Matt Clare sparks FC Wichita attack in 3-1 win

It didn’t seem that FC Wichita could withstand another injury in Tuesday’s game against Dallas City FC. But somehow, it did.

Wichita started Nick Cramer, typically a midfielder, at forward with both Lucas Procopio and Luca Arnelli. Then, in the seventh minute, Cramer came up lame with a hamstring injury. But when Matt Clare stepped up to the front of the offense, the attack never missed a beat.

Ten minutes later, FC Wichita’s Alex Moseley put in the team’s first goal of the game, then stayed on the attack all night in its 3-1 win in the rematch against Dallas City.

“In the beginning, our game plan was to come out and high pressure them, and not give them time to knock the ball around,” coach Larry Inlow said. “That gave us an advantage.”

Moseley replaced Cramer when he went down, and made an impact quickly. After Wichita’s Iyassu Berkele drove deep into the box, a deflection set up a 50-50 ball which Moseley blasted into the back of the net on first touch to make it 1-0.

With that goal, and an already depleted front, Wichita moved into a holding formation, but the attack kept coming. Most of that offense could be credited to the hustle of Clare, who finished the night with a goal and an assist, but not before he went wide right on a one-on-one opportunity early in the game.

“With Nick going out early, it changed the dynamic of the game,” Clare said. “But being striker, missing a one-on-one, it’s short-term memory. I’m just onto the next one.”

And the next ones put the game away.

Each of the second-half goals came on steals in the attacking third from Clare, which opened up isolation situations with the goalkeeper. Clare gave up the first to midfielder Shadow Sebele, who touched it into an open goal to make it 2-0 in the 61st minute.

Just a minute after FC Dallas scored to make it 2-1, Clare came up with another steal in the attacking third. The versatile midfielder got a one-on-one in the middle of the box, and put the ball, and the game, away.

“He was massive,” Inlow said of Clare, who has five goals in six games, “It’s absolutely massive to have his ability to read the game, and steal passes, and create something from nothing.”

FC Wichita will play its second game of a four-game homestand on Saturday against Tulsa. The team is “hoping” Procopio will be back on the pitch. But the team will likely be missing Cramer for the remainder of the season after he heard a pop in his hamstring when he went down early.

“We’re just going to try to get (Cramer) as healthy as possible for the college season coming up here in the fall,” Inlow said. “But it is monstrous for us to lose him.”

This story was originally published June 9, 2015 at 10:49 PM with the headline "Matt Clare sparks FC Wichita attack in 3-1 win."