Saturday, July 3, 2010
Newly signed Islander midfielder Keon Daniel made his first start for Puerto Rico a dramatic one.
Daniel took advantage of a scrambling Austin defense in the 75th minuter to send in a goal from 20 yards away to give the Islanders (4-6-2) a 1-1 draw against the league-leading Aztex (9-2-4) Saturday and save an embarrassing start where Puerto Rico scored an own goal in the game’s opening minute.
«One goal’s never enough,» Aztex head coach Adrian Heath said. «We’ve said that a million times and that’s what it proved to be.»
After only 30 seconds, a Jamie Watson cross was misplayed by Puerto Rico defender Richard Martinez, who sent the ball in his own net, giving the Aztex an early lead.
The scenario nearly repeated moments later when the a backpedaling Marco Velez almost sent an Austin throw-in into the Puerto Rico net. In the 12th minute, the Islanders came close to another own goal when both Puerto Rico’s David Horst and Austin’s Eddie Johnson challenged an aerial cross, but Puerto Rico keeper William Gaudette was able to recover before it went over .
«We’ve been shooting ourselves in the foot this year,» Puerto Rico head coach Colin Clarke said.
With the early lead, Austin continued to press for another, but failed to convert.
«We’ve had chances,» Heath said. «If we hadn’t had a chance all night I’d be more concerned. But we should’ve scored more than one goal. If we had, I thought that would’ve been enough.»
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