RIVERVIEW, Mich-- Liquid Football beat Badgers FC 4-1 in a friendly Friday night at Gabriel Richard High School in Riverview.
Coming off their friendly against USL 2 club Lansing City (which only lasted 20 minutes due to inclement weather conditions), Liquid Football took on Michigan Premier Soccer League side Badgers FC Friday night.
Last season, Badgers was one of the top teams in their league and made it to the semi-finals of the Abraham Carva Cup. Meanwhile, Liquid Football finished second place in the MWPL with a record of 8-2-2 and was undefeated in the last nine games of their season.
Liquid Football was playing their first game at their new home field after moving from University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe Woods to Gabriel Richard High School in Riverview.
Liquid Football started the game off with the majority of the possession. Liquid had a lot of chances and took the lead in the 29’ after Aladji Kourouma played a through ball for Atou Dia, who passed it around the Badgers’ keeper, which allowed Xavier Walser to tap it in. 1-0 Liquid Football.
A few minutes later, Liquid struck again. Abdulrahman Ahmed put a great cross into the box from a corner kick, and Atou Dia won the header, which beat the keeper to make it 2-0.
Moments later, the Badgers won a free kick deep in their attacking third. Wali Algahmi's ensuing shot beat the wall and Liquid Football keeper Tony Serraiocco. He got a finger on it but couldn't prevent it from entering the net. 2-1 Liquid Football.
Atou Dia was taken down in the box three minutes later, and a penalty kick was called. Abdulrahman Ahmed grabbed the ball, stepped up, and converted the kick to make it 3-1 going into halftime.
In the second half, the game settled down. Both teams were focused more on keeping the ball. Liquid Football created many quality scoring chances but could not finish them. In the 87’, Liquid tacked on one more goal off a counter-attack. Starting on a Badgers free kick in their attacking third, the Liquid Football wall blocked the shot. The ball was cleared to a wide-open Atou Dia, who took the ball down the field and crossed it into the middle to a wide-open Niso Boukhatmi, who volleyed it into the back of the net to make it 4-1 Liquid Football.
Liquid Football’s next match is another pre-season friendly against USL side Oakland County FC at Romeo High School. Then, on May 12th, Liquid will begin league play at Thundercats SC. Liquid Football’s home opener is on June 2nd against Futsal Factory.