In their English Premier League Youth Tournament opener on Monday against Aston Villa, the Red Bulls U-14 squad announced their presence with authority by beating Aston Villa’s youth team 1-0. In their second game of the tournament, the Red Bulls continued to shine, beating Chelsea FC’s U-14 side by another 1-0 score line.
The U-14’s started their second game of the tournament with several scoring opportunities. In the second minute, Stephen Elias played a ball over the top to Ethan Lochner who went in on the Chelsea goal. Lochner’s chip beat the ‘keeper, but beat the goal as well and went just wide of the post. The Red Bulls had another chance in the sixth minute off a Chelsea defensive miscue that gave Elias a breakaway chance, but his shot also narrowly missed. The bright start to the game allowed the Red Bulls to become more confident in the attack, and in the 20th minute, their work finally paid dividends. Elias was involved once again, pressuring the Chelsea centerback into a turnover and then, he coolly slotted the ball home.
Chelsea did not have any clear chances in the first half, and their shout for a penalty kick was denied by the referee. The Blues youngsters opened the second half by putting the Red Bulls under pressure, but it was not until the last five minutes of the half that Chelsea came close to leveling the score. In the 40th minute, Red Bulls goalkeeper Nick Giordano made a great save to preserve the lead, and though a 20-yard Chelsea blast in the 41st beat the young ‘keeper, the post did enough to keep the ball out and close out the win.
“We started the game with good pressure on the Chelsea backs and this allowed us to create several good chances,” U-14 head coach Jeff Zaun said. “Stephen did well on the goal as he closed down the Chelsea center back quickly and then quickly went to goal to give us the lead. In the second half, our defense did a good job of dealing with the numbers that Chelsea was sending forward. It is a good result but we still have key games left in the tournament."
Lineup: (4-3-3)
Nick Giordano, Cameron Allen (Kyle Zajac
26’), Henry Martin, Andrew Lombard, Anthony Sileo (Malik Stewart 38’) , Gideon Metrikin, John Antunes, Wilber Nunez,
Stephen Elias, Ethan Lochner, Callum Johnson (Orestis Sousonis 26’)
Subs not used:
Tomas Lapinas, Jonas Haloversen, Cameron Riach, Marcelo Borges
Goals:
23’ – Stephen Elias Unassisted
