0-0 Draw for New York Shockers and Hartford City FC
By New York Shockers
Once again, the New York Shockers were unable to score at home, but were able to still snatch a point with a 0-0 draw against Hartford City FC on Saturday evening.
Rainy weather led to a difficult affair for both sides. New York’s Ryan Henning and Hartford City’s Jamis Fite were very strong in goal, increasing the difficulty of scoring goals against either of them. In all three home games, the Shockers have only allowed a single goal scored against them and claimed a point in two of the three games. However, the Shockers have yet to score in front of their home crowd in three attempts with their only goals coming on the road.
The start of the game may have been a good indication of what was to come. The first 15 minutes were a back-and-forth struggle with neither team being able to control the ball or get anything more than a half-chance at scoring. The first big chance of the game came off the head of Hartford’s Evan Jones in the 16th minute. A powerful header off a good cross made Henning make a tough save. The Shockers defense was able to ramp up the physicality and control the situation for a few minutes. Pedro Espindola received a yellow card in the 19th minute for being late on a tackle, but the Shockers were able to survive from that. New York’s first big chance of the game came just a few minutes later with Connor DeFilippis heading a cross from Adetayo Adefioye just wide.
The Shockers were content playing on the counterattack, and it almost paid off on a few occasions. The weather allowed for the ball to bounce around slightly faster than normal, which was good for the counterattack, but also forced the players to react faster. A second yellow card was issued to the Shockers with Ben Kogan also late on a tackle. The resulting Hartford possession led to a great shot from William Cleary, but Henning was able to make the save. The rest of the half was controlled by Hartford, but their only other big chance was a shot from Christian Dionne in the 41st minute. He was able to dribble past a couple shockers, but his shot was an easy save for Henning.
The second half started out better for the Shockers, with some possession, they were able to play their game a bit more. Hartford City forced a couple turnovers, but the increased Shockers possession led to more half-chances for the Shockers. After another great save from Henning in the 66th minute, Adel Cekic was able to get a free kick in a good area. He put it just over the bar but caused Fite concern in net. This would be the first of a couple great chances for the Shockers, with Jackson Leon, Wisdom Ishaya, and John Mendrysa subbed on in the 68th minute and helping create offense the Shockers needed.
Leon had two very good chances in the 79th minute. The first one was a powerful shot that forced the Hartford defense to concede a corner; the second being a header that just went wide off that corner. The 86th minute provided the Shockers with their best chance of the night with Seth Scarano heading a corner that nicked the top off the bar and went over. That proved to be the last big chance of the evening with neither team able to score in the final minutes. Henning tallied seven saves, while Fite finished with four saves.
Both teams will be hungry to get all three points in their next meeting on Thursday, June 22nd in Hartford. The Shockers’ next home game is a midweek game on June 28th against Syracuse FC.
Photos Provided by New York Shockers and Amber Yarter
