Antioch falls short despite having twice as many shots on goal
By LUKE JOHNSON
Martinez Tribune
An errant pass by host Antioch High School that allowed an easy goal for Tim Catalan ended up being a costly mistake in Alhambra’s 2-1 victory during Monday night’s (Jan. 11) non-league boys’ soccer contest.
“They got the second goal on our gift,” Antioch coach Bassam Altwal said while upset with the loss. “The coaching is laughable. We call it ‘dump and chase.’ They kick the ball, and have somebody chase it. They played physical at dump and chase.”
The Panthers (1-11-1) made a strong last-ditch effort with back-to-back shot attempts inside the box less than two minutes before the final whistle, but a pair of saves by Bulldog defenders allowed Alhambra (2-6-2) to hang on to the win.
“They stayed with their marks very strongly, and our defenders dropped back to cover the goal. We had two balls that were cleared by our defenders that our goalkeeper had already gotten beaten on,” Alhambra coach Rory Gentry said.
Despite being outscored, Antioch had more goal opportunities, but were unable to execute with a shot on goal difference of 8-4. This statistic has been a frequent occurrence all season according to Altwal.
“This is our dilemma. We are having shots, but we are not finishing. There’s one game that we lost where we had 18 shots on goal, the other team had two shots on goal, and guess what? We lost 1-0,” he said.
Alhambra’s Robert Viano scored the match’s first goal 19 minutes in by finishing off a two-pass set piece via free kick due to a dangerous play foul called on Antioch’s Ruben Reyes. No yellow card was assessed, but a warning was given to his sliding tackle.
Altwal strongly disagrees with the call, and said Reyes “clearly” made contact with the ball before the ball handler. He also feels Viano’s goal should have been negated, and claims he was offsides before receiving the pass.
This was not the first conflict Altwal had with the officiating. Less than 10 minutes into the match, he was assessed a yellow card for what center judge Val Huerta called “sporting misbehavior” and constant disputing with a referee. In Altwal’s defense, he said he was trying to clarify to the referee that the result of a penalty should have been a free kick, instead of a throw in. He later stated the officiating improved in the second half.
Antioch’s only goal of the game came with about six and a half minutes remaining in regulation. Striker Abe Torres split Alhambra backs and was able to find twine from 13 yards out.
The difference maker, Catalan’s goal, came within a minute before halftime. Antioch’s Uriel Teseda passed the ball to back his goalkeeper, but was wide right in the attempt, landing at Catalan’s feet, resulting in an elementary score from 10 yards out.
“It is rare that I score, or even play,” Catalan said. “Scoring just felt amazing for me.”
