It was a long day at the office for Lawrence Smith and VPS who went down in defeat at the hands of visiting MYPA on Friday afternoon at Hietalahti Stadium in Vaasa.
Smith ended up getting the starting nod from head coach Petri Vuorinen but would later be substituted out in the 64th minute with VPS trailing by two goals.
The native of South Carolina endured a frustrating afternoon as the VPS attack found plenty of woodwork, but never the back of the net.
MYPA came out strong and pressed for an early goal. Several chances went awry for the visitors including a goal that was disallowed due to an offsides violation.
Antti Uimaniemi opened the scoring for MYPA in the 34th minute but it was Antti Okkonen's clever deke which set up the play.
A short corner was played which saw Okkonen fake a long cross and slip past a VPS defender before drawing in more members of the hosts' back line and then slotting a pass to Uimaniemi who fired home the shot.
Vuorinen evidently made some sort of plea during halftime as the first ten minutes following the break were the best VPS had the entire match. Unfortunately for Smith and company, too many shots either missed the target or rung off the post.
In the 59th minute, MYPA head coach Janne Lindberg saw his club double the margin when Brazilian forward Cleiton received a cross from midfielder Ilari Äijälä and perfectly headed the ball into the back of the net.
Shortly thereafter, Smith gave way to Jussi Aalto but by then, the damage had been done and VPS was saddled with their second straight overall defeat.
The loss drops VPS to eighth in the Veikkausliiga standings with 29 points as a visit to co-leader HJK on the 20th is next on the docket for the club. |
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