Previewing the Match: What We Saw
When the NPSL notified us that they wanted us to choose a match to sponsor, we couldn’t have landed a more perfect match than the 2018 NPSL Heartland Conference Semifinal between Little Rock Rangers SC (Home) and Tulsa Athletic (Away). Not only because it was a great match, but because one of our staff, Ryan Stallings, is one of the principal guys in the Little Rock Rangers’ supporters group, The Red Watch. So Ryan sat down and wrote about his memories of this season, offering you, the reader, a preview from the eyes of a guy who went to the match. Yesterday, Ryan broke down the lead up, today he gives you the matchday experience. The match will be shown here. Enjoy.
- Dan
It is difficult for me alone to describe the coalescence of feelings while standing in the tunnel with fellow Red Watch members preparing to march into Section 29 of War Memorial Stadium on the eve of the Little Rock Rangers’ first home playoff match in club history. Pride in the club’s accomplishments leading to this moment, confidence that the club’s players and staff will acquit themselves well in the match ahead, and still anxious if the stage might be too great, too soon, too ill-timed.
Rangers’ supporter Trent Eskola summed up that feeling of nervousness well. “Given last year’s back to back results in Tulsa, and the fact we’d just defeated them for the first time at home four days prior, I knew they would want revenge.”
Would the moment prove too great for the Stags? Was it too much to ask them to knock off Tulsa just four days after they managed it for just the first time in club history? Would hosting a first playoff match prove too great a distraction? Could we be more confident of the result were it anyone else but Tulsa Athletic, again?
Granted, the ninety-four hours since the previous match hadn’t softened any lingering animosity felt between the fanbases. Tulsa Armory members were quick to note the history of results between the clubs, while Red Watch supporters retorted with scoreboard pointing and talk of home field advantage. Tulsa’s owner, Sonny Delasandro, responded to Rangers fans’ boasts of Stags’ GK Walid Birrou’s ability to negate the vaunted Tulsa offensive by saying Birrou was “the fourth best goalkeeper we’ve faced in the conference this season, at best.” This comment was screenshot by supporters and shown to players and fans, helping cement Tulsa Athletic in their minds as the now hated rival.
Now that rival’s players lined up in the tunnel alongside the home club, and members of the Tulsa Armory filed into the stands opposite us. We marched into our section, drums pounding, banners waving, voices chanting. I remember the eerie quiet of the dozens of supporters beside me, and the thousands of fans behind me, as we stood through the national anthem, then watched the players take their places on the pitch. Supporters leaned over the wall, smoke in hand, ready to pull the pins and release red clouds over the stadium. Everyone in attendance leaned forward in anticipation of the opening whistle. Then, from along the wall, supporter Brenden Beattie screamed “F**k Tulsa, And F**k their shitty litter box of a state!” All nervousness was lost, and laughter rippled through the supporter ranks in its stead. Then, the whistle shreaked. Smoke rolled. Drums pulsed. Crowd Roared. Kickoff.
The majority of the match played out eerily similar to the contest four nights prior, with Tulsa showcasing their highflying attack capable of striking from anywhere over the pitch. Little Rock rested on the ability of their stout defensive midfield and veteran backline to negate Tulsa’s aggressive play, but the A’s came at the Stags in wave after wave of early attacks, testing Birrou with a variety of shots. Tulsa even managed to get behind the Rangers defenders and create some 1v1 chances, but Birrou stood on his head and kept the netting free of a Tulsa goal. Rangers fans were quick to note both Walid’s playmaking and Sonny’s location in the stands, sending chants of “Fourth best keeper in the league!” rolling in his direction. Sonny, to his credit, showed good form in responding to both the chants and to the growing number of youthful Rangers fans taking special interest in bantering with the Tulsa Armory members in attendance.
“This was the match I truly believe you could feel the crowd, as a whole, take on the identity of being Rangers fans. No longer was a Rangers game a fun evening activity to go see them play against some other team. The fans began to bleed for the club, and they were deeply invested in the play of the match itself, and in bantering with Tulsa’s fans specifically because it was Tulsa,” Rangers’ supporter Mason Shuffied recalls.
Halftime, for Little Rock’s players and fans, came mercifully. The Stags had endured the full assault of Tulsa’s attack, and began to return the attacking favors late as cracks started to show in the A’s counter defense.
The second half saw a more even competition develop, with Little Rock growing into the game and matching Tulsa blow for blow in build up play. The feeling in the supporters section, as the time ticked past the 70th minute, was that a single goal was sure to decide the game. As the 80th minute passed, it seemed that single goal would have to wait until extra time. But the 88th minute, that thought appeared assured. Then Donald Benamna and the 89th minute of the match happened.
To truly watch and understand that sequence in the corner of the Rangers’ attacking half is to understand much of the 2018 season for the Rangers, and Benamna’s role in it. Donald had found Little Rock through his time at the University of Central Arkansas, twenty-five minutes up I-40 from the Rock City. A Central African Republic native, Washington Beltway resident, and San Diego State University transfer, Benamna brought a wrinkle to the Rangers attack that had been severely missing in previous seasons. Making his Rangers debut in week two of the 2018 regular season, down late 1-0 to FC Wichita, Donald outclassed the opposition on the field and evened the score. He nearly won the game with several dangerous attacks in final minutes before an incredible goal in the dying seconds secured a win for eventual conference champion Wichita. Little Rock endured a loss that night, but Donald put the rest of the conference on notice, and proceeded to punish every team that respected or disrespected his presence on the field from there on out. Again and again throughout the year, his teammates were content to through-pass to him alone in his favored vantage point in the left attacking corner, where over and over Donald would embarrass a defender or three in creating a scoring chance for himself for his fellow Stags. Four night’s ago, he’d found such success in putting the match away against Tulsa in the 89th minute for the victory.
Tonight, he’d been frustrated by the Tulsa defense. Until now, the 89th minute. Again in the left attacking corner. Donald dribbled with his back to goal before cutting inside between two overlapping Tulsa defenders. Having gained the angle inside, Donald flicked a pass back to center to midfielder Katsuyoshi Kimishima. Katsu’s shot deflected off a defender’s step in a small, looping hop directly towards the Tulsa goalkeeper’s outstretched arms and waiting hands...and to Donald Benamna, who beat the keeper to the deflected ball and drove it into the upper right corner of the Tulsa net.
“Donald’s goal will always be be a moment I remember,” Eskola recalls, “The last minute, the dominant play. The scenes, I mean, the absolute scenes. The loudest I've heard that stadium in a long time.”
Goal. Smoke. Roar of the Crowd. Whistle. Match.
- Ryan Stallings
