There’s a preseason match today and nothing in the form of news caught my attention yesterday. Therefore, I chose to just write a match preview. You’re welcome!
WHO: Forward Madison FC, USL League One
WHAT: A preseason friendly
WHEN: Tuesday, February 25, 2020, 3:00 p.m.
WHERE: Thurman Hutchins Park
WATCH: Unfortunately, you can’t. This event is closed to the public because the facility is literally two soccer fields side-by-side surrounded by some chain-link fence. No stream, either, but I’ll do my best to feverishly tweet about it in case the club doesn’t.
WHO, AGAIN? Forward Madison, the darlings of League One. More famous for their social media presence than their on-field performance, Forward Madison is noteworthy because of their absolutely sick home and away shirts, their embrace of plastic yard flamingoes as a mascot, selling branded potatoes online, and a recent Football Manager mod that lets you try to move FMFC through a made-up world where promotion and relegation is the reality in the United States. They really are fun!
On the field, they’re a bit less successful. Madison finished fourth in League One in 2019 and lost their opening round playoff match away to North Texas SC, the eventual champions. They did make it to the third round of the Open Cup. Forward Madison also averaged nearly 5,000 fans per home game in their inaugural season, something New York Red Bulls II would kill for if they cared about such things.
Madison lost their preseason opener on Saturday 3-1 at Memphis 901. They’re still bedding in a fairly new roster and appear to only be returning less than ten players from 2019. Their most notable player, goalkeeper Bryan Sylvestre, went to Miami FC via transfer a few weeks ago. In 2019, Madison gave up 28 goals and scored 33 in a 28 game regular season schedule. They’re not a bad passing team against like competition, but lost the possession battle more often than not.
The ‘Mingoes are coached by Daryl Shore, a guy who has truly seen it all in American soccer. Shore played for five years as a goalkeeper in the league that preceded the USL, the United States Indoor Soccer League. He both featured and managed for the Birmingham Grasshoppers and the New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers. After his playing career ended in 1998, he managed the rebranded New Orleans Storm in 1998, the Lehigh Valley Steam in 1999 and then picked up an assistant job for Chicago Fire under Frank Klopas for about ten years. Shore was head coach of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers during NASL’s late-stage collapse and then joined Real Salt Lake’s staff until taking the Madison job in 1998. I’d love to put him and John Hackworth in a room and just hit record to see the stories they could tell.
This should be a fun, if very wet contest. We’ll let you know more on Wednesday in a recap of undetermined length. VAMOS MORADOS!
