Trailing by two goals late in the second half, South Georgia Tormenta scored two goals in the final 15 minutes, including an equalizer five minutes into stoppage time, to come away with a 3-3 draw against Charlotte and keep themselves in control of their destiny as they battle for a playoff spot.
With Tormenta trailing 3-2 in stoppage time, Ajmeer Spengler collected a deflected Jackson Khoury shot near the top of the penalty box, took a touch to his left and fired a shot back to his right and past Charlotte goalkeeper Austin Pack to tie the score.
“Jackson Khoury was absolutely destroying his guy on the right side so I kind of stayed away and let him do his thing and work,” Spengler said. “He started dribbling towards me and I saw the central defensive midfielder step to Jacko. He tried to get a shot off and it bobbled back towards me. Good fortune, just kind of being in the right spot and creating your own luck,” he said.
“No real thought. Just turn and hit it and, thankfully, it went in,” he said.
Tormenta jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the 13th minute when Aaron Lombardi found Pedro Fonseca on a through ball towards the end line on the left side. Fonseca was able to beat Pack to the ball and from a very difficult angle able to cut the ball in to give South Georgia the lead.
“It was difficult, I think, for the keeper to read if he needed to come out or not and from that angle I was trying to sneak it in there,” he said. “At the end of the day, I was fortunate enough to hit it with a lot of precision and help the team with the goal.”
Charlotte would respond in the 24th minute when a cross from the endline deflected off of Tormenta’s Aaron Walker into the net to tie the score at one.
The Independence would take the lead in the 59th minute when Tormenta turned the ball over near midfield. The ball would fall to Juan Carlos Obregon, Jr. who unleashed a blast from about 28 yards out that beat Tormenta goalkeeper Drew Romig to give Charlotte a their first lead of the night at 2-1.
Charlotte would extend their lead in the 74th minute following a corner kick. The ball fell around eight yards out and took a deflection and found the back of the net. Officially it was credited as an own goal off of Khoury and gave Charlotte a 3-1 advantage.
“The sloppiness of the goals we gave up has got to be addressed,” Cameron said. “All three of them were soft, soft goals to give up. We’ve got to analyze the video. We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and we’ve got to look at it as a full team.”
Tormenta would get one goal back in the 85th minute. Tavio D’Almeida found himself open outside the box and fired a shot that deflected off an Independence player and forced Pack to make a diving save to his right. He punched the ball away but it fell at the feet of Sebastian Vivas who tucked it in to cut the lead to 3-2, setting up Spengler’s heroics 10 minutes later.
“I think we’re in a position where it’s do or die and you have to push,” Cameron said “But what I will give the boys credit for is, late in the game, they looked really dangerous. Before we got the goal that got us to 3-2, we had two clear headers inside of their six-yard box. So it wasn’t two fluky goals at the end. It was pressure, it was momentum and we were arriving in the right spots.
“We’ve not always been a team that has managed the end of games, when we had to get a goal back, terribly well,” he said. “So to get two tonight, under those circumstances, and a few other chances, that’s progress in that department.”
While Cameron was pleased with the pressure and opportunities created late in the game, he knows the challenging part of his job is finding a way to create that sense of need throughout the game.
“It’s not the same game as it was at the start,” he said. “Charlotte goes into passive mode, whether they like it or not, because they’re holding on to a result. We go into urgency mode because we need the goals. So those dynamics change. The million dollar question is, ‘how do you cultivate the sense of urgency earlier and be more proactive from the start?’ That’s the million dollar question, but it’s a complicated sport.”
The draw, combined with Richmond winning their game against Lexington earlier in the evening, now finds Tormenta and Richmond even in the standings for the final playoff spot with the Kickers having the first tiebreaker by virtue of having more wins on the season. The two teams meet on October 12 in a match that will likely have huge playoff implications as there are only four games left in the regular season for Tormenta.
“Other teams are going to win games,” Cameron said. “We know as a group we have to find wins. We’ve been getting a lot of draws and we haven’t found that way. But tonight feels like a point earned. Last Saturday, being a man up, felt like a point lost.”
“The reality is we’ve got to find some wins soon to get ourselves in the playoffs, and with our ability to score goals late, which we showed against (Northern Colorado) and we showed against Charlotte tonight, obviously, that’s a good thing for the playoffs. But we’ve got to do a lot of work to get there.”
Tormenta will have a week off as Forward Madison and Northern Colorado will play on Saturday for the inaugural Jagermeister Cup. South Georgia will return to action on Saturday, October 5 when they travel to face Northern Colorado. The two teams tied 1-1 on August 17 in Statesboro.
“With the comeback at the end, I wish we were playing tomorrow or midweek at the very least,” Cameron said. “We have to wait, so it’s about the staff digesting tonight, analyzing it, getting the guys’ rest and the figuring out what’s the best way to use the next 10 days to make sure we go out to Northern Colorado with the best gameplan, the best attitude and go and get a result and attack these last four games.”
