July hasn’t been a kind month for Med City FC in its history. Despite putting itself in a position to reach the playoffs the past two seasons, poor performances in July have cost the Mayhem. Again, July reared its ugly head and has put the team under pressure to make the playoffs after going the first ten games of the conference season unbeaten. This time, it was Minnesota TwinStars FC who cast the post season in doubt for the Mayhem as they traveled down to Rochester and beat Med City FC 2-0.
In truth, they Mayhem have nobody to blame but themselves for the loss. The team wasted a myriad of great scoring chances and some slack defending led to two first-half goals for the TwinStars. The first goal came in the 33rd minute against the run of play, as Ahmed Osman worked his way into the box and around two defenders to slot past Mayhem goalkeeper Salvador Plaza. The second goal came deep in first half stoppage time on a goal from Sadra Golzarian. That made the score 2-0 at halftime.
Med City FC continued to press for goals in the second half, again creating numerous chances but not converting them. As the game moved toward the end, the Mayhem threw three and then four attacking players on to try to turn their fortunes around. But it wasn’t to be, and TwinStars left Mayo High School stadium with a 2-0 victory.
“Historically, July hasn’t been kind to us,” quipped Med City FC general manager Frank Spaeth. “At this point, we’d really like to just have it removed from the calendar!”
The Mayhem need to recover quickly so that they can go up to Minneapolis to play Minneapolis City SC in the last game of the regular season. The Crows have already clinched the conference title after beating Duluth FC on Sunday. And while the Mayhem are still one point in front of the BlueGreens, Duluth FC will play bottom club LC Aris FC, and Med City will make the trip to Augsburg College on Friday knowing only a win will guarantee them the final playoff spot in the NPSL North Conference.
