Levis, Shellow push Detroit City FC to critical 3 points against Miami

Hamtramck — One year ago, on the second Saturday of September, Detroit City FC goalkeeper Ryan Shellow made his first start of the season. DCFC, in the heat of a playoff push, won 2-1 to capture a huge three points.

Same exact story on the second Saturday of September, 2023, this time against The Miami FC.

Starting goalkeeper Nate Steinwascher was unable to go after missing training last week with an illness, opening the door for Shellow to make his first league start of the season. He made three saves in the victory and nearly had the clean sheet to boot — his only goal-against came on a penalty for a handball in the box — as DCFC (eighth in the East on 34 points) moved back into playoff position.

"Big match, we're pushing for the playoffs, and I was really grateful to be able to get a chance tonight. Coming in, I just wanted to enjoy myself. Been sitting on the bench a lot this year, obviously, and I want to take advantage of every chance I can get," Shellow said. "So, it was a lot of fun. Everyone worked so hard all 90 minutes, and yeah, we're all super happy to get the three points."

Shellow also started the club's 1-0 win over Gold Star FC Detroit in Round 2 of the U.S. Open Cup on April 4. He instantly put his stamp on Saturday night's performance, making two huge saves on Miami winger Christian Sorto in the opening 13 minutes.

In the 12th minute, Sorto beat his defender in the box and fired a point-blank shot heading over Shellow’s head from the penalty spot, but DCFC’s keeper got his hands on it to push it away. A minute later, Sorto beat another man with the same move and fired again from a similar area, this time low and to Shellow’s right, and again Shellow got his hands in the way. He made three saves total.

"First couple times you touch the ball ... you just settle right in," Shellow said. "You don't even think."

With the victory, DCFC leapfrogged its opponent, Miami (10th, 29 points) and FC Tulsa (ninth, 33 points) in the table. Speaking of Tulsa — DCFC owes them foes a partial thank you for the win. Midfielder Brett Levis, who delivered two picturesque assists in the victory, was acquired by Detroit (along with forward Darío Suárez) in a midseason trade with Tulsa for midfielder Tommy McCabe.

"Just happy that we won," Levis said of his performance. "We're kind of in the thick of it. Miami is really close with us, so picking up points, especially at home — we got six left — so just continue to pick up points."

DCFC took a lead in the second minute of the match off the head of Bryant. After the corner kick from Levis was rejected back to where it came from, Levis corralled the ball and sent a brilliant cross to the far post, where Bryant was flying in with a diving header.

DCFC scored a gnarly set piece in the 54th minute to take a 2-0 lead after winning a free kick from about 25 yards outside the box. Morris went on a run to make himself available in space, and fed a pass right back to Levis, who sent a cross into the box that was redirected off the post and in on a header from Devon Amoo-Mensah.

"If you look at previous games, I feel like we've come so close so many times, that eventually, the floodgates are going to open, right?" Levis said. "The first one, Mike made a great run back-post. The second one, full credit to Devon, that was an unbelievable header. He made that ball look probably better than it was."

Immediately after DCFC's second goal, that trio nearly added another. Levis received a cross from Morris and passed back to Amoo-Mensah, who fired a screamer from the top of the box that tailed upward and over the crossbar.

Miami made things interesting in the 74th minute. Bryant slid to stop a cross from Claudio Repetto, but instead gave up a penalty as the ball hit his hand in the box. Repetto ripped up Shellow's clean sheet by converting the 75th-minute penalty to make it a 2-1 game.

Levis made perhaps the game's biggest save on an equalizer attempt in the 82nd minute. Gabriel Cabral had the ball come right to him in the penalty area, and he beat Shellow with the shot, but Levis was waiting at the far post for an easy clearance to keep the one-goal lead.

Miami dominated possession, holding the ball 65% of the time, but it ultimately didn't benefit the visitors at all.

"We thought if they had possession, that they had it across the back line and the two center backs were passing it (back and forth) to each other, so we were happy with that. It causes a little bit of a problem in the first half with the long ball over the top, so we were aware of that, but we allowed them to play and have possession in their own half of the field.

"It was having patience, let's not get pulled out of position, because obviously, they can hurt us when they play in there, and make them do something difficult."

nbianchi@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @nolanbianchi