RBNY II ties Charleston in first ever road game, 1:1
April 18, 2015 (Official Game Summary)
New York Red Bulls II earned a 1-1 draw against Charleston Battery on Saturday night at Blackbaud Stadium in their first road contest of the year. An Anatole Abang goal grabbed a share of the points for the home team.
Charleston got on the board with a goal in first-half stoppage time. Battery forward Memo Rodriguez received the ball at the top of the box and fired a shot that took a deflection and hooked over the head of New York goalkeeper Rafael Diaz and into the back of the net.
The Red Bulls answer came in the 68th minute, when Abang rose above the defense and got his head on a Sean Davis free kick to beat Charleston's Odisinel Cooper. The goal was Abang's second of the season.
NYRB II had a chance to pull even just after the start of the second half, when a free kick was awarded inside the box after an illegal back pass to the Charleston goalkeeper. The indirect kick was touched on for Leo Stolz, but his shot did not make it through the Battery wall.
Diaz made a game-saving tackle in the 75th minute, winning an important challenge to stop a breakaway run from Charleston's Garbanzo without committing a foul inside the box.
Each side also had a strong chance in stoppage time. Abang almost notched his second on a quick counter attack, getting on the end of a long pass after a Battery corner was cleared. Abang worked free of the defense, but his shot through Cooper went just wide of the left post.
On the final play before the whistle, a scorching shot from a Charleston player was saved by Diaz, and the rebound fell to a wide-open Garbanzo. The Charleston striker found himself staring at an open net, but put a shot squarely off the post.
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