An early penalty kick for Spokane was enough as the league-leading Velocity came away with an 1-0 win over South Georgia Tormenta Saturday night at Tormenta Stadium.

Tormenta’s Jackson Kasanzu was called for a foul while he and Spokane’s Anuar Pelaez went for a ball in the box in the 21st minute. Just a minute later, Pelaez would fire his shot low and to his left as Tormenta goalkeeper Austin Pack dove the opposite direction, giving Spokane the early lead.

Despite creating chances and outshooting Spokane on the night, that one goal would hold up as Spokane won their fourth game in a row to improve to 5-2-1 (17 points) on the season. Tormenta, meanwhile, lost their second in a row in League One play to fall to 2-4-1 (7 points) through seven games.

“They put one away and we didn’t,” said midfielder and team captain Gabriel Cabral. “I think we’re the better team, but it’s about putting your chances away and they came once or twice and they scored and we didn’t. I think that was the biggest difference.”

“The penalty obviously decided it. I”ve not seen it back. I don’t know if it was a penalty. It looked dubious in the game but if anybody arrives in your box and there’s a tussle then there’s always a chance a penalty could be called,” said Tormenta Manager Ian Cameron of the call. “We’ve given too many (penalty kicks) for it to just be bad luck. We’ve got to take ownership of that.”

Cabral said that the early lead allowed Spokane to sit back defensively and absorb pressure with everyone behind the ball defensively.

“We just weren’t able to put one away. It’s hard when teams stay that deep and you’re trying to break them down, but it’s not that easy,” he said. 

Tormenta looked to take the lead early with a couple of excellent scoring opportunities. In the fourth minute, South Georgia’s Sebastian Vivas’s cross found Yaniv Bazini six yards out, but his header was directly at Spokane goalkeeper Carlos Merancio Valdez for the save.

A few minutes later, Oscar Jimenez’s shot from 18 yards out made its way through traffic but was just wide as the game remained scoreless.

Cameron knew coming into the match that it would be a tight affair with both teams playing a similar style. Tormenta outshot Spokane on the night 15-13 and held possession for 59 percent of the game. However, poor passes and turnovers plagued Tormenta as Spokane capitalized on those mistakes to create opportunities.

“I think the disappointing part from our side was that what we gave them was just too much,” Cameron said. “They didn’t create much of their opportunity. A lot of that came from our mistakes so we really have to take ownership of that. I’ve said many times to the boys if you want to be in possession more, the team that’s taking it to the other team, then there is a responsibility that comes with that, attention to detail that comes with that.”

“It’s easier to counter attack and score goals, so we’ve chosen, as an organization, to try to do it the hard way and try to build and we just fell short.”

Spokane nearly doubled their lead in the 60th minute when Pierre Ready’s shot appeared to trickle under Pack, but he was able to recover and corral the ball to keep the deficit at one. 

Despite being held scoreless, Cameron said there were opportunities.

“I think we did a pretty good job for the first 60 minutes of the game. We arrived in the final third in wonderful position with player that you want on the ball, going at people with numbers in the box,” Cameron said. “So it’s about some of these young professionals understanding the responsibility to score goals. Goals change games.”

“They can be frustrated some weeks because they’re not getting enough service. They can’t be frustrated tonight that the front four weren’t getting enough service. They were fed the ball and they came up short tonight in terms of their output,” he said. “If we’d gone up a goal and (Spokane) had to come out a bit more, then we’d have had the opportunity to counterattack on them and it could have been a game that we’d gone on to win two-nil.”

Second Academy Player Makes Professional Debut

Three minutes into second half stoppage time, striker Liam Healy made his debut with the League One team as Tormenta searched for the equalizing goal. The Tormenta academy product is the second player in as many games to see action following goalkeeper Sam Jones starting against Greenville.

“I was surprised,” he said when he was told he was entering the game. “I thought someone else was going to go in, but they called my number and I was ready to go. I just wanted to score a goal for the guys and, unfortunately, it didn’t happen, but it’s still awesome to make my debut.” 

Healy admitted to being nervous, understandably, but he said they disappeared pretty quickly.

“There’s a little nerves to it, of course, because it’s my first time playing with them (in a game), but once you get out there, all the nerves go away and it’s just soccer as usual.”

The 18-year old has been with the Tormenta Academy for nine years and has impressed the coaching staff with his development, especially in recent weeks. 

“If you’d asked me maybe six or seven weeks ago if Liam would see minutes in the first half of the season, I would say no,” Cameron said. “But he looks like he’s turned a corner in terms of his application and training, his attention to detail and his understanding of what his role is. In the last three weeks I’ve been of the mindset that he’s a usable asset. That’s somebody who can play minutes and he’s earned that with his discipline and the group, as a whole, should be proud that they’ve created an environment where our young players could come on the field, make his pro debut, and try to make an impact.”

“Despite the result, that should be a pat on the back for the whole organization and for the greater scheme of what we’re all trying to do in Statesboro,” Cameron said.

Up Next

Tormenta has their second bye week in three weeks coming up this week before returning to action on May 24 against Chattanooga.

“By weeks are fine when you’ve won and you roll into it off the back of a win. But when you come off the back of a loss and you have to wait two weeks to play again, it sucks,” Cameron said. 

Cameron said the hope is to get some players healthy over the course of the bye week prior to the Chattanooga game and to use the time to make the improvements necessary for the remainder of the season.

“We used the last one to get better. It didn’t show in the result, but we saw things that we worked on in the bye week last week that were evident from a technical style perspective tonight,” Cameron said. “It’s hard, but we’ve got to celebrate those moments in video and as a team and say ‘look, you’re putting in the work and you’ve gotten better at it.’ It wasn’t the result we wanted, but it was progress, so we’ve got to have the same application this week.