City Earns Hard Fought Point in Royal Oak

Final: Lansing City Football (1-0-1) 1 - Oakland County FC 1 (0-0-2)

Bobby Harris 62’ (OCFC) Jeff Victoria 86’ (LCF) (PK). A game that had everyone in Royal Oak on the edge of their seats on Saturday night as the two sides faced off in both of their second matches of the USL2 season. Lansing set the tone early as they were pressing high up the pitch to cause havoc on the Oakland half of the field, as Oakland struggled to get anything forward Lansing would have multiple chances but just fail at the last moments of each build up. Oakland would sprinkle in their fair share of counter attacks on the Lansing press but for most of the first half it was Lansing City at it’s finest. Coming out of the locker rooms after the half, it was a different story. City would look just a tad off after it looked like Oakland had switched up formations from their first half strategy, confusing the Lansing City 11 and making things a little more uncomfortable. Chance after chance from Oakland, even after hitting the post on a shot, Oakland would find themselves up by 1 thanks to Bobby Harris. This didn’t dampen the mood for City, as they were still searching for their first goal of the game. As the game inched towards the closing stages, Lansing had an amazing build up which led to Guershom Sylvain in the box, and had caught an Oakland defender making a desperation tackle in the box, leading to a penalty for City. Nobody better than Jeff Victoria, the team captain to take the pen to knot things up. After an amazing pen, Lansing City found themselves in a position to take a point home with them from Oakland, but they wanted more, and with the last four minutes and added time they had left to play after the Victoria, goal they seemed to have full control of the game again. There were a few more moments City looked like they were going to take the lead in the very last touches of the game, but as the final whistle blew both squads looked drained knowing they went all out to try and grab a win. Lansing are now 1-0-1, with 4 points they look like a strong side in just their second season in the USL2. They will head to Grand Rapids to take on Midwest FC, another 1-0-1 side on Wednesday, May 24th at 8:00PM.

By: Christopher McAuliffe