.
“That’s what this club’s all about,” Pirmann said. “We showed toughness. We never gave up… Our guys battled through… We worked hard. I thought we did a good job fighting back.”
The Boys in Rouge now must take that fight into another busy and important week of action.
City meets Venezia FC on Tuesday night in its second international friendly this season. The Italian side is managed by Italian soccer legend Filippo Inzaghi. Venezia was just promoted to Serie B, Italy’s second division.
After the friendly, City has three days to train for its first-ever playoff match at Keyworth Stadium on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
Four-seed DCFC will meet five-seed Dakota Fusion FC, who claimed second-place in the Midwest North Division.
With two exciting home matches on the docket, Pirmann said the team will is looking forward to the week ahead.
“We have to regroup,” he said. “We’ll be focused and ready to go for Saturday. We’ll fix some stuff, and get a lot of players to play Tuesday in a big game. And then we’ll be focused and ready to go Saturday.”
Tickets for both the Venezia FC friendly on Tuesday night and the Midwest Region Playoffs on Saturday night are still available at tickets.https://www.detcityfc.com.
