Reading United A.C. 1–0 The Villages SC (a.e.t.)
A hundred and fifteen minutes. Thirty of them with ten men. One goal in it.
We started this match on the front foot and stayed there. Reading's back four looked rattled inside the first five minutes and their goalkeeper Bennet Strutz had to make three saves before the game had properly begun. Their own head coach said afterwards that his side were under the cosh for twenty-five minutes.
"They really strung us about, but we came through it." — Alan McCann, Reading United
Timothy McGlynn kept it level in the 35th with an acrobatic save from Khori Bennett — Reading's all-time leading goalscorer — after a cross from the right channel.
On 70 minutes, Leonardo Paiva drew a tactical foul from centre back Lamine Conte twenty-two yards out and bent the free kick past a three-man wall. Strutz saw it all the way.
On 79, Kerry DaCosta found himself free when the ball popped out of a scramble and bent one towards the far post. Strutz got a palm to it.
That was Reading's ninth clean sheet of the season, and they earned every part of this one.
Then, just before the full-time whistle, Vandyke Gyau was sent off following an off-the-ball confrontation with Kieran Roberts.
We want to say something about that. Vandyke was one of the most important players in this squad all season and he defended outstandingly again in Pennsylvania. We do not believe it was a fair decision, and we are not going to pretend otherwise for the sake of sounding gracious.
It meant thirty minutes of extra time, a man short, away from home, with a place in a national final on it.
And with ten men we had the best chance of the night.
In the 100th minute, Paiva beat Conte, saw Strutz off his line, and finessed it towards an empty net.
Inches wide.
The teams went into the second period of extra time goalless. McGlynn saved again on his own goal line from a Pierre Reedy header, with ten men in front of him.
Reading were booked in the thirteenth minute of extra time. Yago was booked for a delayed restart.
Then, in the twenty-fourth minute of extra time, Reedy took a quick throw-in deep in our half. It found Kieran Roberts, who turned his man and finished. 115 minutes. His second winner of these playoffs and his seventh of the season.
We went again. One of the last kicks of the match trickled just wide.
A club in its third season in this league went to the playoffs as the wildcard, beat two division winners to take the Southern Conference, and then played a hundred and fifteen minutes of a national semifinal away from home — thirty of them a man down — and lost it by one goal.
To every one of you who wore this shirt this summer — including Vandyke — thank you. To everybody who followed it from home on a Saturday night in July: thank you.
To every one of you who wore this shirt this summer — including Vandyke — thank you. To everybody who followed it from home on a Saturday night in July: thank you.
SOUTHERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS!!! Go Buffalo!
