Goshen City FC loses, 3-0, to Chicago Nation FC in UPSL Midwest Central final

Jul. 2—GLEN ELLYN, Illinois — All good things must come to an end.

For Goshen City FC, the end came Sunday, as they dropped a 3-0 decision to Chicago Nation FC in the UPSL Midwest Central division championship game. It was Goshen's first loss since April 29, snapping a seven-game unbeaten streak to bring its season to an end.

"I'd say one big thing was inexperience, compared to them," Goshen City FC coach Tyler Born said. "This is now their fourth time in this situation, and it's our first year. We just started in March, and we got to the same place as them, with an opportunity to win something."

GCFC hung tough in the first half, in large part to the play of its goalkeeper. Matias da Fonseca made numerous huge saves for the visitors, including plenty at point-blank range. Chicago was unable to score in the first 45 minutes because of da Fonseca's efforts.

"Matias, he's been our number one goalie for the majority of the season," Born said. "He's come up big for us every single game. He makes big saves in big moments when we need it. That first half was another example of it. He's been great."

Goshen's best opportunity to score all game then came late in the first half. They ended up putting pressure on Chicago's defense, resulting in two separate corner kick attempts. While GCFC had a couple chances to score in those few minutes, none of the shots were able to find the back of the net.

"At that time, since it was 0-0, I was trying to look at it positively," said Born of the late chances his team had in the first half. "At halftime, it was like, we've created something here at the end of the half. We had an opportunity, and we have to take advantage of those full chances and half chances. We had to give ourselves a chance to score."

Chicago Nation then finally broke through early in the second half. Zakhar Shkidchenko, one of the UPSL's top goal scorers across the country, was able to get behind the Goshen defense, finishing off a one-on-one opportunity with a strong shot into the top of the net. This gave the home team a 1-0 lead in the 55th minute.

About 12 minutes later, Chicago doubled its lead on a similar-looking goal from Isaac Suttom. The tally came less than a minute after GCFC was called for an offsides on a scoring chance on the other side of the field.

"In a game of this magnitude, you need almost everything to go your way," Born said. "From certain calls, to everyone being on top of what we need to do, tactically, and mindset-wise — everything needs to go in your favor to give yourself a chance. Especially for us, coming into this game as the underdog."

Julio Torres added a goal in the 91st minute to round out the scoring for Chicago Nation, who advance to the Round of the 16 of the UPSL national tournament with the victory.

Despite the game being postponed from Saturday to Sunday due to inclement weather — as well as a two-plus hour commute — a solid showing of Goshen City FC fans showed up to support the team.

"It's very important," said Born of the fan support. "I can't tell you how many games where we've had more fans than the other team. In the regular season games, we still had fans travel, whether it's family, friends or fans of what we're growing and what we're building. I think it's one of the most important things: if they back you and support you, that can sometimes be enough to push you over the line in certain moments and certain games like this."

While Sunday was a disappointing ending to the season, it was still an inaugural season that nobody expected. After a 1-3-0 start, Goshen went 5-0-2 in the next seven contests it played in (not including a win via forfeit), setting themselves up to compete for a division championship against one of the UPSL's best teams.

"Going into this game, I was telling myself that we're going to do everything we can to win because we deserve to be here," Born said. "We gave ourselves the opportunity to win something, so we wanted to put everything we could into it to win. As a first-year club, to make it this far — we've set the tone, and we've now shown the league what we have and what we're going to bring back next year. ... We can only look back positively at the season we had. How we started versus how we ended I think is really important going forward."

Austin Hough can be reached at austin.hough@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2360. Follow him on Twitter at @AustinHoughTGN.