Some substitutes need an half an hour to find their rhythm. Kobe Hernández-Foster needed about six minutes.
The midfielder was sent on by Detroit City FC during their USL Championship trip to Brooklyn FC, and before his introduction could even settle into the match, he had the ball in the net. Detroit went on to win 3-1, with Hernández-Foster's goal forming part of a scoreline that left Brooklyn FC with nothing to show from the afternoon.
The numbers behind the cameo
- Minutes on the pitch: roughly 6
- Goals scored: 1
- Match rating: 7.6
A rating of 7.6 for a cameo that short says plenty about the efficiency of the contribution. There was no time to ease in, no time to feel out the opposition's shape. Hernández-Foster was asked to affect the game immediately, and he did exactly that.
For Detroit City FC, it is the kind of impact every coach hopes for from the bench: a fresh midfielder changing the tempo and the scoreline almost in the same breath. For Brooklyn FC, conceding to a player who had barely broken a sweat will sting more than most goals do.
The final score, 3-1 to the visitors, tells its own story, but it is the six minutes that will be remembered first. Not every match turns on a substitution. This one did.