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CP article: Lynx Hang on for tie with Rochester
by Winnipeg
Fury
Lynx hang on for tie with Rochester
TORONTO
(CP) -- The Toronto Lynx, their battered backline taking another
beating,
hung on for a 0-0 draw with the Rochester Raging Rhinos in A-League
soccer action
Saturday night.
The tie preserved
Rochester's eight-point lead over Toronto atop the Northeast
Division.
Toronto (8-3-4), already hurting on defence going into the
game, was reduced to a
back three of two midfielders playing out of position
and a second-string defender in
the second half after Marco Reda (quad
muscle) and Mauricio Vincello (flu) left the
game early.
The Lynx defence bent but didn't break in the second half,
although the Rhinos came
on in waves. Rochester (10-5-2) could have won 5-0
but misfired again and again in
the second half.
Twenty
minutes of sudden-death overtime didn't resolve anything, with a John
Ball
goal for Rochester negated for offside.
Substitute
Steve Butcher came close to deciding the game in the 76th minute with
a
header that almost dribbled in after the initial stop by Toronto goalie
Theo Zagar.
Rochester's Ball hammered another easy chance over the bar with
seven minutes
remaining.
Eddy Sebrango squandered another
Rochester opportunity in the dying minutes of
regulation time, sending the
ball wide.
The game drew 3,281 to Varsity Stadium on a
pleasant evening dubbed Fiesta Latina
Night, with the Lynxster mascot joining
a display of Ecuadorean dancing prior to
kickoff. He didn't look out of
place.
There was less action on the field in the first half.
Rochester outshot Toronto 4-1 but
the lone legitimate scoring chance came in
the 43rd minute when Sebrango, on the turn,
raked the ball just outside the
Toronto post past a beaten Zagar.
In the 51st minute,
Rochester's Jimmy Glenn was wide again after a nice set-up by
Sebrango. Glenn
had an open goal after Sebrango beat Marco Reda and unselfishly
passed the
ball back to the onrushing Glenn.
Scott Vallow finally had
to stir in the Rochester goal in the 74th minute when he
stopped Francisco
Dos Santos at close range.
The Rhinos were without Canadian
international Martin Nash and Jamaican Onandi
Lowe, both of whom are with
their national teams for World Cup qualifying games.
Vallow started in goal
again in place of the injured Bill Andracki.
Rochester does
not lose anything with Vallow in goal, however. Going into
Saturday's game,
Andracki and Vallow ranked Nos. 2 and 3 in the league with
goals-against
averages of 0.61 and 0.63, respectively. Toronto's Zagar was fourth at
0.68.
It was Zagar's sixth shutout in 15 games and the fifth in
nine games for Vallow.
Toronto played without injured
defender Milan Kojic (hamstring) but the backline was
bolstered temporarily
by the return of Reda and Vincello. Midfielder Lloyd Barker sat
out a
one-game suspension for accumulation of yellow cards.
Vincello lasted just one half, however, before being
substituted. Twelve minutes later,
Reda came off as well.
The two teams have been going in different directions of
late. The Rhinos had won
three straight, including an exhibition win over
Stade Rennais of France, after a 1-2-1
mini-slump.
Toronto came into the game on a 2-3-1 run after starting the
season 6-0-1. The Lynx
open a five-game road trip in Long Island on
Wednesday.
Rochester plays in Montreal on Sunday.
Notes: Rochester defender Mike Kirmse drew oohs from the
crowd for his unique
style of throw-in. Kirmse performs a running front
somersault before hurling the ball
in. ... The anthem singer drew a different
kind of look for a rendition of the Star
Spangled Banner that included the
phrase "the twee-light's last gleaming."
Posted on Jul 22 2000 , 08:24 PM
from IP address 205.200.28.77
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