Short-handed Royals beat Fury PDL team
Friday, May 18, 2007
Ottawa Royals rounded off its pre-season program with a fine 1-0 victory over the Fury’s PDL team, limiting the Fury’s much-vaunted attack to just two shots in the process.
It was a fine performance from an understaffed Royals squad, who had just 11 players ten minutes before kick-off.
Under the floodlights at Algonquin College’s fine field-turf facility, the Royals seemed to be the more settled of the two sides from the beginning, quickly finding their rhythm and concentration.
Within two minutes of the start, the Royals had already carved out two clear-cut chances, with the hard-working Jeff Dennis and Thierry Ntwari chasing down defenders aggressively and not allowing the defence to settle.
As the Fury came more into the match, the Royals closed down the midfield passages and the makeshift defence—featuring Dom Rochon on the left, James MacMillan in the middle and Peter Mapendere on the right—was simply outstanding. Ewan Lyttle also had a fine game in the defensive midfield position.
The game was played at breakneck speed, with both teams displaying a solid mix of intensity, aggression and composure.
On 35 minutes, Alan Farant almost opened the scoring for the visitors, when he spotted the keeper off his line and tried his luck from the left wing, a full 35 yards out. With the keeper beaten, the ball crashed onto the crossbar and out for a goal kick.
On 41 minutes, Marc Anthony Viscosi came on to replace Alan Morgan, which allowed Rochon to move back into the central midfield position.
The Fury started the second half well, but found the Ottawa defence resilient. On 58 minutes, Some fed Kihara who turned and shot on goal. Paiano was down quickly and got a hand on the shot, with Mapendere clearing the ball off the line to complete the defensive duties.
The Royals upped the ante and started to take control of the game. Boyle had switched to the left midfield position to exploit the right back and was impressive in his movement and positioning.
Sylvain Clouthier, a half-time replacement for Ntwari, was beginning to orchestrate the attack, linking well with Rochon in the middle and Boyle on the left.
Ottawa Royals was looking the more dangerous side and it was somewhat against the run of play when Paiano was forced into a solid save on 76 minutes.
Two minutes later, the Royals were denied a blatant penalty, when Sylvain Clouthier was pushed out a challenge in the penalty area. It began to look as if the Royals would have to settle for a draw.
As the game wound down, the Royals began to exploit more space on the flanks and on 89 minutes forced a corner. Alan Farant drove it into the far post and James MacMillan was first sandwiched by two players, but then showed great poise to recover immediately and thump the bouncing ball into the roof of the net before Lefebvre could react.
A very pleasing win for the Royals, who showed real character and inventiveness – and who have now set a standard for commitment and endeavour below which they must not fall this season.
Statistics
Man of the Match: Rochon – 3 points; MacMillan – 2 points; Mapendere – 1 point.
Preseason Totals: MacMillan – 8 points; Rochon – 5 points; Devereaux, Kowlessar – 4 points; D’Angelo, Dennis, Labrom, Mapendere – 3 points; R. Gutierrez, Ntwari, Shales – 2 points; Brooks, Lyttle, Viscosi – 1 point
Ottawa Royals
Paiano; Mapendere, MacMillan, Rochon; Boyle (Farant, 75), Lyttle (Morgan, 85), Morgan (Viscosi, 40), Kowlessar, Farant (Brooks, 46); Ntwari (Clouthier, 46), Dennis (Ntwari, 67)
Goals: MacMillan, 89 minutes (Farant assist)
Pre-season Tally:
Goals: Devereaux, Rochon 4; MacMillan 3; Dennis 2; Boyle, D’Angelo, Farant, Kowlessar, Ntwari, Viscosi, Zegers 1
Assists: Devereaux, Mapendere, Ntwari, 3; Deganutti, Farant 2; D’Angelo, Dennis, Koutras, 1
Pre-season MVP – James MacMillan
Pre-season Golden Boot – Ryan Devereaux, Dominic Rochon
Pre-season Assist Leader – Ryan Devereaux, Peter Mapendere, Thierry Ntwari
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment