HOLDING ON
Knights outlast Rangers, 4-3, move into 1st
By Dylan Butler
BigAppleSoccer.com Associate Editor
Brooklyn, N.Y. – It was supposed to be easy. And by all indications it was going to be. Buoyed by new signing Julio Cesar Dos Santos, the Brooklyn Knights jumped all over the expansion New Jersey Rangers, leading by three goals after just 35 minutes
Facing the last-place team in the PDL Northeast Division, surely three points were in the bag. That’s exactly what the Knights players’ thought when they went into the locker room at halftime.
As a result, the Knights were outplayed badly in the opening 15 minutes of the second half and had to sweat out a 4-3 victory at Aviator Complex Sunday afternoon.
“I believe we played beautifully the first half,” Knights midfielder Matia Damiani said. “But in the second half I believe we still lack finishing the game and staying focused until the end, especially the last four or five games.”
Despite the near monumental collapse, the Knights came away with the three points they needed to move into sole possession of first place, one point in front of the idle Newark Ironbound Express with three games remaining in the regular season.
“I’m looking just at the first half,” Knights coach Joe Balsamo said. “I don’t want to think about the second half. I’ll take the three points again.”
In a game that was rescheduled from June 14, the Knights played without four players who were away on vacation. But they received a major boost from Dos Santos, a veteran striker who most recently played for the Pancyprian Freedoms in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
“It was fun. I was welcome from the start,” Dos Santos said. “It seemed like I was on the team for a long time.”
Dos Santos said he decided to join the Knights late in the season to win a USL championship, something that has eluded him in his career. The Brazilian has come close before, losing in the USL-2 semifinal and final with the now defunct New Jersey Stallions.
“Anywhere I go I want to win everything,” Dos Santos said. “Even though I’m new here, my goal is just to win. They did very good last year and I’m sure they want to win everything this year. I came close twice and never won. That’s something that I don’t have in my career.”
Despite not having a single training session with the Knights, Dos Santos looked like he had been playing with them all along. Of course it helped that fellow Pancyprian teammates Damiani and Sebastian Alvarado Ralph were in the midfield. He also played with Hemir Niebles on the New York Freedoms in the USL Second Division.
“I’ve known Julio for many years,” Balsamo said. “At this time of the year I was looking for someone like Julio to bring experience. And he’s got plenty. He’s a great person who has a lot of skills.”
Before the game was 10 minutes old, Dos Santos helped put the Knights (7-2-4) in front when his cross led to a Rangers own goal. In the 19th minute, the crafty striker put the ball just over the crossbar following a wonderful series of passes.
In the 24th minute, Damiani knocked in Niebles’ cross to make it 2-0 and 11 minutes later Dos Santos slipped the ball past New Jersey keeper Erik Geiger to put the Knights in front, 3-0, a lead they’d carry into the half.
But the Rangers (2-9-2), which stunned the Long Island Rough Riders, 2-0, Saturday night for only the club’s second win of the year, wouldn’t go away. The visitors dominated Brooklyn in the opening 15 minutes of the second half and thanks to a brace from Dritan Sela at the hour mark, the Rangers were within a goal.
Five minutes later, Daniel Cummings pulled down Niebles in the corner of the 18-yard box and Juan Francisco Guerra converted the penalty kick to seemingly put the game away for the Knights.
But Sela completed the hat trick on 74 minutes and nearly made it four goals less than five minutes later, forcing Knights goalkeeper Chris Antonino to make a key stop as the Knights played on frayed nerves in the final 15 minutes of the match.
“It was a tough win,” Damiani said. “We thought it was (going to be) easy, but it was tough.”
