CHAMPIONS: Goshen City FC celebrates club's first league title with road 2-1 win

DEARBORN, MICH. — Goshen City FC head coach Tyler Born favors an aggressive and transition-heavy style of play on the pitch.

His team follows suit well, but after reaching the bye week with a 2-2-1 record in their first season in the Midwest Premier League, they needed to adopt that mentality off the pitch as well if they wanted to win a trophy.

Now they have two.

“The biggest thing for me is that I’m happy for the guys because at the end of the day, yes, I’m on the sideline and I yell information and what not, but these guys are doing the work that I’ve tried to get them to learn and do,” Born said following Goshen City FC’s 2-1 Great Lakes championship win over the host, Cedars FC on Saturday night.

“I’m just glad I get to see all these guys with the big smiles and taking all the pictures, jumping around, throwing water in the air,” Born continued. “That alone, I just take it all in and feel like I’m doing something good for these guys.”

After splashing sparkling water at Goshen High School last week in a celebration of Goshen’s Great Lakes West division title, the Orange and Black wanted the big one. The league rookies would have to face the reigning champs on the road.

A six-minute span was the difference at Fordson High School.

“For me, it was kind of an instinct thing at that point because he was basically through to the goal,” Goshen goalkeeper Lennart Wider said about his pivotal save that began a momentum swing to the visitors.

“I came off my line a little bit and then it was just instinct. I could have gone with my hands but I felt I was going to be quicker down with my legs so I just went with my leg. It hit the top of my leg, my toe.”

Cedars FC, a talented team in the soccer-beloved Arab community, nearly broke a 0-0 tie at the 69-minute mark in the second half. Striker Ahmed Hamad took possession in Goshen territory but magically outmaneuvered four Goshen defenders. Just a few feet from the net, it was a one-on-one chance for Hamad against Wider.

Slithering through the defense, Hamad drew Wider out from the post. Hamad went to his right but Wider’s outstretched left leg clipped the shot off target. Born offered praise afterwards.

“Play of the game in my opinion,” Born said.

“At that stage of the game, I mean, [Hamad], best player I’ve seen, outside of guys on our team,” Born said. “Opponent-wise, best player I’ve seen. He’s dribbling through three, four guys and [Wider] just sticks out a leg and it’s 0-0 with what, probably 20 to 25 minutes left? Think about how much of a momentum swing that would have been.”

Instead, the game remained scoreless after the best scoring chance for either side up to that point of the championship.

At the 73rd-minute, Hamad was given the game’s second yellow card of evening after shoving Goshen’s Eli Simones down. Hayden Clark subbed in for Simones afterwards and handed it off to the GCFC offense.

Off and rolling, Maxime Bregeon brilliantly began the transition with a pass from near the center line to a streaking Stephen Bandi down the right side. Bandi, a step ahead of three Cedars defenders drew out the keeper as the Goshen forward went for the counterpunch. The keeper’s last adjustment to the near post almost caught Bandi, but the second-year GCFC forward knew better.

“When I saw Max get the ball, I knew he was going to pass it to me, so I just knew when he was going to pass it,” Bandi said. “When he passed the ball, I noticed I was far away. Then I look at the keeper and I see the keeper going back to the post and that’s when I decided to just go for it. I just waited for him to move and I just went over him.”

Bandi chipped the ball over the keeper and the ball met the back side of the far post. At the 75th-minute, it was Goshen City with a 1-0 lead.

“It was such a good ball and such a good finish,” Born said. “That’s Bandi’s second chip-goal in a row. I always say he’s a cheat code on the right side because he’s so fast, he’s so smart on the ball and he always seems to be in the right spot at the right time. He’s a cheat code, he’s hard to deal with.”

Bandi’s third goal of the season came at the right time to cap a six-minute span that included a near goal allowed by the visitors, a yellow-card momentum swing and a thrilling goal to turn the tide of a competitive and fairly even game.

“One of the things I’ve talked about with this group is transitions,” Born said. “Like when we get possession, how fast can we push it forward? I think the second half alone, that itself was a transition to get Bandi, who’s supposed to be back there, he finds the right moment and then the composure to chip the goalkeeper from the side net, it’s like, you can’t teach those things.”

Goshen closed out the final 15 minutes of game action plus a lengthy, and chaotic, six minutes of stoppage time. Javier Enciso scored for Goshen in the waning minutes of stoppage time but Cedars countered with Massar Diaw’s strike to bring the score to 2-1. The hosts wouldn’t get the equalizer in the final minute, and Goshen City celebrated its fifth road win of the season, and fourth of the second half. It’s their sixth win in a row overall.

It’s now also unarguably the club’s biggest victory in it’s three years as a franchise.

“It’s always an unbelievable feeling when you get to the summit of all the hard work that you’ve put into something,” said Born, who helped lead Goshen High School to a state championship in soccer just 11 years ago. “I go back and think about my January, February when I’m on the phone with these guys for hours, trying to recruit them and trying to get them here. It just so happened that it worked out for them, because now they get to go into their college seasons with some confidence.”

Goshen at the break was not in a position to play for the championship game. They had to go undefeated the rest of the way. That meant wins over the league’s top teams, both on the road, were mandatory. They finish the second half with six wins, zero losses and zero ties. Perfection.

“We decided we wanted the championship, so we have to go for every single point,” Bandi said. “Since we are playing a lot of away games, we knew it was going to be hard so we decided to just go one game at a time. That’s why we were lucky to win all the games.”

“It’s amazing, it’s a very good feeling,” Bandi said about winning the Great Lakes title. “I haven’t won a trophy since I’ve came to this city. Bringing this back home, I’m so happy.”

Goshen City ends the season 8-2-1.

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MIDWEST PREMIER LEAGUE

Great Lakes Championship Game

Goshen City FC def. Cedars FC 2-1

GOALS

75’ — Stephen Bandi (G), Maxime Bregeon assists

93’ — Javier Enciso (G)

95’ — Massar Diaw (C), Ahmed Hamad assists

Shots (on goal):

Goshen City — 11 (5)

Cedars — 8 (5)

Corners:

Goshen City — 6

Cedars — 2

Goalie saves:

Goshen City — 4

Cedars — 3

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