Palace now playing for pride

Mike Peters, The Examiner
2007-08-04 07:00:00.0
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Annapolis -

With its dreams of a postseason long gone, Crystal Palace USA is now focused on giving its fans one final home victory, when the Wilmington Hammerheads visit Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Following an 8-1 victory over the Bermuda Hogges last Saturday, Crystal Palace — playing in its first season in the United Soccer League Second Division— is 2-5-1 in Annapolis. However, the team is 7-6-5 overall with 26 points.

“We’re hoping to have a decent crowd,” Crystal Palace co-coach Jim Cherneski said. “Until Saturday, we were only able to give the fans one win there. It was good to do that. Hopefully we can come in and continue to do that.”
Crystal Palace topped Wilmington (3-8-7, 16 points), 3-0, on May 19, which sparked a seven-game unbeaten streak for the expansion franchise.

“We had success against them the last time,” Crystal Palace co-coach Pete Medd said. “We don’t change what we do much. If we go out and play our style well, I think we’ll win.”

Last week, the Harrisburg Islanders eliminated Crystal Palace from postseason contention with its win over the Richmond Kickers. The victory also clinched for Harrisburg a spot in the four-team playoffs.

In Crystal Palace’s win last Saturday, Sergio Flores and Matthew Mbuta combined for four goals and two assists against Bermuda, when the team scored one more goal than in its previous seven games combined. Coincidentally, Flores scored a goal and Mbuta chipped in two assists against the Hammerheads in Crystal Palace’s first victory of the season.

"We were obviously very pleased with the performance Saturday night. That’s basically the Bermuda national team,” Cherneski said. “We played very well, and we finished very well. We really hope we bottled that and can take that with us.”

After a winless April and May, the Hammerheads turned things around during the summer, going 3-4-4 since June 2. Wilmington has earned ties against Richmond, the Charlotte Eagles and the Cleveland City Stars — all of which are playoff teams.

“They’ve gotten some really good results recently,” Cherneski said. “We performed really well against them last time. I think it’s going to be a good game. It’ll be an exciting day.”

mpeters@baltimoreexaminer.com