Late goal lifts Tormenta W-League to win

I'm going to miss Tormenta sunsets
when the stadium is complete.

For 83 minutes, Tormenta's USL W-League team dominated everything but the scoreboard. 

A Smith Cathey goal in the 17th minute gave Tormenta an early one goal lead over the Charlotte Eagles in the second of back-to-back matches for Tormenta against the team from North Carolina. Both before and after Cathey's goal, Tormenta had numerous scoring chances, but a combination of fantastic goalkeeping by the Eagles' netminder and some plain old bad luck left Tormenta with its single goal as the game went on.

Frustrating was the word of choice from Tormenta.

"It's pretty frustrating but it happens to the best teams," Cathey said of the inability to convert their chances. "All you have to do is just stay in it and you're going to get that winning goal."

"It's super frustrating," said striker Alice Bussey of creating chance after chance but not finding the back of the net. "But honestly, all credit to the goalkeeper for the other team. She had a great performance." 

South Georgia Manager Jim Robbins said he tried to keep his team calm at halftime and not to press too much.

"We told them to relax. Just relax. Breathe. Just think about placing it in the back of the net," he said. "Sometimes the players get a little too excited and want to rip the net off, but at the end of the day, it just has to cross the line somehow, some way." 

Still holding on to their one goal lead in the final 10 minutes, it looked as though Tormenta might finally create some breathing room.

In the 81st minute, midfielder Momo Nakau found a streaking Carlyn Presley inside the six yard box, but her shot that likely would have iced the game went just outside the post. Seconds later, Dara Russo appeared to seal the game for Tormenta with a shot that found the back of the net, but the offside flag had been raised by the official, negating the goal.

Just two minutes later, Charlotte was able to get a runner free on the right side and her shot found the top right corner of the net to stun Tormenta and tie the game at one.

"Half your mindset is 'is it going to end in a draw? It's going to end in a draw' and we all know that a draw's not really going to help us in pursuit of trying to get us to the postseason," Tormenta Manager Jim Robbins said of what was going through his mind when Charlotte tied the game. "So to some degree, it's, 'is our season going to end here with three games to go or do we have the character, do we have the attitude, do we have the desire to go and try to win the game back?"

In the 88th minute, Bussey drew a penalty inside the Charlotte box, setting up a penalty kick.

Bussey stepped up and her shot hit the bottom of the crossbar, bounced down and then up into the top of the net to give Tormenta a 2-1 win and a much-needed three points as they fight for a playoff spot down the stretch.

"My heart dropped to my stomach," Bussey said when she saw her penalty hit the crossbar. "I was like 'oh gosh,' but then it went over the line. I was like, we're good. We're good," she said. 

"That wasn't the plan, but the goal was a goal at the end of the day," Bussey said.

Defender Sarah Hagg said her mindset as she watched her teammates create chance after chance and not find the back of the net was to keep pushing and keep encouraging and to fight for the next goal. After Charlotte scored, she said that mindset didn't really change.

"At first it was a bit frustrating because we had so many chances and we didn't put them away," Hagg said. "We believed, the whole team believed that we can score that second goal and in the end, that's what we did."

Watching from the back as Bussey stepped up to take her penalty, Hagg was obviously excited when Bussey scored.

"I was just sprinting up there as fast as I could. It's amazing," she said. "Honestly, all I can say is amazing. I'm glad the team got that second goal. I'm glad we got away with the win because that was important for us.

Cathey's goal in the first half was set up by Presley, who was able to get free on the left side and then spotted an open Cathey at the top of the box.

"I saw Carlyn dribbling and (in front of me) there was literally a huge pile of space. I yelled for Carlyn and she passed it and I just focused and tuned out the noise and just placed it," Cathey said. 

The win moves Tormenta to 6-1-2 (W-L-D) on the year and 20 points on the season. They currently sit in second place behind North Carolina Courage (7-0-1, 22 points) in the South Atlantic Division.

Tormenta, unfortunately, does not control their own destiny in either their division, where they'll need the Courage to stumble down the stretch, or in the other two divisions that will see one second place team come out as a wildcard to make the playoffs. One of the tiebreakers for earning a playoff spot is goal differential, which I don't like, but no one asked me. 

They'll face North Carolina Fusion (6-3-0, 18 points) on Sunday in a game that both teams need to win to hold on to any realistic shot at a playoff spot.

"I've yet to see the Fusion really play, so my focus in the next three days is going to be watching them on film, getting an idea of who they are, what they want to do and any key players for them," Robbins said. "We're going to show them the utmost respect because they're a really good team. They've gotten some  good results. 

"They come to our place. We're still unbeaten in the month of June and we're hoping that will continue through that game, but we want to out there and we want to be on the front foot, manage the game, and try to get at them early like we've tried to the last couple of games and see if we can tilt the game in our favor in the first 45 minutes." 

Tormenta has three games remaining and one goal in mind, according to Bussey.

"Nine points and lots of goals," she said.

Tormenta returns to action Sunday night when they face the North Carolina Fusion. Kickoff is set for 7:30.