Nati SC knock off Burnley FC 7-3 with Ledesma hat trick
Damon Gumbert
Emmanuel Ledesma led Nati SC to victory, notching a hat trick against Burnley FC in their first match of The Soccer Tournament Wednesday morning.
The 36-year-old joined fellow FC Cincinnati legends Jimmy McLaughlin, Danni Konig, Dallas Jaye, Kenney Walker, and Cincinnati Bengals legend Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson for Nati SC. Burnley FC, the first Premiere League team to have a squad in the TST, was repped by legend Chris Eagles and minority owner J.J. Watt.
The scoring was fast and furious, with Ledesma firing a shot that ricocheted off a defender for the first goal of the match just two minutes in. The second goal came just over two minutes later, a rocket of a shot past the Burnley goalkeeper and a brace for the FC legend.
Konig got in on the action, putting the good guys up 3-0 on an assist from McLaughlin in the 13th minute.
Burnley fired back almost immediately, netting a goal to make the score 3-1. Konig would add a second goal, notching the second brace of the morning. But once again, Burnley would find the back of the Nati SC net, sending the game into halftime with a 4-2 lead for Nati.
Soon after the second half started, former USL MVP Ledesma put his name up for TST MVP when he netted his third goal of the match.
Ledesma wasn’t done, assisting Kenney Walker on the club’s sixth goal of the match. After a shot from Watt was saved by the post, the teams would go into the target score time with a score of 6-2.
For those who don’t know, target score time is a period where the teams play until someone scores one goal more than the total goals of the highest-scoring team. In this case, it was the first team to seven. After every five minutes a player from both teams will come off the field.
Burnley scored an early goal in the target score period but ultimately would come up short after Jimmy McLaughlin sealed the deal for Nati SC, the final score 7-3.
Nati SC gets back to work later today when they take on Pat McAfee’s The Concafa SC. Concafa was upset in their first match, falling to the Reggae Rovers 1-4. Nati vs Concafa SC begins at 7 p.m. EST on ESPN+.
