The Charlotte Independence played their second match at Matthews Sportsplex late on Saturday night, hosting the Rochester Rhinos for the second game between the teams this season. The series between Rochester and Charlotte has not gone the Independence’s way so far in the team’s history. Their lone win came in 2015 at home when Charlotte handed Rochester their only defeat that season. But even the lightning couldn’t ruin the Jacks’ night on Saturday, as the home team beat the Rhinos 2–1… late.

I was basically right in front of Alex when he did this celebration. I think our faces matched perfectly.

More recently, Rochester has been a sore spot for this Independence fan. They ended our season last year in a road playoff game (even though it should have been at home 😡), and earlier this season, they handed us our worst loss of the year.

So, I knew the game would be a good marker for where the team is right now, playing against a tough opponent.

What I didn’t know, probably didn’t want to know, was how bad the weather would be. Right when we got to the stadium we were informed there was a lightning delay, and they would let us know when we could enter the stadium.

So we hung outside the gate near the Libretto’s pizza truck. Libretto’s is not the official pizza of SNST, but they are my favorite pizza in Charlotte. So I was thrilled when they started selling slices and handing them to us over the fence.

After waiting around for an hour and a half, the lightning was starting to get worse. We had a long day, and it wasn’t looking good. PK (my lady) was getting crabby, and Benji and I were getting sad. Luckily, we don’t live too far away from the Sportsplex. I suggested we go home, cook some burgers, and watch LEGO Batman to cheer us up.

Sadness sets in as it’s not looking good, and according to SNST preview nerd Benji, we were facing a line up we should easily beat. (Photo Credit: Ben Goshorn)

But rejoice! As soon as we got out of the grocery store, the Independence announced the gates were actually opening, and kickoff was going to be at 9:30pm! So we dropped PK off at the house to enjoy the LEGO Batman and burgers, and Benji and I drove back to the stadium. We met our buddy Kyle there just before kickoff, and despite the 2 1/2 hour delay and bad weather, there was a decent crowd to start the match!

We started the stronger of the two line ups according to Benji before the game. He turned out to be right! Yay Ben!

The game itself was great! We controlled the tempo the whole first half, and played really well. Possession seemed to be slightly in our favor, and we never felt too stressed in the first half.

That was in large part thanks to the great David Estrada, and the beautiful passes to find him in good positions to score. His first goal in the 12th minute was my favorite. Enzo connected with Alex who then placed the pass perfectly to Estrada in the box. Estrada shot the ball on his first touch, and the ball rolled just left of the keeper to give us a 1–0 lead.

Estrada would have had a first half hat trick but the Rochester keeper made a great save on a headed effort. The build up to that header had lots of beautiful passing from the team that you should just see rather than read my poor attempt at describing it.

Estrada would get his first half brace though. Enzo had a shot that was saved by the keeper, but Estrada was right there to put in the rebound shot.

The first half ended with us up 2–0 on a team that usually plays very defensive, but couldn’t afford to do that with the score line where it was.

And then the lightning returned!

Benji, Kyle, and myself hopped in my car, and pulled up to where we could see the 28 minute countdown clock on our beautiful replay board. Every time lightning struck, the clock would reset. I’m not sure how long we waited but it was a while. Lots of cars left, assuming we’d go home 2–0 victors.

But eventually, at 11:30pm, we got back to action.

The stadium was just about empty. We counted 18 fans on the other side of the field which included some shirtless and loud Jack’s Militia members. So I’d guess it was about 50 or so fans left. It was interesting though because you could hear everything on the field: what players were shouting, the coaches were shouting, and Rochester’s coach was entertaining.

We did our usual heckling, but their coach is super professional, and never even looked our way.

Section 112 is the heckle section.

We also made ourselves heard with the official as he made a few calls we disagreed with. One was overturned by the line judge as he initially wrongfully called an out of bounds play to Rochester. After the line judge corrected it, the official waved at us kind of saying, “Okay guys, I got it.” It was great.

And the actual soccer during the second half was interesting too. It felt like we were in total control with a chance or two to begin with. That was until Rochester got a penalty. In the 66th minute Joel Johnson had a handball in the box, which while not super blantant, looked to be the correct call to my sleepy eyes. They converted the penalty, and it was a competitive game again.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Rochester kept the pressure on, controlling tempo, and trying real hard to get that equalizer. It was kinda nice that this kept my blood pressure up as I was getting sleepy, but I had nothing to worry about. Our defense played awesome, and Cody put in another save of the week bid. As we all know, he always does this.

The game would finish 2–1 in front of a handful of faithful supporters. And as they always do, the players despite being exhausted, took time to shake hands with the fans who stuck it out and thank each one of us personally for sticking it out with them.

This is what it’s all about right here. Its the reason I keep coming back every game I can.

I love this team, and I’m so proud of what they are doing on and off the field lately. It was a long, wet night, but we got the win. The team has also offered a free ticket to any other game this year for any one who purchased a ticket to Saturday’s game. Now we are just outside of a home playoff position with several games in hand!

The Independence next play in Pittsburgh on the 4th of July (TOMORROW) at 7pm. Their next home game at Matthews Sportsplex is this Saturday at 7pm against St. Louis. I won’t be going as I will be attending the 16th Annual Lebowskifest in Louisville that day… but the last time I was out of town for a game we won 5–1. Hopefully that will happen again, and I hope to catch all of you at the following home game! COYJ!