Leyden picks up
key league win at Willowbrook
Eagles' focus now turns to Morton, Downers Grove South
By Dave Owen
VILLA PARK – As Leyden prepares for a make-or-break week in its quest for the West Suburban Conference Gold Divison title, Willowbrook provided a resilient test Tuesday.
But the visiting Eagles (8-3-0, 2-0-0) used a Mateusz Makowiec goal midway through the first half and two strikes in the final 4:38 of the match to claw their way to a 3-0 win over the Warriors (5-5-0, 2-1-0).
In what developed into a back-and-forth battle and ended with a deceivingly one-sided final score, Leyden senior defender Damian Kosakowski summed up his team’s often winding road to the win.
“We started off well, playing how we can really play,” said Kosakowski, whose team hosts both Downers Grove South and Morton in a three-day stretch next week. “Then we got the first goal and everything kind of slowed down.
“They (Willowbrook) picked it up – it was a motivator to them, saying, ‘Let’s go, these guys mean business.’ We slowed down. and they picked it up.
“At the half we had a nice team talk and realized we needed to come out and start playing,” Kosakowski added. “We got the second goal. and we kind of wore them out I think. We ended well.”
For the senior co-captain and the Eagles, the team's vision is clearer after a wake-up call Sept. 8 that still resonates.
“Our 5-0 loss (to St. Charles North) – to me that was, ‘We can never let this happen again,’” he said. “That was ridiculously embarrassing.
“So I kind of took it upon myself that I’m going to start playing as hard as I can for my team, try to keep getting better and hopefully we can get more shutouts like here.”
The Eagles appeared set to soar on Tuesday with 20:35 left in the first half, when Makowiec’s ninth goal of the season put them up 1-0.
“We stole the ball in the midfield,” Makowiec said, “and Daniel Kulawiak sent me a through-ball for a 1-on-1. The goalie was on the left side of the post, and I just slotted it in.”
The 1-0 lead marked a rare lapse in a strong night for the Willowbrook defense.
“Today I thought our effort was good and most of the boys played hard on both sides of the ball,” Willowbrook coach Peter Ginter said. “We tried to play a little more defense and midfield. It worked at the beginning to clog up the midfield and shut down passing lanes. Their only choice was to send the long ball, and that’s easier to defend for us.
“For a while that worked. But they got one goal, a defensive error on a bad pass out of the back that they transitioned around the 30-yard line and counterattacked. And they’re an excellent counterattacking team. They caught us with not enough numbers in the back and scored.”
But the 1-0 deficit provided a spark to the Warriors’ play that carried over into the game’s final minutes.
“Tonight we got a goal midway through the first,” Leyden coach Mark Valintis said, “but after that Willowbrook I thought finished the half much stronger than we did, had some very good possession play and had some really good scoring chances that forced (Eagles goalkeeper) Jason (Andrade) to make one or two big saves.”
Willowbrook’s bids to tie carried over into the second half. With 27:10 left, David Rizzo sent a deflection off Benigno Heredia’s 25-yard free-kick just over the net. Then four minutes later, Ali Saleh’s header of a Michal Pavlik corner-kick skimmed the crossbar and went over the net.
With 18:40 to go, Andrade made a nice save on Patrick Florey’s 12-yard shot from left of the net.
“They kind of had us our on heels a little bit,” Valintis said. “We talked about coming out the first couple of minutes (of the second half) and creating something. We did, but we had nothing to show for it.”
In between Willowbrook chances, Leyden was also very dangerous both on counterattacks and restarts.
Of the latter, Daniel Kulawiak twice created some unlikely havoc on free-kicks beyond 50 yards. His 59-yard restart with 15 minutes left powered through a crowd at the left side of the net and rolled narrowly wide of the post.
“Then there was a period of 10-15 minutes where Willowbrook got momentum,” Valintis said. “But in the last 20 we took it back a little bit and created more chances to get that second and third goal.
“I don’t know if it was that our finishing was good, or that we wore down the other guys.”
The Eagles’ late run began with some frustration. With 12:30 left, Esteban Hernandez took a nice touch pass from Angel Lopez but had his 6-yard chip go off the crossbar and over.
Then two minutes later, a Hernandez pass sprung Kristian Havran for a right-side shot that angled just wide of the far post.
Leyden kept knocking on the door. A Moises Perez steal led to another great chance for Havran, but Willowbrook defender Tomas Hernandez hustled back to make a great block of Havran’s shot.
On his third quality shot in a matter of minutes, Havran literally buried the chance.
With 4:38 left, Francisco Toral’s send hit Havran in on right wing. His 18-yard shot wound up stuck in the netting inside the upper left corner of the goal, emphatically giving the Eagles a 2-0 lead.
Esteban Hernandez followed 55 seconds later with a 20-yard shot high off the right post. Then after Toral was tripped in the box with 2:30 left, Hernandez’s ensuing penalty kick made it 3-0.
“We knew this is a really good team,” Willowbrook’s Tomas Hernandez said. “We can beat them only if we play our game.
“We hung in there – it was 1-0 most of the second half. We played well, but just a couple of errors in the back really got us.
“After 1-0 we knew we couldn’t back down,” Hernandez added. “We had to keep fighting. We hung in there and played tough until those errors – those always kill us.”
For Leyden, Lopez’s excellence controlling the midfield earned him Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors.
“Danny (Kulawiak) and Angel – those guys just consistently battled the full 80 minutes, and I think our guys just leaned on them a lot along with Damian in the back,” Valintis said. “Angel’s typically our best guy.”
Lopez had plenty of praise for the entire Eagles’ team effort.
“Our defense is pretty good shifting side to side, and we know who to mark and not to mark,” Lopez said. “And also our midfielders connected a lot today, which was good. We got to play faster, and our forwards made some beautiful plays and split out wide and had some great finishes.
“When we play two-touches or one-touch, the game is way different,” Lopez added. “It changed the speed of play, and we connected way faster tonight.”
But Willowbrook dug deep to challenge the Eagles and stay within a 1-0 deficit most of the night.
“One of our guys off the bench Jesus Nava gave us a lot of energy today and played very well,” Ginter said. “And another guy off the bench David Rizzo played left mid and played very well too.
“We got some balls in the corners that he was able to center-back in effectively and create scoring opportunities. It’s so critical to have strength and energy off the bench, and those two guys gave it to us.”
Ginter also praised the play of his sophomore goalkeeper Mario Giase in handling Leyden’s threats.
“Leyden played a good game – they’re fast and they really counterattack well,” Ginter said. “When we transitioned the ball in the midfield, boy they came right at us straight at the goal.
“I thought Mario made some nice saves. He still has some seasoning to do, but overall he’s getting better every game. He’s doing a great job, and he’s a nice kid too.”
For Leyden, the schedulemaker wasn’t so nice.
After a nonconference match Saturday, the Eagles face huge back-to-back WSC Gold challenges when they host Downers Grove South next Tuesday and conference leader Morton two days later.
Morton (12-0-1) edged Downers South 2-1 in two overtimes on Tuesday to take the Gold lead.
“You try not to look ahead, but the kids know what next week is,” Valintis said. “Last year both (Downers South and Morton) were overtimes (1-0 Leyden losses on the road). The year Morton won a state title, we were one of three teams to beat them. And the last two years have gone to overtime.
“They’re two different styles. Downers is extremely organized in the back. Last year I thought we deserved to win and just couldn’t break them down.”
The week ahead is particularly big for Lopez.
“For my part, it’s my last year,” he said. “I want to beat Morton before I leave. We have to pick up each other, trust each other, play quick and try to dominate the whole game.”
Tests like Tuesday have the Eagles ready for the big challenges coming next week and beyond.
“It was good for us to beat good, organized teams like Willowbrook,” Valintis said, “because it forces us to alter what we do and makes us better in the long run.”
Leyden’s strong defense provides a good foundation.
“Starting off we were a little shaky and kind of getting used to each other,” Kosakowski said. “It was a new backline – I was the only one who started last year.
“It was a little hard to get used to, but I think after the Wheaton Academy game that we lost in the second overtime but should have won, that was really a turning point. Now as a defensive unit we’re playing really well. I think we can keep this up and keep improving as a unit overall.”
Willowbrook’s defense is also strengthening after its own early season growing pains.
“Our two fullbacks, it’s their first year playing varsity,” Tomas Hernandez said. “Me and our other center-back Ali (Saleh) try to talk to them as much as we can. We give them advice, our coaches give them advice. And they go out there and they fight.”
Hernandez hopes his team can fight to create more offense as the season progresses.
“Honestly it’s our attacking,” Hernandez said. “We can’t get any goals. That’s another thing getting to us. Most of our attacks are 2-v.-5 or even 1-v.-5, and that’s not going to work against good teams like this. Against small teams it works, and we get some goals. But our attack has to improve.
“We have Saul who is an amazing forward, but he can’t do everything by himself. Someone has to help him – Nico is playing left mid and sometimes they go up together and create chances, but it’s not enough.”
On the Leyden side, there is both optimism and a drive to get better heading into its crucial stretch of games.
“I think we’re playing really good right now,” Makowiec said. “This is our second or third shutout, so I think our defense is playing much better. Otherwise we have to start finishing a little more, but it’s good.”
Starting lineups
Leyden
GK- Jason Andrade
D- Daniel Kulawiak
D- Damian Kosakowski
D- Moises Perez
D- Abel Estrada
MF- Adrian Flores
MF- Angel Lopez
MF- Esteban Hernandez
MF- Francisco Toral
F- Kristian Havran
F- Mateusz Makowiec
Willowbrook
GK- Mario Giase
D- Steven Cerda
D- Tomas Hernandez
D- Ali Saleh
D- Ismael Roman
MF- Benigno Heredia
MF- Nico Hernandez
MF- Michal Pavlik
MF- Jose Alvarado
MF- Miguel Correa
F- Saul Hernandez
Man of the Match: Angel Lopez, MF, Leyden
key league win at Willowbrook
Eagles' focus now turns to Morton, Downers Grove South
By Dave Owen
VILLA PARK – As Leyden prepares for a make-or-break week in its quest for the West Suburban Conference Gold Divison title, Willowbrook provided a resilient test Tuesday.
But the visiting Eagles (8-3-0, 2-0-0) used a Mateusz Makowiec goal midway through the first half and two strikes in the final 4:38 of the match to claw their way to a 3-0 win over the Warriors (5-5-0, 2-1-0).
In what developed into a back-and-forth battle and ended with a deceivingly one-sided final score, Leyden senior defender Damian Kosakowski summed up his team’s often winding road to the win.
“We started off well, playing how we can really play,” said Kosakowski, whose team hosts both Downers Grove South and Morton in a three-day stretch next week. “Then we got the first goal and everything kind of slowed down.
“They (Willowbrook) picked it up – it was a motivator to them, saying, ‘Let’s go, these guys mean business.’ We slowed down. and they picked it up.
“At the half we had a nice team talk and realized we needed to come out and start playing,” Kosakowski added. “We got the second goal. and we kind of wore them out I think. We ended well.”
For the senior co-captain and the Eagles, the team's vision is clearer after a wake-up call Sept. 8 that still resonates.
“Our 5-0 loss (to St. Charles North) – to me that was, ‘We can never let this happen again,’” he said. “That was ridiculously embarrassing.
“So I kind of took it upon myself that I’m going to start playing as hard as I can for my team, try to keep getting better and hopefully we can get more shutouts like here.”
The Eagles appeared set to soar on Tuesday with 20:35 left in the first half, when Makowiec’s ninth goal of the season put them up 1-0.
“We stole the ball in the midfield,” Makowiec said, “and Daniel Kulawiak sent me a through-ball for a 1-on-1. The goalie was on the left side of the post, and I just slotted it in.”
The 1-0 lead marked a rare lapse in a strong night for the Willowbrook defense.
“Today I thought our effort was good and most of the boys played hard on both sides of the ball,” Willowbrook coach Peter Ginter said. “We tried to play a little more defense and midfield. It worked at the beginning to clog up the midfield and shut down passing lanes. Their only choice was to send the long ball, and that’s easier to defend for us.
“For a while that worked. But they got one goal, a defensive error on a bad pass out of the back that they transitioned around the 30-yard line and counterattacked. And they’re an excellent counterattacking team. They caught us with not enough numbers in the back and scored.”
But the 1-0 deficit provided a spark to the Warriors’ play that carried over into the game’s final minutes.
“Tonight we got a goal midway through the first,” Leyden coach Mark Valintis said, “but after that Willowbrook I thought finished the half much stronger than we did, had some very good possession play and had some really good scoring chances that forced (Eagles goalkeeper) Jason (Andrade) to make one or two big saves.”
Willowbrook’s bids to tie carried over into the second half. With 27:10 left, David Rizzo sent a deflection off Benigno Heredia’s 25-yard free-kick just over the net. Then four minutes later, Ali Saleh’s header of a Michal Pavlik corner-kick skimmed the crossbar and went over the net.
With 18:40 to go, Andrade made a nice save on Patrick Florey’s 12-yard shot from left of the net.
“They kind of had us our on heels a little bit,” Valintis said. “We talked about coming out the first couple of minutes (of the second half) and creating something. We did, but we had nothing to show for it.”
In between Willowbrook chances, Leyden was also very dangerous both on counterattacks and restarts.
Of the latter, Daniel Kulawiak twice created some unlikely havoc on free-kicks beyond 50 yards. His 59-yard restart with 15 minutes left powered through a crowd at the left side of the net and rolled narrowly wide of the post.
“Then there was a period of 10-15 minutes where Willowbrook got momentum,” Valintis said. “But in the last 20 we took it back a little bit and created more chances to get that second and third goal.
“I don’t know if it was that our finishing was good, or that we wore down the other guys.”
The Eagles’ late run began with some frustration. With 12:30 left, Esteban Hernandez took a nice touch pass from Angel Lopez but had his 6-yard chip go off the crossbar and over.
Then two minutes later, a Hernandez pass sprung Kristian Havran for a right-side shot that angled just wide of the far post.
Leyden kept knocking on the door. A Moises Perez steal led to another great chance for Havran, but Willowbrook defender Tomas Hernandez hustled back to make a great block of Havran’s shot.
On his third quality shot in a matter of minutes, Havran literally buried the chance.
With 4:38 left, Francisco Toral’s send hit Havran in on right wing. His 18-yard shot wound up stuck in the netting inside the upper left corner of the goal, emphatically giving the Eagles a 2-0 lead.
Esteban Hernandez followed 55 seconds later with a 20-yard shot high off the right post. Then after Toral was tripped in the box with 2:30 left, Hernandez’s ensuing penalty kick made it 3-0.
“We knew this is a really good team,” Willowbrook’s Tomas Hernandez said. “We can beat them only if we play our game.
“We hung in there – it was 1-0 most of the second half. We played well, but just a couple of errors in the back really got us.
“After 1-0 we knew we couldn’t back down,” Hernandez added. “We had to keep fighting. We hung in there and played tough until those errors – those always kill us.”
For Leyden, Lopez’s excellence controlling the midfield earned him Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors.
“Danny (Kulawiak) and Angel – those guys just consistently battled the full 80 minutes, and I think our guys just leaned on them a lot along with Damian in the back,” Valintis said. “Angel’s typically our best guy.”
Lopez had plenty of praise for the entire Eagles’ team effort.
“Our defense is pretty good shifting side to side, and we know who to mark and not to mark,” Lopez said. “And also our midfielders connected a lot today, which was good. We got to play faster, and our forwards made some beautiful plays and split out wide and had some great finishes.
“When we play two-touches or one-touch, the game is way different,” Lopez added. “It changed the speed of play, and we connected way faster tonight.”
But Willowbrook dug deep to challenge the Eagles and stay within a 1-0 deficit most of the night.
“One of our guys off the bench Jesus Nava gave us a lot of energy today and played very well,” Ginter said. “And another guy off the bench David Rizzo played left mid and played very well too.
“We got some balls in the corners that he was able to center-back in effectively and create scoring opportunities. It’s so critical to have strength and energy off the bench, and those two guys gave it to us.”
Ginter also praised the play of his sophomore goalkeeper Mario Giase in handling Leyden’s threats.
“Leyden played a good game – they’re fast and they really counterattack well,” Ginter said. “When we transitioned the ball in the midfield, boy they came right at us straight at the goal.
“I thought Mario made some nice saves. He still has some seasoning to do, but overall he’s getting better every game. He’s doing a great job, and he’s a nice kid too.”
For Leyden, the schedulemaker wasn’t so nice.
After a nonconference match Saturday, the Eagles face huge back-to-back WSC Gold challenges when they host Downers Grove South next Tuesday and conference leader Morton two days later.
Morton (12-0-1) edged Downers South 2-1 in two overtimes on Tuesday to take the Gold lead.
“You try not to look ahead, but the kids know what next week is,” Valintis said. “Last year both (Downers South and Morton) were overtimes (1-0 Leyden losses on the road). The year Morton won a state title, we were one of three teams to beat them. And the last two years have gone to overtime.
“They’re two different styles. Downers is extremely organized in the back. Last year I thought we deserved to win and just couldn’t break them down.”
The week ahead is particularly big for Lopez.
“For my part, it’s my last year,” he said. “I want to beat Morton before I leave. We have to pick up each other, trust each other, play quick and try to dominate the whole game.”
Tests like Tuesday have the Eagles ready for the big challenges coming next week and beyond.
“It was good for us to beat good, organized teams like Willowbrook,” Valintis said, “because it forces us to alter what we do and makes us better in the long run.”
Leyden’s strong defense provides a good foundation.
“Starting off we were a little shaky and kind of getting used to each other,” Kosakowski said. “It was a new backline – I was the only one who started last year.
“It was a little hard to get used to, but I think after the Wheaton Academy game that we lost in the second overtime but should have won, that was really a turning point. Now as a defensive unit we’re playing really well. I think we can keep this up and keep improving as a unit overall.”
Willowbrook’s defense is also strengthening after its own early season growing pains.
“Our two fullbacks, it’s their first year playing varsity,” Tomas Hernandez said. “Me and our other center-back Ali (Saleh) try to talk to them as much as we can. We give them advice, our coaches give them advice. And they go out there and they fight.”
Hernandez hopes his team can fight to create more offense as the season progresses.
“Honestly it’s our attacking,” Hernandez said. “We can’t get any goals. That’s another thing getting to us. Most of our attacks are 2-v.-5 or even 1-v.-5, and that’s not going to work against good teams like this. Against small teams it works, and we get some goals. But our attack has to improve.
“We have Saul who is an amazing forward, but he can’t do everything by himself. Someone has to help him – Nico is playing left mid and sometimes they go up together and create chances, but it’s not enough.”
On the Leyden side, there is both optimism and a drive to get better heading into its crucial stretch of games.
“I think we’re playing really good right now,” Makowiec said. “This is our second or third shutout, so I think our defense is playing much better. Otherwise we have to start finishing a little more, but it’s good.”
Starting lineups
Leyden
GK- Jason Andrade
D- Daniel Kulawiak
D- Damian Kosakowski
D- Moises Perez
D- Abel Estrada
MF- Adrian Flores
MF- Angel Lopez
MF- Esteban Hernandez
MF- Francisco Toral
F- Kristian Havran
F- Mateusz Makowiec
Willowbrook
GK- Mario Giase
D- Steven Cerda
D- Tomas Hernandez
D- Ali Saleh
D- Ismael Roman
MF- Benigno Heredia
MF- Nico Hernandez
MF- Michal Pavlik
MF- Jose Alvarado
MF- Miguel Correa
F- Saul Hernandez
Man of the Match: Angel Lopez, MF, Leyden