RECAP: MED CITY FC 3, SIOUX FALLS THUNDER

Med City FC extended its unbeaten run to five games (three wins, two draws) after a 3-1 victory over the visiting Sioux Falls Thunder FC.

Med City opened the scoring early with a wonderful diving header goal by Thilo Wilke (Dortmund, Germany) in the fifth minute of the game. A beautiful build-up of play was capped off by a fantastic cross by Jake Turnbull (Newcastle, England) and header by Wilke. That was followed with a second goal just over a minute later as Med City forced a Sioux Falls defender to turn the ball over in their end, leading to a partial breakaway up the right side of the field for Dion Dozzell (Ipswich, England). He hammered a shot past the goalkeeper and found the back of the net just inside the far post. Only six minutes into the game, and the Mayhem grabbed an early 2-0 lead, much to the delight of the more than 400 fans who attended the game on a beautiful Wednesday evening in Rochester.

Med City did not let up on the pressure, and were rewarded with a third goal in the 25th minute. Once again, Dozzell found space after he received the ball near the sideline, cut across the 18-yard box, beat three Sioux Falls players, and slotted a ball into the low corner past the keeper. The home team was feeling confident and looked to pile more goals onto the scoresheet. The lone chance for Sioux Falls came in the 38th minute after a breakdown in the Med City defense lead to a point blank shot by a Sioux Falls player. That chance was brilliantly stopped by Med City keeper Nate Levy (Byron, Minnesota), who kept the Thunder off the board.

However, things changed just over a minute later as Med City midfielder Matias Pazos (Madrid, Spain), was sent off for violent conduct, reducing the team to ten men for the remaining 50-plus minutes of play. Similar to their previous game against Duluth, where they played with ten men for more than 60 minutes, Med City did not let this disadvantage deter them. They continued to attack Sioux Falls and might have scored a couple more goals, if not for some excellent goalkeeping by Tyler Grilley.

Sioux Falls settled into their game in the second half of play and forced the Med City goalkeeper to make some difficult saves. The two teams continued to attack each other for the majority of the second half, until Sioux Falls finally capitalized in the 83rd minute. Gonzalo Ledesma unleashed a long range shot from outside the 18-yard box that hit the crossbar, then the back of the goalkeeper, before falling to the foot of Amadu Myers, who was able to tap the ball into the net to put his team on the board.

Things got heated near the end of the game as a Sioux Falls player, Ibrahim Diomande, and a Med City player, Nacho Garrido (Madrid, Spain), were shown red cards after each picking up a second yellow card for dissent.

The final whistle blew after four minutes of stoppage time and Med City FC walked away with a convincing 3-1 win to improve their record to 4-1-2 for the season. That keeps them in first place in the NPSL North Conference. Sioux Falls fell to 2-3-2 and currently sits in seventh place.