Friday September 2, 1994
Date: 09-03-94 (08:00) Number: 29158 of 29225 (Refer# NONE) To: ALL From: KBUTLER@SFU.CA Subj: [T/R] Vancouver 86ers vs Toronto Read: (N/A) Status: PUBLIC MESSAGE Conf: U-SOCCER (4241) Read Type: TEXT SCAN (+) ----------------------------------------- Vancouver 1 Toronto 0 Sibiya 82 Att: 4498. Vancouver: Dolan; Kim, Millar, McKinty, Rattee; Dodd, Easton, Evans, Valentine; Mobilio (Sibiya), Munson (Mitchell). Toronto: Onstad; Sarantopoulos, Kraemer, Lopez; Ianiero, Nocita, Sullivan, Majcher, DiFlorio; Dolumbo (Walker), Crljen (Golen). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This night began with cloud and ended with rain, through which your intrepid reporter had to cycle home (and is therefore thoroughly drenched). The game, while never a classic, turned out a pleasant enough way to spend a Friday night, with the home side just doing enough to win. The 86ers, still plagued with injuries, fielded a reshuffled side, with full-back Tom Kim rejoining the team and centre-back Todd Rattee joining from UBC, and forward Sipho Sibiya (who was to make a dramatic entrance) on the bench. Toronto's starting lineup featured (as far as I can make out) 10 former CSLers (the name Dolumbo, which may well be wrong, was new to me), from Hamilton and North York as well as the Blizzard (Toronto played in North York Rocket blue tonight, though without the big coffee company ad on their jerseys). The game quickly settled into a pattern, with both teams showing why they are struggling: missed passes and misunderstandings aplenty. The 86ers had somewhat the better of the play, though without threatening much in a quiet first half. The visitors' best chance came on a looping header from DiFlorio, after a Nocita cross, though Dolan had only to watch the dropping ball carefully, while the 86ers came close through Mobilio, whose shot went just wide after Easton tapped a free kick to him, and from Evans, whose rare shot was a yard or so high after good retrieving work by Kim. The second half began with a lot of stoppages (from a generally whistle-happy referee) and yellow cards for McKinty and Lopez, apparently in both cases for speaking out of turn. Valentine featured in two incidents around the hour mark, first making a good run into the box and apparently being checked off the ball (no call from the referee), and almost immediately making another similar run, this time trying to pass to a teammate without success. After this, there were chances at both ends. Dodd ran down the left, cut inside and produced a dipping shot that fell wide; a nice passing play finished at the feet of Ianiero whose cross-shot was handled by Dolan; Mitchell got open on the edge of the box and fired in a firm shot which Onstad caught while diving. Nonetheless, it still looked like the 0-0 game it was. Both sides changed both their forwards, and, curiously, both teams decided in the 62nd minute to take off their number 17's, Munson for Vancouver and Crljen for Toronto, both of whom had had quiet games. The crucial substitution came in the 75th minute, though. Mobilio, who had seen a little of the ball but had not done much with it, gave way to the newcomer Sipho Sibiya. The substitute made some useful-looking runs without getting much of a chance to show what he could do, but that didn't last long. In the 82nd minute, Valentine got free on the right, found Mitchell on the edge of the box in the centre, who in turn passed to Sibiya who had found space intelligently. Sibiya controlled the ball, looked up, and finished very coolly to give the 86ers the lead. Your reporter was out of his seat almost before the ball hit the net.... It looked for a moment as if the 86ers would hang on to the lead comfortably, but in the end there were a couple of alarms. Nocita got in behind the defence, having his shirt tugged in the process, before sending a shot across goal and wide (one assumes advantage had been given), and then Majcher had the Rockets' best chance of the game, getting open on the right and firing a firm shot which Dolan blocked alertly. And that was that -- the 86ers had a much-needed win to keep their slender playoff hopes alive, without playing convincingly well, and the Rockets showed that they need a dangerous forward (someone like Paul Peschisolido would do nicely :-)) to be any sort of threat in this league. Attendance tonight was about 250 below average, perhaps because of the weather or the not-so-attractive opposition. (The 86ers' attendances had thus far varied very little from the average. Next up for the 86ers on this Eastern homestand (if you see what I mean) are the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, followed by the successful Impact from Montreal, who beat the LA Salsa tonight 1-0, thanks to a goal by Lloyd Barker. Your reporter has now dried out nicely :-) The table now resembles the following. (A thought: every time the Vancouver Sun has printed the league table, they have had to spend a column-inch or so (more space than the table itself needs!) explaining the point-scoring. 3-1-0, anybody??) Games Points Seattle 14 87 Montreal 14 72 Los Angeles 15 72 Vancouver 15 54 Colorado 13 52 Toronto 15 42 Fort Lauderdale 12 31 Cheers, Ken. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ken Butler | at kbutler@sfu.ca Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics | or butler@cs.sfu.ca Simon Fraser University |--------------------------------- Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 | Dydw i ddim yn siarad Cymraeg. ----------------------------------------------------------------------"back to Rockets 1994">