LYNN — The Lynn English Bulldogs had their chances but could not capitalize in a loss to the Chelsea Red Devils 2-0 at Manning Field on Tuesday.
For the Bulldogs, their inability to finish some excellent offensive chances has become a theme of their season, according to head coach Kerry King.
“It is just we have had trouble finishing all season – it has been the story of our season. We play really good in stretches, and unfortunately, we are really young defensively in back, and it showed today – we made a couple of mistakes,” said King.
“We created a lot of opportunities — we did not finish, so it is just a frustrating game, and that is how it has been all year,” he said.
English continuously mounted offensive pressure on Chelsea from the opening whistle and got some prime scoring chances. Within the first 15 minutes of the game, English forward Christian Benitez had a header go wide of the net, and midfielder Kenneth Morales had a deep shot saved by Chelsea goalie Daylin Yanes.
One of the Bulldogs’ best chances of the half came with around 21 minutes remaining when midfielder Danny Lopez fed a beautiful long ball to Morales where he was one on one with the keeper. However, Morales was robbed of a goal by a magnificent save from Yanes.
Yanes showed how locked in he was in net for Chelsea when he robbed another English score with 13 minutes left in the half. Yanes dove sticking his leg out, and just struck the ball on a shot from midfielder Darvin Kuffour to make a save, and Morales got the rebound and launched it over the net.
While English was getting all of these chances, Chelsea was biding its time as they had some nice runs but were called offsides. Even with all the chances for the Bulldogs, the Red Devils took an early 1-0 lead before the end of the half in stoppage time. Wander DePina notched a goal for Chelsea, and his team made out like bandits in a half that English could have scored multiple times.
Not much changed in terms of finishing for English in the second half as they racked up chances from the likes of Benitez, Lopez, and forward Alfredo Pablo Lopez but were never able to break through.
With around 18 minutes remaining in the game, Chelsea got some breathing room and extended its lead to 2-0. Jefferson Ruiz was the beneficiary of a nice pass on a corner kick and buried it past English keeper Alejandro Zayas for the goal.
After falling behind 2-0, English could not put one in the back of the net and eventually fell to Chelsea.
Although it is always tough to lose, especially when goals are there for the taking, King said there are some positives his team can take from this game.
“We were able to create those opportunities, and there are a lot of young kids gaining valuable experience, and going forward, this is going to help them immensely,” said King.
As for how English can take advantage of all the scoring chances and avoid frustrating losses, it simply comes down to time and practice.
“It comes with experience and a lot of repetition in practice. Obviously, we need to do a better job of repetition because it was a very unfortunate game today,” said King. “I thought that if we took advantage of our opportunities and we did not make those mistakes, it might have been a much different outcome today.”
Michael Coughlin Jr. can be reached at [email protected]
