By Ryan Makuch
They say you support your teams “win, lose, or draw”. AFC Ann Arbor fans got a sampling of all three this weekend.
They also say that variety is the spice of life. And what better way to get a full range of the palate of soccer than to sample all its delectable results!
This is the Matchday Diary, where we talk about the games as they were, after they happened, to learn more about the game, our club, and our community.
It was another double USL matchday for the men and women on Saturday, this immediately coming after the kick-off to the Michigan Milk Cup for the men on Friday. Another busy weekend; we’re burning daylight here, let’s dive in.
Friday, May 27, Ann Arbor/Saline, MI
It was 3:36 PM when I felt the first raindrop of the afternoon. It was on my pre-match walk in Forest Hill Cemetary, identifying the birds of the cemetery with the Merlin app from The Cornell Lab–I’d just heard a red-bellied woodpecker.
I dutifully checked the weather radar, which would soon become a favorite hobby amongst patrons of the Milk Cup match itself, as my newly identified woodpecker friend began to drill into the cedar tree behind me. The radar looked gloomy, but not exactly alarming just yet.
As the sky threatened with rain overhead, the show had to go on, in more ways than one.
The cancellation of the previous weekend’s USL League Two match with Oakland County FC meant it would need to made up the day immediately following the Michigan Milk Cup quarter-final match with Inter Detroit.
This fact was apparent close to two hours prior to the start of the match, as the side who would prepare to do battle with Oakland County FC were put through their paces before the match with a half-makeshift training session.
With it being the Michigan Milk Cup, of course, the milk was a big hit amongst patrons and players alike. As I myself went to grab strawberry milk, I saw that Ellie Ferguson had already had the same thought as me in indulging in what simply has to be the best flavor of milk.
The milk on ice was much needed for the humid day, one in which you could tell that it would rain, it would just be a matter of when. At the start of the match, though, it was a lovely evening without much threat from the elements.
Head Coach Rod Asllani gave an AFCAA debut to six of his starting eleven, while also featuring a slew of players looking to capitalize on the added matchtime.
The match narrative itself is a collection of sucker punches.
But is it really a sucker punch if they look you in the eyes while doing it?
Of Inter Detroit’s three goals, one came from a penalty, immediately following one saved at the opposite end in a chaotic sequence of play, and the other two came directly off restarts in play in the second half: Inter scored on their opening move in the second half and their opening move immediately following the half-hour weather delay.
Ahh yes, that weather delay.
In the 83rd minute, The Mighty Oak finally found their breakthrough. Laith Al-Hiyafi had been dangerous the entire match, with two separate shots curled just inches away from the net. As AFCAA continued to push forward, and as both the Main Street Hooligans and the men’s team’s players sitting in the stands to help rally their teammates began to amp up the intensity, Al-Hiyafi sent an excellent cross into the box for someone, anyone, in blue to latch onto.
It just so happened that Jonathan Robinson was making a run into the box, and he was able to latch onto the end of that divine ball from Al-Hiyafi, and all it took was a tap-in.
The game was back on.
For next to no time at all.
The first sign of danger came from the south, a flash of what I figured was heat lightning not too far in the distance, but still out of reach enough that it seemed like it would not cause too much trouble. Then came the second flash, directly in the eyesight of the referees, too big and near to ignore.
For the second time in the same week, AFC Ann Arbor had scored a goal, gotten all the momentum back on their side, and then get forced to slam on the brakes due to a lengthy stoppage.
It was still yet to rain at this point. The Ann Arbor Weather Shield may have opened itself up a bit too much to allow the lightning to sneak in, but at least it was doing its job when it came to the rain.
This was categorically changed by the monumental downpour that began about ten minutes into the delay and simply refused to relent until the match ended.
Raining cats and dogs may be doing the quantity of water descending from the sky an injustice. An instant shower awaited those who dared leave the friendly confines of their cars (or the press box), but that could not stop the Main Street Hooligans, who dutifully returned to their cheering posts once it became clear that the storm itself had passed, and all that remained was a little water.
Brian Hinz, noted Hooligan, opted against a shirt, drawing a smile or two from the players on the field getting subbed off, Brian directly in their line of vision. Though his shirt was dry for him for the end of the match, so maybe that was the move?
As already mentioned, AFCAA would concede on the first move of the restart, another effective near-set play from Inter Detroit to seal a 3-1 Michigan Milk Cup quarter-final victory.
After the match, there was no sense in crying over spilled milk, especially when there was so much of it still to enjoy.
A full trough’s worth of milk remained on the field post-match, the rain scuttering plans of a dual-team photo post-match between the two clubs connected by the community, and a bit of dairy.
This was the men’s team’s cue to clean up, taking copious, almost comical, quantities of milk for their apartments and their teammate. Players and fans alike took armfuls of the milk, bottles falling to the ground as every last milk was taken.
Saturday, May 28, Ann Arbor/Royal Oak, MI
The men had an immediate chance for redemption for the week’s earlier falls. The women had their first opportunity to size up a side ranked #1 in the USL W League Power Rankings. For the second time this season, though, these matches occurred near-simultaneously, the men kicking off a half-hour earlier in Royal Oak than the women.
Although the two matches shared only kick-off time in common, both resulted in points claimed for The Mighty Oak.
The men ran roughshod over their opposition, and started the goals early and often, with an increase in scoring production in the final ten minutes of the match.
David Garcia (left) and Curt Calov (right), two men who had excellent evenings in Royal Oak, show some love for the camera.
Yushi Nagao got the scoring started quickly in the 7th minute with a long-range, pinpoint accurate, finish off of a rebounded shot/save. The second would come late in the first half, with Junior Nare executing an impeccable finish of his own.
The assist was provided by Curt Calov, the Syracuse midfielder who doled out a pair of assists in this romping. Calov almost instantly attracted buzz for his performances in training, and he quickly has assured those around the club that, yes, those performances can translate over.
The second half saw a renewed vigor from OCFC to try and push forward to make it a proper game, and perhaps do what Lansing City was able to do earlier in the season, and push for a quick-fire double. It was up to Lance McGrane and his entire defense, anchored at the spine by Man of the Match David Garcia and Tanzanian wonderkid Jackson Kasanzu, to ensure that the clean sheet could be held.
The last ten minutes were where the fireworks started. Garcia found the back of the net in the 81st minute thanks to a direct free kick. The captain of the men found his second goal of the season to make it 3-0 and clinch the three points. But this would not be the end, as The Mighty Oak continued to push forward and boost their goal differential.
The fourth would come in the 86th minute through substitute Shion Soga’s boot. The fifth would be provided by Soga, who found Tomas Casas off of a dead ball situation to make it 5-0.
Soga’s impact on this AFCAA side has been meaningful and vital since he stepped on the field. Soga’s fifth goal in four games has already shot him up the club’s goal-scorer leaderboards. Soga joins rarified air in becoming just the ninth person in club history to score five goals in the AFCAA league career, joining the likes of Yuri Farkas (12, top) and Dario Suarez (11, second), among others.
12 men have provided either a goal or assist in any match this season. Five have multiple goal contributions already. The club has scored 14 goals this season, and it sure is starting to feel like the side is learning who they are, what they have, and how they can mesh together as one team.
Meanwhile, 50 miles southwest in Saline, just a few moments after 7:30, the women kicked off their day with the first touch of the ball from the center circle.
30 seconds later, the AFCAA women had found the back of the net.
It was a potent first punch that packed a wallop. An excellently-executed team maneuver finished with Lina Berrah cutting the ball back in front of the net for Luana Grabias to simply direct the ball safely into the net.
1-0, not even a full minute on the board.
The goalscorer Grabias had the simplest of finishes to deal with here, but for the just-38 minutes she was on the pitch, her skill was apparent. With a surfeit of skill moves and tricks to her advantage, the Indy Eleven defense simply could not touch her. Strong and skilled on the ball, Grabias has made a home on the wing for The Mighty Oak.
Her counterpart on the wing, Lina Berrah, has also opened her AFCAA account on a flyer. Three goals through the first three games (including two against Kalamazoo FC in the second-most recent match) and now an assist in her fourth underscore the value that the Swiss winger has for this side.
It remained 1-0 heading into the half, and that was thanks in large part to an unbelievably cool and composed half from The Mighty Oak. Indy Eleven pressed high up the field, but the press rarely fazed AFCAA to a serious degree, especially in the first half with the squad’s collective gas tank at full.
Tracy Akiror celebrates her lead-doubling spot kick.
The second half got off to a similarly exciting start, though it took approximately six and a half minutes longer than the first half for AFCAA to find the back of the net. Angeline Kieh, who was spectacular yet again, was fouled in the box, drawing a penalty, and seeing Tracy Akiror convert to double the lead in the 52nd minute.
The penalty feels very much like a joyous reward for Akiror, who has quickly cemented herself as a staple in the midfield. Akiror has found joy next to Claire Cahalan in a two-woman industrious midfield that relentlessly harangues the opposition. All throughout the match Akiror, the Uganda Women’s National Team captain pressed high up the field on Indy’s defenders. Equally as impressive was her positioning in getting back, making sure no gaps could be found through the center of the park.
The other half of that duo, Cahalan, is the only woman to play all 360 minutes available this season. Akiror is second on the team, having missed just eight minutes this season. Only Tatiana Mason has played over 300 minutes this season–these three women forming a crucial midfield triangle that allows Mason to connect the heart of the park with the dangerous three-pronged attack in Kieh, Berrah, and Grabias/Chloe Ricketts, who shone yet again having come on for Grabias in the first half due to injury.
It’s a midfield that, by its very nature, has to take a beating in order to inflict punishment. Cahalan is exactly the player that AFCAA needs, a tough, technical, defensively-minded midfielder to continue stirring the pot and stay calm against the pressing opposition.
Indy Eleven continued to send crashing waves of attack against the AFCAA defensive barrier. The guile and experience of Indy at the intense tempo of the match meant that over six minutes, from the 76th to the 82nd, the 2-0 AFCAA lead was brought back to level terms, 2-2, where the match would stay when the referee blew her final whistle.
Rising to the occasion seemed to be the theme on Saturday. For the men, a bounceback was in order. For the women, it was a measuring stick to see how they stood against one of the top teams in the country. These tests were both passed with high marks.
Monday, May 30, Epilogue
It has been a full month of AFC Ann Arbor soccer. And it’s been a really, really, really eventful month, to put it lightly.
Mixed together with the season that has been one million miles per hour since its start, the state of the world, and specifically, the United States, May 2022 has been chaotic to the point where it is truly just impossible to ignore.
I can’t help but think about a quote from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, James Gray, director of Ad Astra, and 2022 Cannes debutant, Armageddon Time (a generational look into the American Dream of the 1980s) said something that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about in his post-film press conference at the festival.
What happened? How’d we get here? How’d we get here to where there are two people who own everything, there’s a bunch of authoritarians trying to take over the planet, how’d we get here? It didn’t happen by accident? … The market is God. You say to someone under 20 ‘You’re a sellout’ they think it means you have no more tickets left. So where does that leave us? The whole point is to inspire creativity.
This quote not only has nothing to do with soccer, but I don’t even think it has anything to do with this piece. And yet, I can’t stop thinking about it in direct correlation to this piece, as I sit here, typing this epilogue, trying to work through a heavy dose of writer’s block.
It has been a very long year already, with an intensity level to it that has almost ensured that the COVID health crisis will be the seminal touchpoint moment in this generation’s history.
I bring this all up now to say that we exist, in our world of sport, in the greater landscape of the social sphere. AFC Ann Arbor, as a club, has always been hyper-aware of that, but now, more than ever, have I felt that on an individual level.
Every single person, from the Head Coach to the most casual of casual fans, makes up this patchwork of AFC Ann Arbor. It is a group, a community, that has its strengths placed in the similarities and the differences of those that love it.
The beauty of the local community is something that feels almost lost in a world where globalization is chugging along at unseen speeds thanks to the technological advances of the past two decades. And when Gray asks about how we got here, that loss of the local feels like an important note to highlight in that discussion.
The local has always been on display with AFCAA, and the “local” often extends to those international players that come to play. Whether you are from Kenya, Ireland, or right down the street in Saline, you do not have to be from here to be local, and you do not have to be physically local to still be part of this local community—hence the ‘AFCAA Family’.
Myself, Jackson, and The Chairman.
I’ll leave you with a brief tale of Jackson Kasanzu. Kasanzu is 19 years old, he turned 19 last month. Like everyone’s favorite Kenyan Joseph Okumu, he has taken a massive leap of faith to come here and prove himself in a new country in a city that’s completely foreign to him in just about every aspect. Unlike Okumu, who made the move with Chris Odhiambo in 2018, Kasanzu does not have the luxury of someone to share in the similar feelings of his specific journey that has brought him here.
And yet, here he is, doing something immensely challenging for himself and the betterment of those around him.
Jackson and I have a limited verbal repertoire, but his smile says more, in a language everyone can recognize, than I ever could in this diary.
He is AFC Ann Arbor.
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