Yakima Reserve Team Loses Season Opener To Kitsap

Players kept repeating that it’s only one game; that there are 15 others ahead and that they cannot lose faith now.
Head coach Alex Silva had a different view of Saturday’s defeat against Kitsap:

“This can’t happen again,” he said.

Not the loss, but the way the loss happened. Fifteen minutes into the 2010 season-opener, Yakima already trailed Kitsap 3-0. By the time the game was over, it was 4-0 and a usually calm Alex Silva could be heard thundering away in the locker room, while his players sat on wooden benches and took the verbal punishment.

“It’s pretty unfortunate that that’s the way we’ve started in the last two games,” Silva said. “They just start slow, really soft. They wait to wake up after they put a couple of goals in.”

Yakima woke up, but Kitsap is no ordinary team. The Pumas defense clamped down, smothering Yakima’s lone forward Vini Oliveira, and both Kitsap goalies Dustyn Brim and Garrett Staples were mere observers during long passages of the match.

“We knew they were going to be physical,” defender Luciano Da Costa said. “But we just kind of lay back and let them do their work.”

At halftime, Yakima introduced Kurt Russell as a second forward, and another sub, Jose Garcia tried to connect the midfield with the last third of the field. By then it was too late.

In front of the biggest crowd the team has seen in a while, the Reds did not play badly the rest of the way. The other team was simply better.

All that is left now is to wait for May 15 match at home against Victoria and wait for international clearance for the four players absent yesterday.

Dalibor Omazic, Claudio Lazar, Abdulwali Aman and Maycon Malta.

They played the during the offseason and were expected to start Saturday’s game. Friday, they were told they could not.

“They had worked together, we had everything planned and in the last 24 hours, all of a sudden, we can’t count on them,”Silva said,

Garcia agreed, “We weren’t expecting that,” he said.

Silva also noted that the team had two other players out with injuries, Josh Hacker and Arturo Brambilla.
With four subs plugging holes and a two-man bench, Yakima did what they could, which wasn’t much.

Silva, despite his disappointment, preached patience.

“Thanks to the fans who come to the game for the great support,” Silva said. “We’d like to count on them for the next games to come. You can expect we’re gonna work hard, we’re going to work through. We lost the battle, but not the war. ”

Yakima Reds 0, Kitsap Pumas 4
Marquette Stadium, Yakima, Wash.
GOALS: 5′, Friessen (KP) 9′ Christner (KP), 11′ Friessen (KP), 79′ Cascio (KP).
CAUTIONS: Prestes (YR), Eggen (YR), Besagno (KP)
EJECTIONS: None.