by Sunday, June 30th, 2019 – Detroit City FC 6 Toledo Villa FC 0
Late in the first half of Sunday’s match came a play which I felt was emblematic of City’s team and season as a whole.
It wasn’t Max Todd’s looping header, and it wasn’t Bakie Goodman’s pickpocketing of Aerin West, which led to Todd’s second goal.
It came off of a City corner. Toledo won the ball and was looking to push it up the field, with the aim of cutting City’s 2-0 lead in half.
Having taken the corner just moments beforehand, Danny Deakin went on a dead sprint from the southwest corner of the field to come back and break up the potential counter attack.
I’m not sure if he makes that play last season. Frankly, I’m not sure if anyone makes that play last season.
It’s blindingly obvious that there’s something different about the team this year. Perhaps the most obvious thing is the fanatical effort put forth by each and every player from the first minute until the final whistle.
The kind of effort put forth by Deakin is not only contagious, it’s completely infected the team and now everyone is carrying the virus.
To carry the analogy just a little further, all the evidence leads back to Trevor James as Patient Zero.
It makes sense that the team’s play would rise to a higher level than in years past due to the implementation of a rigorous, full-time training schedule for the first time, but the players are absolutely flourishing under James’ leadership.
Maybe no one stands out as a better example than Max Todd, who has quietly become a goal-scoring machine and is now the pick of many supporters, myself included, to win the Black Arrow Award for team MVP.
I’m going to use that thing I wrote a few weeks ago about Kervin Kenton and apply it to Todd as well:
I’m not privy to front office dealings, but if he hasn’t been offered a pro contract yet, it should happen today… Grab him with both hands, sign him up, and never let him go.
All eyes now turn to Judgment Weekend™. With Ann Arbor’s victory over Grand Rapids on Sunday, City can now clinch a playoff spot… with a victory over Grand Rapids on Friday.
Ann Arbor has flown under the radar for much of the season, but now are in an excellent position – they have this Friday off and host City on Sunday.
Priority #1 through 100: win on Friday and don’t leave anything up to chance.
P.S. Unsung Man of the Match goes to DCFC kit man Moises Orozco (somebody please correct my spelling if needed).
From my understanding, the delay in kickoff was caused by this sequence of events:
1. Toledo brings wrong kits. All-black is deemed too close to rouge by the officials.
2. City, as home team, must change. City’s white tops are back at the fieldhouse, in need of laundering.
3. Orozco dashes back to the fieldhouse to pick them up and rushes back. No time for washing and drying, unfortunately.
4. City looks sharp as hell with white tops and rouge shorts & socks.
5. City wins 6-0.
With the number of NPSL teams that exist solely as money-laundering operations or half-ass vanity projects for their owners, I’m really surprised we haven’t seen this happen before. In retrospect, wearing white on a 90+ degree day seemed to work out just fine.
