Laredo Heat News Release - www.laredoheatsc.com
Saturday, July 28, 2007
LAREDO, TX -- In a game that could easily be coined as a Clash of the Titans, the 2007 Mid-South Division Champion Laredo Heat picked up a huge 2–1 victory over the Southeastern Division Champion Carolina Dynamo and in the process, the Heat won its second USL Southern Conference Championship title in a row.
With the victory over the Dynamo, the Heat will once again represent the PDL’s Southern Conference in the 2007 USL PDL Semifinals next weekend.
For the entire game, both the Heat and Dynamo players showed plenty of courage, determination, heart but mostly lots of speed; however, it was only a matter of time that the one of the teams put a score on the board.
In the first few minutes of the match, the Dynamo had its first opportunity when forward El Hadji Cisse used his physical skills to elude Heat defenders to take a hard low shot but Heat keeper Ryan Cooper came out and dove feet first at the ball and saved his team from going down 1–0 early in the game.
A few minutes later, the Heat responded with a well planned play that was initiated by midfielder Isaac Morales and finished by forward Hector Vallejo. Unfortunately, Vallejo’s shot hit the outside netting on the right post side.
After this fast paced action, it was Dynamo Cisse again that got to the box and immediately launched a left-footed shot, but that shot sailed just to the right post.
In the last minutes of the first half, the Heat had a golden opportunity to get on the scoreboard when forward Felix Garcia picked a rebound inside the box and immediately took a shot but Carolina goalkeeper, Brian Edwards, like the Heat’s Cooper, came up huge for his team by taking a nice dive to his right and keeping the game scoreless going into the half.
As soon as both clubs came out to start the second half is when the fireworks started. The Heat went up 1–0 in the 48th minute of the second half when the center referee Michael Brow issued a penalty kick to the Laredo club. Heat midfielder, Juan de Dios Ibarra, as he has done all season, stepped to the spot and buried the shot to the left side of Edwards.
Three minutes later, the Dynamo, being the championship caliber team they are, tied the score at one after forward Richard Jata, Friday’s hero for the Dynamo, bent the ball over the top of the wall, but Heat netminder Ryan Cooper made the stop; however, before Cooper had the chance to think, the ball became loose and Jata was 'Johnny on the Spot' and he immediately put the ball into the back of the net.
At this point, the match became a beautiful game to watch by the over 1,400 fans. The Heat became the aggressors and threw everything at the Dynamo but the kitchen sink to break the stalemate.
In the 74th minute, the Heat took the 2–1 lead when the Heat’s own weekend hero, midfielder Isaac Morales, dribbled the ball passed a few Dynamo defenders and then launch a gorgeous low shot that got passed the Dynamo’s Edwards to seal the victory for the Gateway City club.
Center referee Mike Brow had a pretty busy evening as he dealt seven yellow cards with five being handed to the Heat and the remaining two to the Dynamo.
Laredo Heat Head Coach Israel Collazo repeated almost the same lineup on Saturday as he did on Friday versus the Central Florida Kraze. The only change was inserting Carlos Ordaz for Jacob Almack.
Next week, the Heat will be hosting the Western Conference Champion Fresno (CA) Fuego (10–4–2, 32 points) at the Student Activity Complex, located at the corner of Highway 359 and Loop 20, on Saturday, August 4, 2007 at 8:00 PM.
The Fresno Fuego defeated the Tacoma Tide on Friday, July 27th by a score of 4–1 and in the Western Conference Championship match on Saturday, the Fuego blanked the BYU Cougars 3–0 to clinch the Western Conference.
