In an early back and forth affair, the Flint City Bucks eventually grabbed control of the USL conference quarterfinal match and moved past the South Bend Lions and onto the Central Conference semifinal match.

How it Happened

- The opening moments of the match were fast and furious with both teams setting up to counter. A 10th minute break by the Bucks lead to a South Bend foul near the top right corner of the South Bend penalty box, but captain Harvey Slade hit his free kick into the wall.

- The former divisional rival of the Bucks then had the next major chance. In the 22nd minute a long ball from the South Bend half landed between Bucks’ defender Schineider Mimy and goalkeeper Isaac Walker, but it was South Bend striker Andrew Michael who was first to the ball, but his chipped effort fell just wide of the Bucks’ goal.

- Another Bucks’ counter led to Amadou Cisse being taken down just in front of the South Bend box in the 28th minute.  Slade stepped up again for the free kick, and his effort hit square on the crossbar.  In the ensuing scramble, Bucks’ striker Jelldrik Dallmann got his head to the ball, but it didn’t have enough power to get past South Bend goalkeeper Owen Cornell.

- The Bucks finally found their breakthrough in the 39th minute.  Midfielder Sebastian Chalbauld picked up a loose ball just inside the South Bend half and threaded it up to Slade, who then slipped through Dallmann and his first time effort beat the South Bend keeper for the opening goal.  The goal was Dallmann’s 12th goal in all competitions for the Bucks’ while Slade gained an assist and Chalbauld was credited with the secondary assist.

- With added confidence from the opening goal, the Bucks kept probing the Lion’s defense, and deep in first half stoppage time, winger Brajdi Cekrezi was brought down in a similar position as the earlier free kick from Slade.  This time there was no doubt from the Englishman.  Slade stepped up, and hit a beautiful curling shot over the wall and into the top corner, leaving the keeper motionless on the goal line.  The 4th league goal for Harvey gave the Bucks a 2-0 lead into halftime.

- With the lead, the Bucks could open the half on the defensive, and sat in preventing South Bend from using their speed up top.  The opening of the second half saw South Bend with most of the possession, but nothing dangerous was created.

- Even when defending, the Bucks kept looking for a moment to strike.  In the 56th minute, a long ball from the Bucks half made its way to the South Bend goalkeeper.  He turned to throw a pass to the far side center back, but even before he made his throw, Bucks’ winger Amadou Cisse already was moving to intercept.  Cisse caught South Bend captain Daniel Nimick on the turn, stole the ball into the South Bend box and calmly beat the goalkeeper to extend the lead to 3-0.

The Bucks would continue to frustrate the Lions for the rest of the half, but a late foul in a similar position to Harvey Slade’s goal was called in the 90th minute.  Nimick stepped up for South Bend, and his curling effort hit the upright, and the resulting rebound fell right to the feet of the Lion’s Jaylen Shannon to deny the Bucks a shutout. 

- There was no late drama, as the Bucks saw out injury time to win the match 3-1.

Next Up:

- The Bucks will host the Central Conference Semifinal at 5 pm this Sunday July 24th facing Chicago FC United.  The two former division rivals will once again meet in the USL Central Conference playoffs for the chance to move on to the Conference Final next weekend.  Kickoff is set for 5:00 pm at historic Atwood Stadium on the campus of Kettering University.  Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.com, www.passage.com, or at the stadium gates one hour prior to kickoff.  LETS GO BUCKS!