Szwarek Sent Off In Style
May 26, 2007
In front of a packed house of rowdy fans exhibiting all the signs of Ponymania at Ottawa's Valleystream Park, the Royals bade farewell to former goalkeeper Andriy Szwarek. Szwarek, who is moving to Winnipeg for work, and why else would you move there, conceded ten unlucky goals, none of which were his fault.
The first goal came on 2 minutes, when Steve Kowlessar met a dipping left-sided Ryan Devereaux cross on the volley. As the ball came across his body, Kowlessar cleverly adjusted and fired his shot across Szwarek into the far corner.
Pony's XI was under the cosh at that time, and both Devereaux and Ntwari spurned good chances to double the score. On 16 minutes, Jeff Dennis (loaned to Pony's XI, along with James MacMillan and Richard Boyle) almost equalized, but his chipped shot came off the top of the bar.
Three minutes later, Szwarek's team did manage to equalize - and within seven minutes had streched its lead to 3-1.
Richard Boyle scored the third goal, much to the amazement of Royals keeper Tyler Wallace. Provate Boyle's pinkish-red boots dazzled in the sun as he performed step-over after step-over, leaving such luminaries as Greg Donnard, Frank Zegers and Dom Rochon on the floor, sidestepping lunging tackles and selling more dummies than a mannequin's warehouse. Arriving into the penalty area faster than a runaway train, he pirouetted on his left foot, performed a pas-de-deux, flicked the ball up over his right shoulder and executed a scissor kick into the top left-hand corner that would have been all over YouTube had there been a camera present. Lionel Messi would have been proud. This was vintage Private Boyle. A master at work.
On 31 minutes, Thierry Ntwari reduced the margin a little when he controlled Rochon's cross from the left and deftly lobbed Szwarek from 15 metres. An excellent goal - and it was only the seventh time he had tried it in the match. Three minutes later, Devereaux broke from the back, fed Ntwari and finished across Szwarek into the left hand corner of the net. At half-time, the teams left the field to rapturous applause with the scores tied at 3-3.
As James MacMillan later pointed out, the collapse of Pony's game plan coincided exactly with his leaving the field with a sore foot. MacMillan, who coincidentally joined Nortel at the same time as the company crashed and spends his spare time as public relations strategist for Ottawa's light rail project, was forthcoming in his opinions of his new team mates.
"I'd have got that," he said as Ntwari made it 4-3. "And that," he added, as Ntwari (showing a hitherto undreamed of nose for goal) made it 5-3. "And that," he added, as Ntwari (astonishing even himself at this point) scored his fourth of the game to make it 6-3.
"I hope you've noticed," he added, eight minutes later, when Greg Donnard had successfully recovered from an air kick to make it 7-3, "that the collapse of Pony's game plan coincided exactly with my leaving the field with a sore foot."
Jeff Dennis reduced the arrears for Szwarek's Soldiers a minute later, making it 7-4 to the Royals.
Frank Zegers (incredibly) made it 8-4 at 6.31 and 42 seconds (confirmed by Ripley's) when he latched on to a Steve Kowlessar pass and, eyes closed, fired a shot to Szwarek's right. Szwarek's despairing dive slowed the momentum of the ball down - but Zegers had put enough pace on it to allow it to trickle over the line and into the net.
Ryan Devereaux made it 9-4 and then 10-4 ten minutes later before Pony's XI rounded off the scoring in the last minute.
The Royals ran out 10-5 winners.
Scoring Sequence - First Half: Kowlessar 1-0, Pony's XI 1-1, Pony's XI 1-2, Boyle (Pony's XI) 1-3, Ntwari 2-3, Devereaux 3-3.
Scoring Sequence - Second Half: MacMillan Leaves the Field... Ntwari 4-3, Ntwari 5-3, Ntwari 6-3, Donnard 7-3, Dennis (Pony's XI) 7-4, Zegers 8-4, Devereaux 9-4, Devereaux 10-4, Pony's XI 10-5.
Man of the Match - Andriy Szwarek
Sunday, May 27, 2007
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