FC Baltimore Christos Defeats Virginia Beach City FC 1-0

By FC Baltimore Christos

The FC Baltimore Christos have finally come home.  FC Baltimore Christos took on Virginia Beach City FC in a rematch from the season opener.  The results still remained the same as FC Baltimore took home the victory with a score of 1-0.  This puts the season series at 2-0 in favor of FCBC. 

Before the game, the heat looked to be a factor as both teams worked up a sweat without going against one another.  After the standing of the national anthem, both teams took to the field for another whirlwind matchup.  From the moment the ball was in play both teams looked to gain an early advantage pushing and prodding one another.  Within the first ten minutes of the match two yellow cards were issued to the home team.  Midfielder Alejandro Arbelaez was given a yellow card followed by attacker Brady O’Connor as both players were looking to get possession for their team. 

FCBC continued to maintain possession of the ball but were unable to score as Virginia Beach’s defense refused to give in.  As the stalemate continued, fans began to show their support for FC Baltimore as the chants of “Baaaltiimooore” rang out for everyone to hear.  Midfielder Ben Bender felt the immense love from the crowd. 

“It’s awesome to have all these supporters out here,” Bender said. “I wasn’t expecting this many people to come out.  It really gets us to play and soccer is for the fans too, you know?  The fans and supporters make the game so we were really happy with that.”

Bender was able to break the tie with a goal in the 29th minute of the first half as he buried it in the back of the net from near the penalty spot, right through the goalie’s hands.  It was his second goal in as many games.  As the crowd cheered for the first goal of the game fans began to enhance the excitement as pink smoke filled the air in celebration.  In the first half FC Baltimore had at least three corner kicks and were able to control time of possession for the majority of the half.  Each team had the look of determination before the beginning of the second half as they looked to their coaches for adjustments.

In the second half both defenses made it a point to prove that they will not wither.  FCBC had numerous plays where a member of the team fell down due to physical play.  As the game wore on both coaches began shouting for their players to be in position to help out their teammates. FC Baltimore Christos head coach Larry Sancomb was very adamant about pushing the ball downfield.  This was heard loud and clear as Christos had four shots at the goal in the second half with each one barely missing their mark. 

Coach Sancomb was very proud of how his team played in the wake of how aggressive their opponents were against them. 

“Our job is to always go at goal,” Sancomb said. “We always want to play offensive soccer…I think we held them to one shot all half so we did a really good job defending.”

The team would seem to find a groove matriculating the ball downfield only to be stuffed by their own foot.  With under two minutes left to play Virginia Beach City started to grind out possession after possession looking to tie the game.  The final seconds of the game saw VBCFC have a corner kick to which the attempt was denied by Baltimore as the ball was headed out of bounds.  With the final whistle blown the FC Baltimore Christos saw its record go from 1-0 to 2-0 on the young season.

This was not an easy game for Christos.  While it did not have the offensive explosion we are used to seeing, it did prove this team has the guts and will to finish strong on the defensive end. The team returns home Wednesday at 7:00 pm as they face Northern Virginia United.  Look out for stream information from FC Baltimore Christos social media pages. 

Ben Bender was named the player of the game thanks to the game-winning goal.

Photo Credit: FC Baltimore Christos