Forward Madison FC came from behind twice in the second half of its road trip finale on Tuesday night, drawing 2-2 against Fort Lauderdale CF and allowing the undefeated Flamingos to hold onto its second-place spot in the league standings.
Fort Lauderdale got the scoring started early thanks to Mitchell Curry, who struck on a counter-attack in the 25th minute. FMFC responded in the second half when captain Jake Keegan tied the game with a low shot from the left side of the box in the 59th minute.
After a Christian Diaz own-goal gave Fort Lauderdale the lead in the 69th minute, Flamingos forward Derek Gebhard scored a stunning shot from the right side of the box in the 85th minute to equalize the game.
“When he’s running at players, the only way to stop him is to flatten him,” Head Coach Carl Craig said of Gebhard, who has three goals to lead the team along with Keegan.
Craig called the final result of the match “frustrating.”
“We didn’t really follow the plan in the first half, a little bit of inexperience from some of the lads,” he said, noting that he’d made four changes to the starting lineup since the previous match on Saturday, which he said can sometimes disrupt a team’s flow. “Fortunately, they’re a great bunch of lads and were stuck in it.”
“Crazy second half,” Craig said. “They could have won it and we could have won it.”
The Mingos have scored eight goals on the season, all in the second halves of their first five games — something Craig called “an interesting fact” and little more.
Forward FC gets a chance to rest for a bit before returning to Breese Stevens Field on Sunday for a rematch against Union Omaha.
