Montgomery heads to Dothan for rematch

If last week’s battle between Montgomery United and Dothan United failed to meet expectations, the expectations were simply unrealistic as the sides scrapped for 90 minutes in the first edition of the in-state rivalry, resulting in a 1-0 victory for the Storm. Luckily for those eager for a rematch, there’s no time to wait as the Storm travel 100 miles down US-231 to return the trip to the Dragons Saturday night for a 7:30 kickoff.

The home-and-home weeks are rarely seen in college and semi-professional levels and will pose a unique challenge, all under the umbrella of tensions of a local rivalry, for both sides to navigate. In college, most every team will only face an opponent again in the postseason as most conferences play a single round-robin format. In USL2, this is one of two such scheduling arrangements out of the 143 clubs in the opening phases of the season; joining Peoria City and FC Ambush who are also playing back-to-back matches against each other.

Head Coach Tate Dean is excited about the opportunities this brings towards the team, as well as a new opportunity in his coaching career. “I've never coached a team, and I'm sure the boys have never had this, where you have two teams playing against each other within a week. Of course, that makes it tough because you know the team, they know you, you have a little bit of, you know what stuff goes on during the game, scuffles, etc. That's going to add more light to the fire. It makes it fun for us in the coaching staff, what do we tweak in a week? What do they tweak in a week?” 

Through that, Dean is squaring the Storm on treating it like a two-leg competition. “I said to the boys, we're halfway through. We're at halftime. You won the first one, but they're going to come fired up to make sure you don't win the second one.”

Last week’s match featured just one goal amongst goalkeeping brilliance from Montgomery goalkeeper William Blake and his counterpart Yago Darub who combined for 11 saves. The teams pulled several good looks together among stingy defenses in the rain and it was one miscue from Dothan that led to the chance that counted for Renan Diniz who scored his eighth goal for the club.

Montgomery United will travel to a very challenging place to get a result; Dothan United has lost just once at home, a 2-0 loss last season to East Atlanta FC. “Their style and system suits them playing at home. But we'll have a game plan going in there. I think the way our team is and the way our boys are, we're ready to go battle and play anybody anywhere.”

This week the weather appears to pose a much different challenge with the forecast projecting 85 degrees and clear at kickoff at Rip Hewes Stadium opposed to the rain and Alabama-relative cold seen at the Emory Folmar Soccer Complex on May 10. Helping reinforce the depth of Montgomery, the Storm welcome a couple of new faces into the roster this Saturday night with Matheus Cadorin, Lui Bull and Jonas Gunther joining the squad, improving the quality throughout the lineup. “Lui Bull, I’m really excited for him,” Dean said. “He's going to come in off either flank, or as the nine. He can play anywhere. He’s a goal scorer, he's going to beat guys 1v1 and create chances. We also added in two attacking midfielders, Jonas and Matheus, who were very, very good, very creative. They give us another dynamic in the final third and hopefully we can create some more chances there.”