PLAYING CONDITIONS were excellent. So, too, was the pre-game mood in camp. All available players were fit, rested and ready to go.
But it all went horribly wrong for Harbour View in one blinding stretch on Tuesday night in the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup (CCC) quarter-finals at the RFK Stadium.
The ‘Stars of the East’ failed to improve on or even equal their first-leg performance in Kingston last week against American club D.C. United and crumbled to a 5-0 defeat under a flood of four second-half goals – three in a five-minute blitz – in the return match.
The loss, combined with their 1-1 draw at home, booted the Jamaica and Caribbean champions out of the CCC by a 6-1 aggregate and left Harbour View officials puzzled over the team’s effort.
“This game, it was a letdown,” coach Lenworth Hyde admitted after the match, played in front of a crowd of 12,394 that included a sprinkling of Jamaican supporters drowned out by D.C. United’s loud and persistent fans. “A disappointing result.”
While Harbour View searched for reasons for the club’s inexplicable collapse just after the hour mark, when Luciano Emilio (63rd, 65th) and Devon McTavish (68th) scored back-to-back-to-back to turn the match into a lopsided affair, D.C. United appeared to have delivered on their promise of saving their best for home.
Booked a place
Fred’s cool 88th-minute finish capped the night’s scoring and ensured that the Major League Soccer club booked its place in the CCC semi-finals in style.
“The field conditions and just everything, the stadium being in such good shape, it was a benefit for us and being gone so long, playing in Jamaica and now coming home – it’s exciting for everybody,” coach Tom Soehn was quoted as saying after the game.
Yet, up to the point of the three-goal spurt, Harbour View still fancied a favourable result, despite being set squarely on the backfoot by a quicker, more determined D.C. United at the outset of the second half.
“I think we started out well,” said Hyde. “The first 20 minutes we were passing it around well.”
Despite their competitive beginning, fuelled by aggression that earned midfielders Richard Edwards and Donald Stewart early cautions, Harbour View failed to seriously threaten D.C. United’s goal.
Although playmaker Jermaine Hue found room to roam, there were no telling through passes or accurate shots on goal. Forwards Fabian Taylor and Kavin Bryan rarely threatened to disturb D.C. United’s goalkeeper, Zach Wells.
Eventually, the visitors fell behind when McTavish, who had also scored in Kingston, scrambled on to the end of Marcelo Gallardo free kick in the 26th minute as a host of Harbour View defenders struggled to track the ball.
Still, the first half offered no indication of what was to come.
D.C. United burst out of the break far more purposeful. They quickly figured out how to beat Harbour View’s now disorganised attempts to set the offside trap and the game soon developed into a one-way procession.
Exposed the Goalkeeper
Gallardo, Emilio, Fred and substitute Santino Quaranta sliced through the frustrated Jamaicans’ defence, which was worn down by chasing D.C. United’s much-improved passing game and spacing on the large RFK Stadium field.
Harbour View’s goalkeeper, Dwayne Miller, soon became a very busy man.
“We were trying to play the offside thing, but our legs weren’t there,” Hyde conceded.
“It wasn’t coordinated with our four defenders. So, they got some run-throughs on our goal. We weren’t working hard enough around at the back of the field, and we exposed our goalkeeper too easily.”