El Paso Patriots News Release - www.elpaso-patriots.com
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
EL PASO, TX -- Goalkeeper Jorge Muñíz denied a legend from the spot and fired the match-winner in penalty kicks, as the El Paso Patriots won the first penalty kick knockout in franchise history, beating Miami FC, 4-3, after a 2-2 draw through overtime, to earn a spot in the Second Round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
El Paso will travel to take on another United Soccer Leagues First Division side in two weeks. The Charleston Battery walloped the Patriots’ Premier Development League Southern Conference brethren, the Central Florida Kraze, 3-0, in Charleston.
Charleston is 3-3-3, and the Battery’s 12 points puts them one behind Miami FC for ninth place in the USL First Division.
Prior to Muñíz’s heroics in penalty kicks – an albatross El Paso had never shaken in the face of some of the 17-year-old franchise’s most historic moments – it was native son Omar Mora who looked to be a lock for Man of the Match.
It was Mora’s Houdini act that bought him space up the left wing, eluding Miami’s Cristiano Dias to tap a perfect 21st minute cross to forward Michael Griego. Unmarked, Griego’s swooping header gave goalkeeper Pat Hannigan no chance and the Premier Development League’s Patriots had hopped on their big brothers, 1-0.
But Miami FC had too much quality to stay quiet for 90 minutes, and they called on the magic feet of their Brazilian World Cup champion, Crizam “Zinho” Oliveira, to help them back into the match.
As the second half wore on, it was apparent Miami was beginning to solve El Paso’s defensive structure, stringing together better passes, positioning themselves in better spots and pressuring more.
Zinho had already found a crease to make a run on the left of the Patriots’ area once in the half, and El Paso made the mistake of leaving it open again. Miami’s number 10 may be less than a week from his 40th birthday (June 17th), but he has forgotten more soccer than most players on this field will ever know. Zinho made a short run to edge of the box then let fly a low, driving far post blast that beat a diving Muñíz in the 70th minute.
Miami was not done, either. Short passes near the area and great technical soccer gave Miami another golden chance just eight minutes later. Luchi Gonzalez, the hard-working former MLS player, played a neat ball that sprang Jamaican midfielder Sean Fraser inside the area. Ahead of the defense, Fraser could pick his spot on Muñíz and dialed in a low near post shot to give big brother the lead, 2-1, in the 78th.
El Paso lashed the ball forward in a desperate bid to equalize, but Miami FC’s patient game gave the home team few opportunities.
However, in the 89th minute, Miami FC cleared a longball from Patriots midfielder Jorge Briones as he attempted to find defender Carlos Martinez, double-teamed in the Miami area. The pass was cleared out off the head of Nicolas Mosquera, but fell to a charging Mora who boomed his first-timer into the right upper 90 to tie the game. Hannigan was well-set and on his line, but Mora’s left-footed rising shot was too hot to handle.
Neither team budged from there, not through four minutes of added time or the two 15-minute overtimes. And so the match went to the dreaded penalty kick shootout.
The two largest matches El Paso has played prior to Tuesday both went to the penalty kick phase, and the Patriots lost them both.
In 1995, the El Paso Patriots became the first professional side to make the finals of the Open Cup, hosting the Richmond Kickers in front of nearly 9,000 fans at the Socorro Student Activities Complex and an international television audience. The Patriots and Kickers tied, 1-1, before Richmond beat El Paso, 4-2, in penalty kicks to hoist the Dewar Cup.
In 2005, the Patriots returned to the SAC to host the PDL Championship match. A crowd of some 7,000 El Pasoans came to watch the Patriots and the Des Moines Menace do battle for the league title. The match finished scoreless before going to penalties, and again El Paso fell short.
Perhaps the Patriots just needed the right scorers, the right goalkeeper. They apparently had both in Muñíz, who came to El Paso from Rayados in Monterrey.
The shootout went the full five frames for both teams. Miami FC’s two missed penalties came from two of their biggest players.
Eric Vasquez, who played last season with the Colorado Rapids of MLS, started Miami off on the wrong foot, banging the first shot of the night high off the crossbar, though El Paso’s Hugo Sámano also missed the Patriots first try.
The other Miami miss? In the third frame, as Muñíz stuffed Zinho. Starting at the edge of the area, Zinho’s long run-up pointed to a left-footed shot to the right, and Muñíz guessed correctly, diving left for his only deflection.
Ironically, though he did not participate in the World Cup Final shootout that gave Brazil its fourth world championship, Zinho was part of the team that beat Italy in the Rose Bowl for that title.
It was Muñíz who then calmly stepped to the line in the fifth and final frame of the shootout to give El Paso the win. The Patriots goalkeeper beat Hannigan left and low, and El Paso had successfully shaken a 17-year-old monkey off its back.
