Terrific Result against league leaders

Green Briar FC 1:1 Lowell United

The Briar bounced back from the midweek loss to Albania in the best possible way, putting in a tremendously disciplined performance against league leaders Lowell United that earned them a valuable point and causing Lowell to drop their first points of ther season.

To a man, the Briar worked relentlessly throughout the 90 minutes. Hassling, pressuring and closing down the skillful Lowell players. When things did get broken up, the Briar were confident in possession as they probed for an opening on the counter attack.

The Briar maintained their clean sheet in the first half helped in no small part by a specatacular save by Peter Dupuis. Aswerving shot from distance was tipped over by Peter after making a terrific adjustment in the air.

That opening came in spectacular fashion. Janak Altidore sent a searching diagonal ball to the far post where Braima Samati had peeled off of his defender to find space. He subsequently sent a beautiful side footed volley past the hapless keeper into the bottom right hand corner of the net. The young man is in great form.

The Briar closed out the half with the lead intact and went about business in the second in much the same manner. Lowell were enjoying a little more of a territorial advantage as they pushed for the equalizer as the second half progressed.

With ten minutes to go Lowell restored parity. The Briar had a couple of chances to clear a bouncing ball at the edge of their area but instead the ball fell kindly for a Lowell man. Showing terrific skill he sent a side-footed shot out of the reach of Peter Dupuis in goal and the sides were level.

In the minutes that remained it was the Briar that could have stolen all three points. Confusion reigned in the Lowell defense for once as a high ball bounced over the centre half and towards the edge of the box. The keeper and defender collided resulting in the ball bouncing out to Tom Caldwell who was 25 yards from goal. Tom chose to take the shot at the empty net on the half volley but his effort was slightly miscued and ended back with the keeper who had picked himself up at the edge of the area.

The result sees the Briar keep pace with the top of the league, but a closer look at the table will show that there is no room for slip ups in the coming weeks if the Briar want to push on and put pressure on the elite teams of the MSSL. Other teams such as Lusitanos and Albania United are slowly gathering momentum also. With an away trip to Lowell Lusitanos next up for the Briar, it seems the big games keep coming.

Line Up: Dupuis, Clarke, Hennessy, Miller, Altidore, Roux, Caldwell, McGuinness, Hardy, McLoughlin, Samati, Jones, McCarney, Claus, Doonan, Coen