After the match concludes, we have beers at Against the Grain which is conveniently located right outside the Slugger Field gate. Make sure you order a pint of the Coopers-inspired Ball Control! $0.50 from every pour (on home match days) of Ball Control goes to Shirley’s Way, a most excellent local charity helping families of those afflicted with cancer.
WHO, AGAIN?
Penn FC are the same thing as Harrisburg City Islanders, just with different branding, a different coach, different players, and an affiliation with national youth club syndicate Rush Soccer. That’s what the P in their logo kind of doesn’t look like a P, but an R instead. The Cyrillic alphabet approves, sort of. What hasn’t changed in Harrisburg is their tenuous connection to their local community and being just short of “meh” on the field.
Pennislanders are actually on a bit of a hot streak at the moment, if you want to call “beating Tworonto and Richmond at home” a hot streak. Those two wins upped their points total by a third. Penn’s just 1-3-3 away from home, however, and are 0-4-2 against teams above the playoff line so far this season. They’ve managed to keep five clean sheets, but they’ve only scored twelve times all season, have just 115 shots in 12 games, and have conceded 13 times, including a 3-0 loss away to pretty bad North Carolina. The City Slanders may have changed their outfit, but they’re still not very good.
In spite of their relatively easy schedule, Penn doesn’t necessarily like to keep the ball a lot. That said, they attempt almost 400 passes per game, which isn’t terrible, and complete a respectable 64% in the opposing half. They seem to play a bit more direct than most, with 40% of their total passes going forward. Veteran Ken Tribbett leads the team in goals with four, followed by Tommy Heinemann with three. Richard Menjivar creates most of the team’s chances, with 20 in ten appearances to go with his team-high three assists. Former Red Bulls 2 player Dan Metzer also has ten appearances. A likely deployment:
City will have their own problems, with Luke Spencer and Cam Lancaster out for this game. I think, if the usual back line, defensive midfield, and wingers are available, using Magnus Rasmussen as a false nine in a 3-5-2 with Ownby and Ilic playing as the forwards would be interesting, if not a good idea. Penn’s defense isn’t great. They’re mostly dangerous on set plays. Let’s just limit those, keep a clean sheet, and pick up what should be three points.
VAMOS MORADOS, VAMOS A GANAR!
