BROOKLYN— On a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, Brooklyn FC returned to action in the Prinx Tires USL Cup facing USL League 1 opponent Portland Hearts of Pine in their third match of the tournament. With the sights and sounds of Luna Park and Coney Island in the background, it is one of the more unique backdrops in professional sports in my opinion.
For us at the One Team We Agree On, it was our opportunity to expand into the USL and cover our first match in a different environment and league. It was also the opportunity to see former Union II head coach Marlon LeBlanc and former Union II forward Stefan Stojanovic. It also provided us the opportunity to check in on two current Philadelphia Union loanees, CJ Olney and Markus Anderson, in action as well.
At the end of 90 minutes Brooklyn FC would see out their first win since April 25, led by Markus Anderson and Stefan Stojanovic each having a brace and scoring the most goals in a match in club history en route to a 5-1 victory over Portland Hearts of Pine.
“I think the group is—look, we probably veered away a little bit from our identity for a couple games, and they’re trying to help the guys get a result, and then kind of hit the reset button and went back to getting back to what our identity is and how we want to play win, lose, or draw, and the last few games you’ve seen more of our identity start to show up again,” said Brooklyn FC head coach Marlon LeBlanc when asked about the breakthrough performance on the day. “It’s not about formations, it’s not about any one individual, it’s about the collective efforts and our principles and how we want to play, and I thought that the last couple games are starting to see that come out.”
Brooklyn FC scored to open the match in the 8th minute. It was the Union loanee Markus Anderson finishing off a beautiful feed by Thomas Vancaeyezeele, heading it past Portland’s Kashope Oladapo to put the home side ahead 1-0.
“With Markus, you just need to be patient, understand there’s going to be mistakes. There’s going to be things that happen, but he can change the game,” LeBlanc mentioned that when asked about Markus’s growth. “And so most strikers have that in them, and it’s about understanding, having patience with that.”
“He’s a young player at 22 years old, he’s still very young. He’s the second youngest player on this team, and I think just you have to get to know the personalities of a player and modern day coaching in order to figure out how to get the best out of him.”
On what he saw on the play on the ball by Vancaeyezeele leading up to his opening goal, Markus Anderson had this to add:
“Vanca played the ball, I didn’t know if it was going to be to my head or to my feet,” Anderson said. “I saw this a little bit far, so I just jumped and got good connection with the ball, and I saw it in the back of the net, and felt good though.”
Portland would equalize 10 minutes later with former Union Academy forward Aboubacar Camara slipping in behind the Brooklyn back line, putting him one on one with former Union Academy keeper Lukas Burns to level the match at one, and the assist credited to Brecc Evans.
“I think we probably didn’t do a great job shifting over to start with, and then I think what ends up happening is a domino effect of goalkeeper and back line all offset, the ball gets played on a really sharp angle,” LeBlanc mentioned when asked about the breakdown that led to the goal.
“I think anywhere but Maimonides, that ball probably runs out, but the spin on this turf and it slows it down, it’s sticky and it’s hot, and it keeps the ball in, and then we just kind of get caught off balance there at the end, but the response was outstanding, and it’s a shame, because it’s really, I don’t know how many other chances that they had, besides for that one.”
The Philadelphia Union organization ties in this match kept up on the next goal as Gabriel Alves’s pass found its way onto the left foot of Stojanovic, allowing the midfielder to finish off the chance, putting Brooklyn back on top 2-1 in the 36th minute.
Brooklyn found another goal as the half wound down as Stojanovic found himself with a brace after another goal in the 47th minute, extending their lead to 3-1 as both teams headed to the locker room.
“We knew that they wanted to come out strong,” Anderson mentioned when asked about the halftime message. “Obviously they want to win, so we had to put a goal in the net, make sure they couldn’t have a comeback, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Thomas Vancaeyezeele extended Brooklyn’s lead in the 55th minute following the home team winning a corner kick, which Olney Jr. would deliver masterfully, allowing Vancaeyezeele to rush in unopposed to head it home and making the match 4-1.
Things continued to not go in favor of the Hearts of Pine as Jay Tee Kamara drew a straight red card for violent conduct following being taken down on the play and then tripping up the Brooklyn FC player on the follow through, forcing Portland to finish the match with 10 men.
Brooklyn continued to punish Portland for sloppy play in the second half, leading to a fast break by Abdoulaye Kanté down the side, allowing him to cross it into Anderson charging the far post and tap it home for his second goal of the match, putting Brooklyn up 5-1 in the 70th minute.
“Having Marlon here, it’s a blessing,” Anderson mentioned about having CJ Olney and LeBlanc here with him at Brooklyn. “First year with Marlon in Philly on the second team, we went to the final, we won the East, we didn’t get to win the whole thing, but my connection with Marlon was great, especially with CJ. CJ is my roommate. CJ is a great guy, great teammate, great player. I’m very happy that I have those two with me here, and it makes my experience much better.”
Fun fact—in all the goals scored on the day, a player with Philadelphia Union ties scored or assisted on each goal in the match.
That would be enough as Marlon LeBlanc’s squad would see out the rest of the match, getting the all important three points in the USL Cup moving into second place in group 5 and just one point shy of Hartford Athletic.
“We’ve been the last couple of games creating quite a number of opportunities in similar fashion, and then a little adjustment we made was to change the way we were pressing them a little bit, and we started to send CJ forward in pressure, and we started to send Stef higher in the pressure as well, and that disrupted their ability to really overload us, and so I thought the guys really adapted and made the change right, and I’m glad that we got it right,” Leblanc said on the team’s over all performance on the afternoon.
Their next cup match will be on the road on July 11th at 8:30PM as they take on Rhode Island FC. They will as return to league play this Saturday as they travel to Louisville City to meet another former Union player in Chris Donovan and Philadelphia native and USL League Two side Ocean City Nor’Easters alum, Josh Jones, in a good test for the expansion side.
Jillian Almoney contributed to this article.
Main article photo courtesy of Michael F. McLaughlin/ Portland Hearts of Pine
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