The Atlanta Silverbacks made their road to the NASL playoffs a little more difficult on Friday by losing on the road to the Carolina RailHawks. The hosts had lost to Minnesota United earlier in the week and were able to snap a four game losing streak on short rest and frustrated a strained Atlanta defense. Two first half goals were all Carolina needed to send the Silverbacks back to Atlanta with a loss and get revenge for a 2-1 loss from the Spring Season version of the fixture.
Prior to kickoff, many Silverbacks fans were surprised to see defender Paul Black out of the roster completely. According to his Twitter feed, the Englishman picked up an injury in training that forced head coach Gary Smith to start Abdul Bangura. Even tougher for Smith, Abdul went down in the first ten minutes and had to be replaced with youngster Josh Hughes. All of this defensive uncertainty was happening in front of second choice keeper CJ Cochran, playing in place of Steward Ceus who was away with the Haitian National Team for World Cup qualifiers. Luckily for the Silverbacks, Cochran was more than an adept backup as was evident from the multiple one-on-one saves he made throughout the affair, keeping the scoreline respectable.
The confusion of the positional changes did catch up with the Silverbacks in the 24th minute when Junior Burgos misplayed a ball out to Hughes that was intercepted by Nazmi Albadawi just outside the 18. Avenging his denied breakaway in the 12th minute, Albadawi fired a hard hit shot that hit the underside of the crossbar for the first goal of the night. Even more unfairly for Cochran, Connor Tobin buried a missed clearance from a Blake Wagner free kick just four minutes later to put Atlanta down by two goals in under a half hour of play. Carolina should be credited for sensing the disorganization in the visitors’ backline and pressing high up the field to keep on the pressure.
The directive that Smith must have delivered to his charges at halftime was to shore up the defense. Wingers Kosuke Kimura and Kyle Porter played noticeably deeper, shifting the 3-5-2 into a 5-3-2, giving more support in the back. Pedro Mendes made way for Shaka Bangura in the 57th minute, a change that indicated that Atlanta would forego the possession that eluded them in the first half and try to beat the RailHawks with long balls and speed.
It was not the boost the Silverbacks needed as they continued to be out possessed and out pressed for the remainder of the game. Returning loanee Jon Okafor came in for Porter and had an equally unaffecting impact on the game. The confidence that the Silverbacks had amassed over the last month appeared to dissipate into the late summer humidity, bringing back the doubts of the year’s beginning.
The Silverbacks will have a little more than a week to figure things out again when they play Minnesota at Silverbacks Park on 9/15. They remain a point out of fourth place and that precious playoff spot despite two more games than Fort Lauderdale and Tampa Bay (the Strikers and Rowdies are level at 27 points).
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