by Saturday, June 25th, 2016 – Detroit City FC 5 Dayton Dynamo 0
(1) Saturday is the best day of the week, especially when it comes to City matches. More time for pre-game activities than Fridays, more time for post-game activities than Sundays, most electric crowds, typically the biggest crowds, etc. The Friday/Sunday weekend schedule is a necessity because of the NPSL’s format, but it’d be nice to have more Saturday matches in the future. Two of this blog’s major influences echo the sentiment: When Saturday Comes; Every Day Should Be Saturday.
(2) Jeff Adkins continued his fantastic season by singlehandedly torching/shredding/abusing/(your synonymous verb of choice here) Dayton’s entire right side. Sean Grogan of The Podcast Formerly Known As DCFCFC picked Adkins as his current leader for the Black Arrow Award (Team MVP) and I concur. He’s been a consistent attacking force down the wing all year long and some of his combination play with Danny Deakin and Cyrus Saydee has been brilliant.
(3) Cody Lang saw his first action since the Grand Rapids debacle and did well, making a couple nice saves. With the combination of Lang and Nate Steinwascher, the keeper situation should finally be set for the stretch run.
(4) Zach Schewee scored his first career league goal, a week after becoming the club’s all-time leader in matches and minutes played. His celebration was on point.
.@Zsgrilz scores his first @NPSLSoccer goal. And walks away. #DCTIDpic.twitter.com/lRHJr6B2dk
— Detroit City FC (@DetroitCityFC) June 27, 2016
(5) Injury notes: Spiro Pliakos and Alex Isaevski both returned to the field after extended absences. Getting Isaevski back earlier than expected is a massive bonus. He was arguably the team’s second-best player in 2015 and is a great addition to have for the final third of the season. On the downside, George Chomakov went down with an apparent knee injury and was visibly upset about it – he’s missed the better part of two seasons with related issues and was beginning to carve out a starting spot in central midfield next to Dave Edwardson. Troy Watson is the logical replacement here.
(6) It goes without saying, but the upcoming weekend is huge. Like, season-defining huge. The Friday night match against Grand Rapids is an absolute must-win; GRFC is currently in 2nd place and anything less than 3 points would make it highly improbable for City to make the playoffs. On top of that, they must travel on Sunday to play 1st place Ann Arbor. A 4-point weekend is probably the bare minimum necessary to keep reasonable playoff hopes alive, but 6 points would allow City to continue controlling its own destiny.
Do you know what happened to the Grand Rapids – Dayton game? It appears the game was not played. Did Dayton forfeit the game? Also the game next week between Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids is huge. Who should we hope to win? Grand Rapids, no? Thanks, Walter.
Grand Rapids beat Dayton 1-0.
We’d like GR to beat AA since AA is a point closer to us (easier to catch) and GR holds the first tiebreaker over us (head-to-head results). We hold the head-to-head record over AA and have a better goal differential.