Soccer In Toronto 08.16.09

By Rocket Robin Soccer In Toronto

CSL Result
Sunday August 16th, 2009

Final Score
Brampton Lions 3, St Catharines Wolves 0

Venue
Victoria Park, Brampton

Kickoff
3:00 pm

Highlights
23 min … Lions Daniel Nascimento GOAL
Lions Alex Arbelo follows up on a Wolves partial clearance with a cross to the left for Lions David Guzman at 22 yards to roll a centering pass to charging Nascimento who eludes defender at 20 yards and kicks in 8 yarder to right side of net.

29 min … Lions Daniel Nascimento GOAL
Lions defender Mo Karanoum in center circle chips to right for Nascimento at 40 yards and he runs unchallenged along right to 25 yards where he chips goalie Wolves Claudio Perri who was standing at 5 yards to cut down the angle and the ball drops just below the bar into center of net.

73 min … Lions Cameron Medwin GOAL
Lions Jeremy Shepperd sends pass from 35 yards that goes through off defender’s leg to Medwin who is in open up middle and he blasts 15 yarder that goalie gets piece of but ball squeezes through his hands into middle of net.

Notes
Attendance was about 120 on this very hot and sunny day.

It kept being announced that this was a game for second place (in the National Division) although yesterday TFC Academy won to become three points ahead of both teams but has played more games. It was hard to believe that Wolves had played 10 games and had scored 11 times yet had a stellar defensive record of 11 goals against. I couldn’t blame the hot temperature which had players grabbing water bottles at any sign of injury or substitutions as the Wolves were pinned in their own end right from the start of the game. Only escape was the long ball which would mean that the Lions would just start another play into the Wolves end. Maybe the Lions played better at Victoria Park because the City cut the grass making the ball roll easier.

Kevin Doyle earned the shutout for Brampton only being called on for a few key saves—most important at 33 minutes when Scott MacLennan stole the ball off a player at 40 yards and ran in and took a low 22 yard shot that was saved by the sprawling goalie at 15 yards. Actually back up goalie Amardeep Kharod shared the shutout when he came in at 81 minutes to earn some playing time. Claudio Perri had to be sharp in the net to keep the score down when the Wolves were forced to open the game up in the second half and he had to make some point blank saves on Lions breakaways. He also had to the edge of his box or outside it to make clearances of through balls.

Referee Gianni Facchini gave out a few Yellow cards in what was not a rough game. The Wolves were more upset at the referee’s assistants because only about 50% of their offside traps earned them the call they wanted.

The game was certainly a contrast to last Sunday night’s game when the Wolves were in the GTA to play Toronto Croatia and the game couldn’t be started because of a thunderstorm. Wolves then went home on Wednesday and tied Italia Shooters. The Lions scored five goals in last week’s game against North York Astros.