Fontana Legacy and Fullerton Disciples II tied 2-2 on Sunday in the SoCal Premier open division.
Pre-game
This will be the first time both teams met in competitive play, as Fontana Legacy is a new team and are in their debut season. Both sides were at the bottom of the table as they had yet to win a game leading up to match week 3. Fontana suffered 3-1 defeats to AS Los Angeles U-19 and CDC Dominguez, while Fullerton tied 1-1 with ASLA and fell to CDC Dominguez 2-1. As both teams were looking for their first win of the season, Fullerton statistically looked like the better team, with one point under their belt and bringing experience from their time in the UPSL.
Match Recap
Both teams were set to kick off on a windy Sunday afternoon at Ralph Lewis Sports complex. The wind was blowing strong for this matchup, which was a significant factor. The wind came from the north at around 10 mph, with gusts going to 15 mph.
As the field was orientated north to south, Legacy won the coin toss and decided to attack north to south to have the wind advantage. However, as the game kicked off, the boys in green had control of the game from the start. They won interceptions from Fontana’s passes then forced lob balls against the wind, which surprisingly worked as they found their targets. One play led to a chance around the 9th minute, where after a lob play, the legacy goalkeeper went out for a dive prematurely to stop a 1v1 attack. It resulted in a loose ball for Fullerton, but they missed their shot at a keeper-less net.
Fontana couldn’t connect in the play build-up and caused many turnovers. They looked for air attacks as the wind could add distance to their long pass, but mother nature proved too powerful for the wingers to reach the pass. The half saw the ball hit back and forth in the midfield as both teams struggled to control the ball. The first half ends scoreless.
The second half started, and Legacy started to refine their passes. Then within 10 minutes of kickoff, Legacy gets a penalty.
Shortly after the conversion, Fullerton responded quickly with a goal on the left wing after beating a Legacy defender on a foot race for the ball. The game gets back to a level playing field. Afterward, Fullerton would get a second goal off a blocked shot from the Legacy goalkeeper, and the follow-up shot by the Fullerton forward goes to the left for the Disciples to take the lead 2-1.
The 2nd half seems like the 1st half as both sides struggled to play in the wind, but Fontana now uses the counterattack to move forward. However, the Disciples still maintained control and possession. Towards the end of the match, Fontana gets a throw-in on Fullerton’s final 3rd. The player sends the ball into the box where the bounce was timed perfectly by the lone Fontana forward to volley it. The ball goes left and back of the net as the keeper could save it; the game is now 2-2. Fontana making the game level, saw them bunkering down against Fullerton, who wanted a third goal, but a long delay of the game ensued to a goalkeeper injury.
Apparently, a Fontana forward clipped the Disciple keeper after passing the ball to his defender; the referees did not see the incident. After being down and receiving attention, the keeper was lifted to the sidelines while half the Fullerton team made their case to the referees for justice. Still, the passionate pleas for action resulted in a game restart. The delay was around 5 minutes, and an outfielder replaced the keeper. He wasn’t under much pressure as the end of the match was mostly Fontana playing defense to the many corners kicks Fullerton got before the game ended. The final whistle blows, and the game ends in a 2-2 tie.
Post-match
Fontana gets their first-ever point as a team but is now in last place. Their next match is against Problems FC, who pulled an upsetting result to top-side Temecula FC the previous week 5-3. Problems FC is in 6th place with a 1-0-2 record and a GD of -3. For the Disciples, they have 2 points in the season but are placed 7th. Their next match is against 2nd place Temecula FC, who are in 2nd place with a 2-0-1 record and a GD of 0.
From 2/27/2022