WSC Wraps Second Season: Westchester Soccer Club (11-14-6) wrapped its home season in grand fashion on Saturday night, sending another playoff bound club home pointless, while extending their record unbeaten string to six matches (five wins and a draw), by downing Union Omaha 2-1 in Mt. Vernon.
Omaha’s Sergio Ors Navarro opened the scoring for Union Omaha in the 4th minute, but the red hot combination of forward Koen Blommestijn and midfielder Conor McGlynn continued to be key, as both scored first-half goals for Westchester SC to take the lead and secure the 2-1 win.
Home Standing Success: The win moved the club to 10-4-2 at home (a marked improvement from 3-8-4 in Mt. Vernon in their inaugural season). They finished their home slate with second-most goals at home in a USL League One season (39) trailing only the output table leader Charlotte Independence has thus far.
WSC scored three or more goals in 7 of their 16 home matches, and three times they also scored three or more goals in a half (most in club history), with the first time being in the initial 45 of their 5-1 vs. Corpus Christi on April 5 before netting three in the first half of a 3-2 win over FC Naples and a record fast five vs. Richmond on Sept. 16.
And Road Improvement: WSC is now 1-3-3 in their last seven road matches, which includes the 2-1 win at NY Cosmos on Sept. 19 which broke the club’s 22 match road winless streak (0-16-6).
Spoiler Alert: Despite not making the playoffs for the second straight year, WSC’s late season play has shown how far the club has come. Last Saturday was their fourth straight one goal win after going 1-10 in their first 11 one goal decisions. It was also their second straight win of the season against a club near the top of the table (2-9-4), and they have earned at least a point (2-0-1) in their last three meetings with playoff bound clubs.
Strong Finishes: WSC is a near perfect 10-0-3 when leading at the half this season.
Weekly Honors: Defender Daniel Burko, picked up assists on both of the Golden Apples’ goals in a 2-1 win over Union Omaha, and created four chances, won six duels, and had two interceptions and was named to the USL League One Team of the Week, as was head coach George Gjokaj who is responsible for making WSC one of the strongest clubs at home this season, especially with the latest record-setting streak.
Blooming In The Fall: Forward Koen Blommestijn’s late season scoring surge has been key to WSC’s rise. His pair in the first half Oct. 10 vs. Forward Madison was the second time this season he had a brace in a half, the first being nine minutes apart (at 68’ and 77’) Sept. 12 at Charlotte, his first two tallies of the season.
Tim Time: Tim Temchenko, the 23-year-old defender from Russia and Iona University added to his onfield growth with his first career goal at Corpus Christi Aug. 22 and his second to open scoring vs. Richmond Sept. 16. He was named to USL League One Team of the Week on August 19 after he had an assist, eight clearances and a passing accuracy rate of 90% in Westchester’s 3-2 win over FC Naples. His three assists are third on the club.
Jiménez Accolades: Westchester SC forward Jonathan Jiménez continues his series of strong performances, and was voted to the USL Bench for August 19 and Sept. 22. He was Player of the Week presented by Konami eFootball after scoring two goals in Westchester’s 5-1 win against Portland Hearts of Pine on June 19. Jiménez was at the center of it, tallying six shots – the most of any Westchester player in a single game this season – and found the back of the net twice. The Mexican national’s accolades followed his first USL League One Team of the Week selection the previous week. Jimenez helped Westchester earn four points from two outings as he completed 34 of 41 passes and notched five chances created while winning 10 of 16 duels and 3 of 4 tackles in a draw against Fort Wayne FC and victory against Greenville Triumph SC Jiménez’s first half scores were just three minutes apart vs. Richmond on Sept. 16.
Road Draws, Shutouts Other Notes: The draw at AV Alta combined with a 3-0 home win over NY Cosmos on July 22 marked the first time the club had posted back to back clean sheets in their history.
WSC’s streaky season has seen them go through droughts of one goal in their three matches (including being been shutout in two straight) from June 24-July 5, after going 2-0-1 and scoring ten goals in a three match stretch in just nine days June. They have been shutout in two or more consecutive games four times this season.
The nine goals in two games at Charlotte on Sept. 12 and at home vs. Richmond Sept. 16 are the most in back-to-back USL League One play (4 vs. Charlotte, 5 vs. Richmond) and the 9 in the 5-4 loss at Charlotte combined are tied for the second-most in a League One contest, trailing only a 5-5 draw between South Georgia Tormenta FC and Greenville Triumph SC on July 13, 2022. It was the third nine-goal game in League One.
The five goals from kickoff on Sept. 16 vs. Richmond in Mt. Vernon matched the USL League One mark for goals in a half (originally set by Greenville in the first half against South Georgia Tormenta FC on 7/13/22), were the fastest five from kickoff in USL League One history at 25 minutes, and the second-fastest five in USL history, behind Reno 1868 FC who scored five goals in 20 minutes in the USL Championship between the 28th and 48th minutes in the USL Championship against Tacoma Defiance on May 20, 2017. By comparison, the fastest five goals in MLS history were The Seattle Sounders, who scored 5 goals against the San Jose Earthquakes on September 10, 2020. The fastest five goals from kickoff in Premier League history were Manchester City who set the mark against Watford in 18 minutes in 2019.
The scoreless draw at Knoxville on Sept. 27 was just the second-ever scoreless tie for WSC (the other was at AV Alta on July 25). The draw moved WSC to 1-3-4 in their last eight road matches.
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