Soccer In Toronto 08.08.10

By Rocket Robin Soccer In Toronto

CSL Result
Sunday August 8, 2010

Final Score
Brampton Lions 1 Brantford Galaxy 0

Venue
Victoria Park, Brampton

Kickoff
3:00 pm

Highlights
81 min … Lions Judah Hernandez GOAL
Lions Daniel Nascimento rolls pass up middle from 35 yards and Hernandez sends from 15 yards under sprawling goalie Ante Domjanovic to center of net.

Notes
Attendance was about 150 on this warm day that had a threat of rain before the game began, a few drops fell at 26 minutes but had stopped a few minutes later. The sun came out for the second half which turned out to be a disadvantage for the Galaxy.

Roy Blanche earned the shutout for the Lions. He had to be brilliant to make some point blank stops on Galaxy chances. It probably helps that he plays so much Futsal. Right from the 4th minute he had Nenad Begovic take a 30 yard freekick chip from the right that BG Ranko Golijanin take a midair 10 yard kick that Blanche blocked and BC Mark Reilly rolled an 8 yarder that he smothered. Blanche cleared the ball but then collapsed with an injury. One piece of luck Blanche had was at 51 minutes when Golijanin on a rush on the left took a low cross that forced Blanche to guard the left post; Reilly then had an 8 yard shot to the open net but put it over the bar. At 57 minutes BG Maralis Beckford was given a through ball on the right and his low 12 yard shot to the left side was stopped by Blanche’s great foot save. At 70 minutes Begovic took a cornerkick from the right that dropped in the box and Golijanin kicked a 6 yard shot that the sliding goalie blocked and tipped the ball wide left of the post. More Lions luck on the resulting cornerkick as Bogovic from the left sent the ball into the box and BG Zachary Tait headed the ball wide right from 4 yards on the right post.

Galaxy goalie Ante Domjanovic had to make some good saves too. Best one was at 59 minutes when Lions Blazej Skoczylas had a 12 yard blast that a defender blocked and Skoczylas took the 7 yard rebound on the left had the goalie stopped on the left post. Domjanovic had some luck too when at 39 minutes Lions Daniel Nascimento rushed up the left side and sent in a low cross from 20 yards along the end line and Hernandez slid and kicked an 8 yarder over the net.

Hernandez was a offensive threat in the first half but was almost invisible in the second half until his late goal.

This is the third win a row for the Lions. There was a time after the first month of the season when the team was last in the 13 team league. Today’s win moves the Lions up two spots into 9th place and only one spot out of the final playoff position. The Galaxy stay in 7th but now fall to a .500 record (5-5-3).

Manager Phil Ionadi said before the game that their goal was just to make the playoffs and then anything can happen. Armando Costa has been back in charge as their head coach for the last six or seven games replacing Goran Rapaic. In the earlier season program I have it said Costa had not left the team but was going to be in charge of youth development. Ionadi said the team was back to playing the style they used to play before the start of this year.

Joe Audi was the referee and gave out a few cards for tough checks.

Game over, now I have one hour to get to the York Region Shooters game!

CSL Result
Sunday August 8, 2010

Final Score
York Region Shooters 1 Milltown FC 1

Venue
St Joan of Arc Catholic High School, Maple

Kickoff
6:00 pm

Highlights
63 min … Milltown Cordell Benjamin GOAL
MFC Martin Kuijpers lofts 35 yard freekick from right sideline that flies into box and Benjamin from 6 yards in crowd of players flicks header into top left corner of net.

93 min … Shooters Aundre Rollins GOAL
Shooters goalie Camilo Benzi came upfield to take freekick from 50 yards. He shoots ball down middle, the ball is knocked down and Rollins shoots 10 yarder into net into center of net beyond goalie Scott Cliff.

Notes
Attendance was about 125 on this warm evening.

The last play of the game had been building for the last 30 minutes of this game. After Milltown took the lead their scoring chances ended except for trying to score on counter attacks when the Shooters pressed forward. At least twice Shooters goalie Camilo Benzi raced forward well out of his box to clear through balls into the Shooters half.

At 74 minutes came upfield to take a 25 yard freekick from the left but laughably put it well over the net well worse then the Shooters outfield players were aiming. (maybe twice the distance and a kick like that might work?…hmm).

At 89 minutes the Shooters forwards had about three shots within 15 seconds including a shot off the right goalpost. Jason DeThomasis had slipped when he tried to turn at 12 yards to get to a ball on this play and the player behind him blasted a shot. This action was so fast I couldn’t write it down. (was this chance more practice for later in the game?…hmm). Milltown FC goalie Scott Cliff was time wasting. There is nothing wrong with waiting for a player to rush into the box to force him to pick it up and Kadian Lecky obliged time after time so Cliff could do his cartoon Lucy and Charlie Brown’s football routine but he was lucky that referee Manuel Orellano didn’t give him a Yellow for wasting time taking goal kicks or passing off that responsibility to call a defender 30 yards away to take them. Some leather lunged fan kept pointing out the time wasting in Spanish to Orellano. After the tying goal Orellano chased down Rollins to give him a Yellow card for pulling off his shirt to celebrate then blew the whistle before play could be restarted. The four minutes of extra time was a fair rate I’d say because of a few injuries and no ball boys despite the whistling from the Milltown fans in the crowd.

Shooters missed a lot of scoring chances but Scott Cliff had to be brilliant at 86 minutes when Nicolas Martinez took a 25 yard shot from the left that had Cliff snag the ball on a one handed grab over his head to grab with Shooters players wairing for a tap-in that I don’t think even they could have missed.

Milltown officials confirmed they’d be losing a few players as identical twins Erick and Eros Olazabal were going back to university. Interesting they were both subbed at halftime. Also Christopher Suta is leaving for the Canadian U-20 National team training camp. TFC Academy has similar problems.

Today’s tie puts the Shooters up to 28 points–one point up on the Serbian White Eagles who must love this result as Milltown moved up to 26 points. The White Eagles have three games in hand on both teams.