Charleston, SC — Detroit City FC steals a point late on the road as they play down a man for most of the second half and draw with Charleston Battery 2-2. Stephen Carroll opened the scoring in the second half with a header, but after a red card and two Battery goals, Laurent Kissiedou saved the day with a curling shot outside the box in stoppage time.
Coming off a 2-0 road victory against Monterey Bay FC last Saturday night, head coach Danny Dichio elected to keep his starting lineup the same, changing only some of the substitute options. Abdi Salim is added to the bench as Matt Sheldon is unavailable for this match.
A difficult first half saw plenty of defensive action. Detroit City defended most of the time, as Charleston Battery dominated possession throughout the first half.
On the first significant attack of the day in the 27th minute, a Charleston attack came into the box. Nate Steinwascher went out of the six-yard box to deflect the ball away, and off the deflection, Devon Amoo-Mensah was called into action to make a goal-line clearance to keep this game level at 0-0.
After that opportunity, the story of the half would be the yellow cards. Charleston’s Juan Torres is shown the match’s first yellow card just moments after the goal-line clearance. James Murphy picked up Detroit’s first yellow card in the 33rd minute, and Alex Villanueva would be shown one just three minutes after that.
With both sides going into the half still looking for the first goal, changes would have to be made tactically to open this matchup, for Le Rouge, that would see Elvis Amoh enter the match for James Murphy at the end of the halftime.
Detroit turned up the attack to start the second half, and they earned a corner in the 49th minute. A brilliant ball by Villanueva to the near post finds captain Stephen Carroll, and he heads it into the back of the net, giving Detroit City the 0-1 lead.
Carroll’s goal would be his second of the season, the other coming back in June in a 3-2 loss to Orange County SC.
Le Rouge kept the tempo up after the first goal and had a few opportunities for a second. In the 56th minute, some brilliant buildup play by Detroit led to Villanueva having a clear look at the net from about 20 yards out. His shot would be sent straight to the keeper.
Just three minutes later, a ball gets sent into the Charleston box. Goalkeeper Adam Grinwis would keep the ball from going out of play, but the ball was still live and not under his control. Connor Rutz came in with a slide to try and get the ball away, but after contact with the ball, he made contact with Grinwis. The referee immediately shows a red card, and DCFC would be down a man for just over the last half hour of this match.
In the aftermath of the red being shown, Stephen Carroll picked up a yellow card.
With Detroit going down a man, Charleston would take control of the game in search of an equalizer. Detroit made some key stops, but the question would be how long they could hang on with all this pressure.
Charleston would be awarded with a penalty kick in the 71st minute after Amoh made contact with a Charleston player in the box. League-leading scorer Nick Markanich would convert the penalty, and the game was level at 1-1.
Detroit would make their second change of the afternoon in the 80th minute, which saw Jeciel Cedeño enter the match for Ben Morris.
Charleston took a 2-1 lead in the 84th minute when Juan Torres slid the ball past Steinwascher.
In an attempt to rescue a point from this match, Detroit would make an attacking change in the 88th minute, which saw Laurent Kissiedou enter the match for Abdoulaye Diop.
The fourth official showed seven minutes of stoppages, but as that was shown, a Charleston player was down, so this game would go past seven minutes no matter what.
In the third minute of stoppages, a brilliant one-two play with Elvis Amoh saw Kissiedou take a shot from outside the box and watched the ball curl past the Charleston keeper, and Detroit seemingly stole a point on the road.
It would be Kissiedou’s first goal for Le Rouge since joining the club in August.
One final change for Detroit would come in the ninth minute of stoppage time, as Ryan Williams entered the match for Alex Villanueva.
After eleven minutes of stoppage time was played, the full-time whistle finally blew, and Detroit would be a point closer to clinching a playoff spot.
With the draw, Detroit City would remain in third place in the Eastern Conference with three matches remaining.
Le Rouge returns to Keyworth Stadium next Saturday for its penultimate regular season home game against Indy Eleven. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. Tickets for all Detroit City matches can be found at www.detcityfc.com/tickets.
Detroit City Starting XI: Nate Steinwascher, Alex Villanueva (90+9’), Devon Amoo-Mensah, Stephen Carroll, Michael Bryant, James Murphy (46’), Abdoulaye Diop (88’), Rhys Williams, Maxi Rodriguez, Connor Rutz, Ben Morris (80’)
Detroit City Substitutes: Ryan Williams (90+9’), Daniel Espeleta, Elvis Amoh (46’), Abdi Salim, Jeciel Cedeño (80’), Laurent Kissiedou (88’), Carlos Saldaña
For more information about Detroit City FC, visit detcityfc.com and follow @DetroitCityFC on X and Facebook and @detroitcityfootballclub on Instagram.
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Primary Media Contact: Jarrett Maki (Sports Information Director, jarrett.maki@detcityfc.com)
