Rampant Royals Find Goalscoring Form
July 26, 2007
Ottawa Royals put in a solid performance at Maple Leaf to comprehensively defeat Quebec Cup quarter-finalists UNIDOS de Hull by a score of 6-2 last night.
With both first team goalkeepers injured (Wallace with a dislocated finger and Dicaria with a broken toe), Michael Adams gave old-timer Antoine Lagarec his first start of the season in nets. Also missing through injury were Marc Anthony Viscosi, Roberto Gutierrez, Alic Edgar, Greg Donnard and Ewan Lyttle.
The Royals formed an attacking line up, with Matt D’Angelo (in between trips to Italy and Thailand) partnering Ryan Devereaux up front.
The home side piled on the pressure from the start, creating a couple of half chances in the first couple of minutes. So it came as no surprise that they took the lead on three minutes, following some excellent interplay between Marc Labrom, Matt D’Angelo and Ryan Devereaux. Labrom’s early pass was beautifully flicked on by D’Angelo and Devereaux finished nicely in the far corner having wrong-footed the keeper.
The Royals were playing some excellent football, drawing in the visitors and then hitting Deganutti and Brooks on the flanks. There were a succession of decent chances and both Boyle and Brooks spurned good opportunities to double the lead.
On 23 minutes, however, Devereaux did just that. Brooks did well to recover an overhit Deganutti cross and centred for Kowlessar in the area. Kowlessar guided his header into the path of Devereaux, who finished well with a glancing header.
Boyle added another goal four minutes later with a superb piece of skill. He controlled a bouncing ball at the edge of the penalty area and then turned his man with one move before curling a beautiful shot from 20 yards into the top right hand corner of the net.
Cruising along at 3-0, the Royals took their foot off the gas a little – and allowed UNIDOS back into the game, although it was arguably more due to the intervention of referee Popescu than anything else.
When Lagarec rushed off his line to claim a 50-50 ball at full stretch with both hands, Popescu deemed that the keeper had brought down Hull’s striker Akem. Despite the protestations, the penalty stood and it was converted with aplomb by Fournier on 31 minutes.
The Royals were still in control, but the passing in midfield became a little sloppy and the home team started to create problems for itself. When the visitors scored a second goal on 42 minutes, as a result of poor defensive play on the right, alarm bells started to ring.
But within 60 seconds, the Royals had given themselves a two goal cushion again, when Popescu awarded his second soft penalty of the evening, for a harsh handball, against the Quebeckers.
Steve Kowlessar slotted the ball home with ease and at half time, the score was 4-2 in favour of the home side.
In the second half, substitute Jorge Gutierrez added a clinically executed volley directly from a Brooks corner on 52 minutes to increase the score to 5-2.
The second half was one way traffic as the Royals piled on the pressure and created chance after chance. On 54 minutes, Gutierrez was clean through when he was scythed down in the box by Bertrand. Probably fearful of the paperwork that a red card would entail, Popescu waved play on.
On 72 minutes, Gutierrez struck a venomous free kick that cannoned off the underside of the crossbar and out. The Mexican midfielder was in sparkling form in this game, challenging for every ball with gusto and driving the visitors back to the edge of the penalty box with every surging run.
On 74 minutes, he scored his second of the evening, capitalizing on a good cross from Sylvain Clouthier and leaving Ferreira with no chance.
The Royals continued to create chances and look dangerous till the end of the game, but had to settle for six goals against good opposition.
The next game at Maple Leaf is on Sunday at 4 p.m., when second-placed Royals take on the league leaders, St. Anthony’s.
Man of the Match: 3 points – Marc Labrom, 2 points – Jorge Gutierrez, 1 point – James MacMillan
Statistics
Ottawa Royals
1-Antoine Lagarec; 2-Frank Zegers (13-Jeff Dennis, 46 mins), 3-James MacMillan, 6-Marc Labrom; 20-Steve Kowlessar, 11-Dom Rochon (14-Alan Morgan, 74 mins), 9-Dan Deganutti, 16-Jonathan Brooks (18-Alan Farant, 75 mins.), 14-Richard Boyle (12-J. Gutierrez, 40); 23-Ryan Devereaux (7-Sylvain Clouthier, 39 mins), 15-Matt D’Angelo (8-Dimitri Koutras, 46 mins; 25-Thierry Ntwari, 77 mins; 14-Richard Boyle, 81 mins)
Yellow Cards: none
Goals: Ryan Devereaux (3, 23 mins), Richard Boyle ( 27 mins), Steve Kowlessar (pen., 44 mins), Jorge Gutierrez (52, 73 mins)
UNIDOS de Hull
1-Filia Ferreira, 2-Jules Léger, 3-Lee Bertrand, 4-Simon Romulus, 6-Amine Smail, 7-Stephan Da Silva, 10-Helder Farras, 16-Yannick Fournier, 19-David Giroux, 20-Ianic Stanislav, 22-Antoni Ciepala, 12-Andre Akem, 17-Ernest Malo
Yellow Cards: none
Goals: Fournier (pen 31 mins), Ciepala (43 mins)
Season Tally:
Goals: D’Angelo 11; Devereaux 8; Boyle 7; Kowlessar 5; J. Gutierrez 4; Koutras 3, Clouthier, Ntwari 2; Brooks, MacMillan 1
Assists: Brooks, 7; Deganutti, Koutras, Rochon 4; Boyle, 3; D’Angelo, Devereaux, Donnard, J. Gutierrez, Kowlessar, 2; Clouthier, Dennis, Lyttle 1
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