Coming off a disappointing League One loss to Corpus Christi FC on Wednesday, Portland Hearts of Pine returned to Prinx Tire USL Cup group play on Sunday. Portland’s hopes of advancing out of Group 5 though took a major hit as Brooklyn FC rolled to a 5-1 victory at Maimonides Park in Brooklyn, New York.<\/p>\n
The home side opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Thomas\u00a0Vancaeyezeele\u00a0played a ball\u00a0forward from\u00a0just outside the center circle that sprung Markus Anderson behind the Portland defense. Anderson raced onto the pass \u2013 heading it out of the air \u2013 past Kash\u00a0Oladapo, who was making the start between the sticks for Hearts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Portland responded in the 19th minute.\u00a0Brecc\u00a0Evans delivered a long ball from near midfield over Brooklyn\u2019s back line allowing Aboubacar\u00a0Camara to break free down the right side. Camara outran the final defender and slotted a low finish inside the near post to level the match at 1-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The equalizer proved short-lived though.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brooklyn reclaimed the lead in the 36th minute when Gabriel Alves found Stefan\u00a0Stojanovic\u00a0in space inside the penalty area. Stojanovic rifled an effort beyond\u00a0Oladapo\u00a0to mak the score 2-1, a lead Brooklyn would not look back from. <\/p>\n
The home club would strike again, just before halftime. During first-half stoppage time, Malik Pinto found\u00a0Stojanovic\u00a0unmarked outside the box, and the midfielder drilled a low shot from\u00a025\u00a0yards into the bottom-left corner. The goal gave Brooklyn a 3-1 advantage and\u00a0Stojanovic\u00a0a first half brace.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brooklyn carried that momentum into the second half, controlling possession and forcing Portland deep into its own end. After Peter\u00a0Mangione\u00a0narrowly missed connecting on a header on a well placed centering pass, Brooklyn extended their lead in the 55th minute when Christopher\u00a0Olney\u00a0Jr.\u2019s corner kick found\u00a0Tomas Vancaeyezeele, who powered a header into the net to make it 4-1. <\/p>\n
Portland\u2019s frustrations appeared to boil over shortly thereafter. JayTee\u00a0Kamara, who entered at halftime, was shown a red card for violent conduct following a challenge just minutes after Brooklyn\u2019s fourth goal, leaving Hearts to play the\u00a0remainder\u00a0of the match with just 10 men.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With total goals scored a factor in tie-breaking, Brooklyn continued to press the advantage and added a fifth goal in the 70th minute. Abdoulaye\u00a0Kante\u00a0led a counterattack down the right flank following an attacking thrown in from Portland, Kante delivered a cross to the back side of the goal, that Markus Anderson finished from close range for a brace of his own.<\/p>\n
As has been the case at times throughout the season, Portland struggled to generate consistent attacking opportunities. Hearts were unable to sustain pressure against a Brooklyn side that dictated much of the final 45 minutes while also limiting the effectiveness of Portland playmaker Ollie Wright.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Portland was without Michel\u00a0Poon-Angeron, who is currently training with the Trinidad and Tobago National Team, as well as Titus Washington and Mickey Lopez, both sidelined following knee surgeries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the defeat does not mathematically\u00a0eliminate\u00a0Portland from advancing, it leaves them needing significant help elsewhere in Group 5 to have a realistic chance of winning the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Portland will have little time to dwell on the loss, returning to league play Saturday against Chattanooga Red Wolves SC at Fitzpatrick Stadium. Hearts eliminated Chattanooga in the opening round of last season\u2019s USL League One playoffs and will be looking to bounce back after consecutive defeats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coming off a disappointing League One loss to Corpus Christi FC on Wednesday, Portland Hearts of Pine returned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-259284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}