After his team got off to a lackluster start, Forward Madison head coach Daryl Shore said he hoped Michael Vang would add a spark to the team.
Did he ever.
The 20-year-old made his pro debut and scored just seven minutes in, and Don Smart, Wojieck Wojcik and Paulo Junior all scored, and goalkeeper Phillip Marcetta earned his first clean sheet in a Forward Madison shirt to give the team the most lopsided win in club history over South Georgia Tormenta at Hart Park in Wauwatosa.
“It was the whole group. We came out with a lot more energy,” said head coach Daryl Shore. “We pressed the game a little bit on their half of the field, and part of that is Mike, but part of that was the whole group. But I mean, you gotta commend a 19 year old kid on his first start scoring a goal with great composure. It was a really good night for him, but it was a great night for the rest of the team.”
Vang, who missed the first three matches due to a clerical error in his international transfer paperwork after playing in Portugal last year, became the first Hmong American to play professional soccer in the US when he got the nod to start Friday night.
He then became the first Hmong American to score in a pro soccer match just a few minutes later, as fellow winger Paulo Junior handled a misplayed ball from a defender, found a little space and slotted a cross to Vang inside the box. Vang took one touch and slipped a shot past Pablo Jara, one of USL League One’s best goalkeepers in 2019.
Just about 15 minutes later, Milwaukee native JC Banks chipped a cross into the box from the right side, which found the head of Don Smart for a 2-0 lead.
The Flamingos came out flying again in the second half, as Wojciek Wojcik took a perfectly-weighted cross from Smart and slotted it home from about six yards out, and Paulo Junior took a brilliant diagonal run into a through pass from Smart, dribbled past Jara and tapped it into the open net.
The Flamingos defense also stood strong, allowing Tormenta just six shots. The South Georgia club had averaged more than 14 shots per game until tonight.
Madison, on the other hand, recorded 13 shots, five of them on frame.
“I don’t think they expected us to press higher up the field like we did. But at the same time, we made the game really hard on them tonight,” Shore said. “That was one of our keys was to make the game hard on their back line and credit to our guys, they did that. And, uh, you know, I think it was more us getting after them than them just having a bad night.”
Shore credited competition for playing time for motivating the team.
“There was a lot of competition for spots in training this past week. There were some guys that weren’t sure if they were going to play,” he said. “Guys got after each other in the right way this week in training and they made it hard on the coaches to pick a squad that that could get the result tonight.”
With the win, Madison jumped from 10th to fifth in the standings. In the pandemic-shortened season, only the top two teams will face off in a winner-take-all championship game on October 31.
Tormenta was without coach John Miglarese, who’s quarantined due to possible exposure to novel coronavirus. Injured defender Lars Eckenrude took the helm as acting head coach for tonight’s match.
Forward Madison returns to action Wednesday, traveling to Nebraska for their first-ever fixture against expansion side Union Omaha, who are unbeaten in their first four matches and currently sit in second place on the table.
“They’re obviously at home. They didn’t play this week, so they’re going to be well rested. They look to press pretty high, so we’re going to have to battle,” Shore said. “We’re gonna have to assess where guys are. You’d love to turn around and play the same group, after a performance like tonight, but we’ve got some guys that are dealing with a few bumps and bruises, so we’re gonna have to assess everybody and put our best group together. But because of the week we had in training, there’s guys that are chomping at the bit to get on the field.”
