Match Recap: T2 Beat Newcastle United in International Friendly

Newcastle opened the scoring but T2 charged back to take the lead. Going into the half up 3-1, T2 were comfortably on the front foot for most of the match. Nick Besler got his first goal in the 70th min to give T2 the 4-1 lead before Newcastle's Rolando Aarons had two impressive goals in two minutes to give Newcastle hope and really make the end of the match exciting.

Georginio Wijnaldum opened up the scoring for Newcastle United in the 6th minute. Wijnaldum stole the ball in midfield off Nick Besler and got the ball out left to Aarons who got around Jeanderson after he slipped up. Aarons sent his cross into the box and it got past the T2 defense where Wijnaldum got to it and slotted it past Gleeson for the opener.

T2 were able to respond though. In the 13th minute, Newcastle had a slip of their own which allowed Belmar to steal the ball and use his speed to run right at goal 1 on 1 versus Darlow. Darlow made himself big and blocked Belmar's shot but the ball spilled to the feet of Fatawu who put his shot into the net for the equalizer.

T2 followed Fatawu's equalizer up with two set piece goals from the magic set piece taking of Michael Nanchoff. In the 23rd minute T2 earned a free kick out on the right side about 10 yards from the corner of the box. Nanchoff's free kick was perfect as Anthony Manning got up and easily placed his header past Darlow to give T2 the lead. Nanchoff nor T2 would be finished. In the 30th minute Nanchoff stepped up to take a corner kick. Another well taken kick was right into traffic in front of goal. In the confusion Taylor Peay found the ball at his feet and put his point blank shot high and hard for T2's third goal (and second assist for Michael Nanchoff) of the evening. And after going up 3-1 T2 were able to comfortably finish out the first half.

Newcastle made four changes at the half while T2 only swapped keepers. Coming out of the break T2 continued to look comfortable out there after a rough first 10 minutes. In the 70th minute T2 tallied their 4th of the evening, increasing their lead to 3 goals over their premiership visitors. Winchester won the ball at midfield and got it out on the right to Jeanderson who took it up near the corner flag. He cut back to give himself a yard of space and sent in a cross where Nick Besler made a nice little run into the box, got his head to the ball, and headed it down past Newcastle keeper Freddie Woodman for his first professional goal.

It would turn out to be the game winning goal as Newcastle's Rolando Aarons got a pair of impressive goals in two minutes shortly thereafter as Newcastle really pushed for an equalizer before full time. In the 75th minute Aarons found himself in the box as Obertan ran at the T2 defense, passing the ball out wide to Bigirimana who passed it back to the penalty spot where Aarons was waiting. He took one touch into the air and then sent the ball into the net with a very nice bicycle kick. Giving Newcastle their second goal of the evening really put the wind back in their sails as they spent the rest of the match pressing hard for more goals.

Only one more came though, through Aarons again just a minute later. Obertan once again fought hard on the right and refused to be out done by the development players he was surrounded by. He got to the end line and sent in a long cross back across the box. It ended up going all the way through and Aarons was there to take a touch and send in a long distance shot that Luthy got a touch to but wasn't enough to keep the ball out of the back right netting. After two impressive goals from Aarons Newcastle continued to fight to get an equalizer but it would not come. The T2 defense were able to hold on for the win.

After tonight's friendly, T2 will return to USL league play when they travel to Seattle this Friday night, July 24th, to take on S2 in their final regular season matchup. Kickoff will be at Starfire Stadium at 7:30pm.