Lacklustre Royals get what they deserve
August 9, 2007
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Ottawa Royals, fresh from three convincing victories over tough opposition, were supposed to turn up, play well and pick up three easy points against basement dwellers Gloucester Hornets.
Apparently neither side read the script.
The result was a game of abject quality, where neither side was capable of stringing together a succession of decent passes, where basic mistakes were compounded with low intensity, where both sides struggled to get out of first gear, where communication and concentration were basically next to nil.
Gloucester Hornets deserved their victory. Fully and completely. There were no controversial decisions and no inexplicable offside calls. Gloucester Hornets have done the double over the Ottawa Royals, who appear to have learned nothing in the process.
The seeds of this latest humiliation were sown in training on Tuesday, where 11 people ambled through the motions during drills and then slowed down during the 5-a-side game at the end. The lack of intensity and desire was carried through to the game.
Make no mistake, this was a watershed defeat for the Royals.
The Royals started with their 3-5-2 system in place. Tyler Wallace was in goal, not fully recovered from his dislocated finger perhaps, and a back three of Marc Anthony Viscosi, Frank Zegers and Alan Farant. In midfield, Jonathan Brooks played his last game of the season before heading down to the States for college, Dom Rochon, Steve Kowlessar and Richard Boyle formed an offensive trio in the middle, and Dan Deganutti was on the left. Dimitri Koutras and Sylvain Clouthier led the attack.
The game started with the Royals on the offensive. On 3 minutes, Koutras was released by Boyle but his first time shot missed the target.
On 9 minutes, Gloucester took the lead, somewhat against the run of play, it has to be said. With Wallace in no man’s land and the defence at sixes and sevens, Wellington had the easy job of slipping the ball into the empty net.
The Royals were stunned and struggled to respond. Passes were underhit, channels unused, challenges not made. Still the home team managed to create a couple of chances, all of which were missed.
On 31 minutes, Michael Adams replaced Alan Farant with Jorge Gutierrez, dropping Dan Deganutti back to left back.
The response was instantaneous. With his first touch of the ball, Gutierrez released Clouthier who elected to blast the ball from the edge of the area. Lemieux made a good save to keep the visitors in front.
Two minutes later though, the scores were even. Clouthier whipped in a strong free kick that Lemieux could only parry. In rushed Gutierrez to nod the ball past him into the net.
It seemed as if the Royals had sparked into life. Several more chances were created and spurned, but at least the home side had moved into a higher gear for a brief period.
At half time, Adams replaced the hard-working Koutras with rookie striker Thierry Ntwari – but it was Gloucester who scored next, two minutes after the break.
Following a good period of Royals pressure, the Hornets broke quickly and Walker capitalized on abysmal defending to beat Wallace. Once more, avoidable mistakes lead to goals conceded.
On 65 minutes, Wellington scored his second goal of the game from the right wing.
Trailing 3-1 at home, the Royals finally started to exert an influence on the game. On came Kevin Sheehan to offer more height at set pieces and on 80 minutes, Boyle came back on for Lyttle, moving up front to provide a three-pronged attack.
As the Royals finally started fighting for every ball, they forced Gloucester back into their own half, penning them into the area and probing at every opportunity. Lemieux made a couple more fine saves to keep the visitors in the lead.
On 86 minutes though, the pressure finally started to pay dividends. Thierry Ntwari’s glancing header from Brooks’ corner hit the back of the net. And the Royals continued to pour forward in search of the equalizer.
On 90 minutes, Kevin Sheehan nearly got it, when his header was cleared off the line and Brooks’ resulting shot was hit over the bar.
It was too little, too late though for the Royals, who were left to rue 80 minutes of poor football.
There needs to be a response from the team now, starting in the very next training session and carrying on through to the end of the season. With four league games and the Ottawa Cup final left to play, there needs to be a refocusing of players and a reaffirmation of commitment.
Or else we may as well just not bother showing up.
Man of the Match: 3 points – Dom Rochon, 2 points – Kevin Sheehan, 1 point – Jorge Gutierrez
Statistics
Ottawa Royals
1-Tyler Wallace; 16-Alan Farant (18-Jorge Gutierrez (31 mins); 3-Frank Zegers (6-Kevin Sheehan, 69 mins), 20-Marc Anthony Viscosi; 14-Jonathan Brooks, 17-Richard Boyle (13-Jeff Dennis, 36 mins), 11-Dom Rochon, 15-Steve Kowlessar (2-Ewan Lyttle, 57 mins; 17-Richard Boyle, 80 mins), 9-Dan Deganutti; 8-Sylvain Clouthier, 21-Dimitri Koutras (4-Thierry Ntwari, 46 mins)
Substitute not used: 5-Alan Morgan,
Yellow Cards: None
Goals: Jorge Gutierrez (33 mins); Thierry Ntwari (86 mins)
Gloucester Hornets
1-Matt Lemieux; 16-Cyril Dehoppre, 2-Jason Da Costa, 4-Kwek Francis, 5-Stephane Lemay, 10-Nicko Stoikis, 12-Brendan Walker, 15-Schipy Joffy,11-Pat Violette, 9-Andrew Gilchrist, 17-Andrew Peterson, 8-Pat Wellington
Yellow Cards: Stephane Lemay, Pat Wellington
Goals: Pat Wellington (9, 65 mins); Brendan Walker (47 mins)
Season Tally:
Goals: D’Angelo, Devereaux 11; Boyle 8; J. Gutierrez, Kowlessar 5; Clouthier, Koutras, MacMillan, Ntwari 3; Brooks, 1
Assists: Brooks, 10; Boyle, Deganutti, 5; Koutras, Rochon 4; Kowlessar, 3; Clouthier, D’Angelo, Devereaux, Donnard, J. Gutierrez, 2; Dennis, Lyttle, Ntwari 1
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