Lewis Morgan’s sneakers are massive ones to fill for the Purple Bulls, however with the star ahead sidelined for the house opener, the person tasked with taking his place got here by way of in an enormous method.
Mohammed Sofo began in his first Main League Soccer recreation on Saturday evening instead of the injured Purple Bulls star and managed to attain within the seventh minute for his first profession MLS objective.
It was considered one of two targets scored by the host Purple Bulls in a 2-0 win over Nashville SC.
Sofo’s strike got here within the seventh minute when the Ghanaian winger buried a rebound.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting blasted a shot off the suitable submit and Sofo put the ball right into a just about empty internet with Nashville keeper Joseph Willis down and out of place.
The Purple Bulls’ second strike of the evening got here when Emil Forsberg fired a blistering shot from simply exterior the field that curled previous a diving Willis within the thirtieth minute.
The objective was the primary of the season for the Swedish left wing, who’s in his second season with the Purple Bulls since making the transfer from the Bundesliga.
Nashville regarded as if that they had pulled inside one within the sixty fourth minute when Nashville sub Ahmed Qasem despatched a centering move that was touched by Samuel Surridge and went into the online. The objective was shortly known as erased by offside.
Purple Bulls goalkeeper Carlos Coronel made two saves within the membership’s first win of the season — together with a diving cease on Surridge within the 86th minute from harmful vary — and the squad registered 5 pictures on objective over the course of the 90-minute affair.
The Purple Bulls introduced the harm to Morgan rather less than an hour earlier than Saturday’s dwelling opener. Morgan suffered the harm throughout Friday’s coaching session, however the membership didn’t say what precisely the ailment was.
The lack of Morgan for any period of time is a tricky flip of occasions after he had a breakout season in 2024, main the staff in targets with 15 in the course of the common season.
Morgan additionally missed practically the entire 2023 MLS season after he suffered a tear to the psoas muscle.
The Purple Bulls additionally misplaced younger defenseman Cam Harper to a knee harm within the first half throughout stoppage time.
Harper went as much as battle for a ball in his personal finish with Surridge when it appeared that the Nashville striker fell on high of him when the 2 got here down.
Harper was on the bottom for a number of moments earlier than he was helped off the sector by members of the Purple Bulls’ medical workers.
He didn’t return within the second half and Dylan Nealis got here into the match for him.
The 23-year-old Harper, who had simply performed in his one hundredth profession match throughout all competitions for the Purple Bulls final weekend, had performed a dynamic recreation up till the harm, with good defensive positioning and a shot try that was blocked within the 14th minute.
Previous to the sport Saturday, Purple Bulls coach Sandro Schwarz lauded Harper’s capacity to play in numerous positions on the sector.
“It’s good to have this flexibility in our roster to have these profiles of players that they are able to play more than one position,” Schwarz stated. “That’s good to have him and this profile. We have to answer first our structure and to look at which player is in the best position in this structure.”
