United Falls Short to Detroit City

In a physical game in which the flow of play went back and forth, Lansing United could not find the back of the net.

“I was proud of the guys’ effort. First half, I thought it took us a while to settle in to the game, the environment and the opponent.,” United head coach Eric Rudland said. “Made some changes at halftime, I thought in the second half, I was really proud of our effort, creating some phenomenal opportunities.”

Detroit controlled the possession game early in the first half and it paid off when DCFC midfielder, Cyrus Saydee, played a ball across United’s 18-yard-box to DCFC forward, Zach Myers, who was fouled in the box by United defender, Jake Vanderlaan.

DCFC was awarded a penalty kick in the 9th minute and their captain, Josh Rogers, stepped up and buried it in the back of the net to give DCFC an early 1-0 lead.

“I know he has been waiting for it for three years,” DCFC head coach Ben Pirmann said. “Kevin Taylor who is out with an injury is our normal penalty kick taker and Josh said who wants it and I said it’s yours, let’s go.”

United coach Rudland saw the penalty in a different way than the referees.

“I thought it was a soft PK call to be honest with you. From my vantage point it seemed to be shoulder to shoulder,” Rudland said. “I thought Jake moved his feet, he didn’t dive, he didn’t lunge and the ball was out of reach to the player he was trying to play in, so everybody has their own view in rosy-colored glasses, but that’s kind of how I saw that play shake down.”

The rest of the first half the two teams went back and forth, but neither team really had any good chances to put the ball in the back of their opponent’s net.

By the second half, United retained much of the possession and had more scoring chances to tie the game.

United’s first good scoring chance came in the 52nd minute when a through ball from a United midfield found forward, Tim Kreutz, who beat two DCFC defenders to the ball and took a shot within the DCFC 18-yard-box that went a little wide of the near post.

All of the physical play from the previous 83 minutes took a toll on both teams, and it ended up resulting in a little scuffle between United defender, Ben Lamb, and DCFC defender, Colin McAtee.

Both players were given yellow cards after the scuffle and Lamb was issued another yellow card in the 85th minute after arguing with the referee. Lamb was escorted off the field due to his second card of the game giving DCFC a man advantage.

Five minutes of stoppage time was added due to the scuffle, and United had their best scoring chance in the 93rd minute off a cross that found United forward, Matt Brown, at the top of DCFC’s six-yard-box. Brown could not get enough of his head on it to direct the cross towards the net.

“I’ll say this, the people got their money’s worth. I don’t know if they got the most stylistic and the prettiest game, but they got 22 guys, and then all the subs, that went on to work their tails off,” Pirmann said.


Brooks Laimbeer is the host of Corner Kick for Impact Sports.

Photo: Lansing United