The US Pro 40's had the very early advantage and showed excellent individual skills but the Lynx superior teamwork quickly took over. Toronto had the first good chance of the game in the 10th minute when Italian import Guiseppe Lanotte sent Elvis Thomas through on a partial breakaway but Selects keeper Matt Jordan parried the hard shot and cleared the ball from danger.  The Americans would counter attack quickly as four minutes later Kevin Holness would be forced to clear the ball off the Lynx line following a goal mouth scramble from a Selects corner.

The Lynx would got on the scoreboard in the 33rd minute courtesy of an incredible blunder by Pro-40's defender Ben Parry who, while under pressure from Lynx striker Terry St. Louis, sent a long, curling, high ball over the head of keeper Matt Jordan who alertly scrambled to head the ball away saving an own goal.  Unfortunately for the unlucky Jordan, the ball landed in the path of a charging Lanotte who drove a low hard low shot into the goal.

The first half would conclude on a controversial note.  With approximately 30 seconds left on the scoreboard (official) clock,  Lynx midfielder Elvis Thomas pulled down a Selects attacker just outside the penalty area.  To the great frustration of the Pro-40's, while handing out a yellow card to Thomas, referee Tony Comacho allowed the clock to tick down to 8 seconds before stopping the clock as is the A-League official procedure.  By allowing this amount of time to "disappear", Comacho made it difficult for the Selects to take advantage of what should have been a golden opportunity and the half ended 1 nil Lynx.

While the Lynx would have to consider themselves very fortunate to be up a goal at the half, five minutes into the second, they were very unlucky not to double their margin when Terry St. Louis crashed a powerful header off the crossbar from a corner by Nikola Vignjevic.

Controversy would arise again in the 55th minute when Lynx defender Franco Spadafina was yellow carded by Comacho for handling the ball just outside the Lynx box although many observers were surprised by the call on what looked like a very innocent play.  On the subsequent free kick, Josh Wolf blasted a low shot around the wall past a helpless Hubert Busby Jr. to tie the game at ones.

The matches defining moment came in the 83rd minute when after playing a perfect 1-2 with Darryl Holmes, Lynx striker Phil Caporella was pulled down in the box by the Selects Tyrone Marshall.  While it was clear that Caporella had been fouled by Marshall, the subsequent swan dive by the Toronto forward sent the Pro-40's into a fury with Comacho being the target of their anger.  In the subsequent melee, both Carlos Parra and Leo Squadrone of the Selects were ejected from the match by Comacho.

Holmes commented, "it was definitely a penalty, (he) stepped in his way and made a clumsy challenge but that goal decided the game so you can understand their frustration.  I think it was the right call."

Franco Spadafina converted the spot kick for his third goal on the season, all from the spot.

With only nine US Pro-40 Selects remaining on the field, the final minutes of the match ticked away uneventfully and the Lynx stretched their winning streak to 3 while the American side have now lost five in a row after starting the season with three straight wins.  The Selects tempers remained hot after the game and both assistant referees had to restrain the Americans from confronting referee Comacho in regards to what they thought was a gift to the Lynx.  Fortunately, cooler head would prevail and the post-game civilities came to an end with no further turmoil.

Lynx coach Peter Pinnizotto was far from happy with his sides performance, "I really don't know what went wrong.  We were sloppy, no intensity.  We were lucky to get the three points today."  In regards to the weak performance of last weeks standout Nikola Vignjevic, Pinnizotto said "With Nikki that's how he is.  If he's in the game he's going to look great.  Today he was really off.  I thought he had an awful game today compared to the last game but he'll come back and start playing well again." The Lynx coach praised the play of Italian import Guiseppe Lanotte, "(he) worked hard the whole 90 minutes.  He was the only one up front that worked hard.  You need intensity and Terry St. Louis wasn't showing that.  Lanotte was putting pressure on the other team."

Usually dependable defender Rick Titus was outspoken in his thoughts on the Lynx's performance "We were not sharp at all.  We were training hard all week and under the sun we were a bit ragged.  It showed up today. Our legs were heavy, our reactions were five seconds too late all the time.  We made these guys look like superstars and on a good day we would have killed them."  Terry St. Louis added, "When we heard they were beaten 5 nil by Montreal, we got over confident.  We weren't expecting them to be so good."

Lynx co-owner and general manager Enzo Iantorno was also disappointed with the play of his side, "I wasn't happy with the way they played but then again, when they play tougher competition, they seem to rise to the occasion.  I think that they relaxed a bit.  They figured they had the game won and you know what happens when you start thinking that."

Regarding the announced attendance of 1,732, a disappointed Iantorno said "I didn't think that we would draw well today.  The weather was a factor and the US Pro-40's are difficult to promote.  People were asking me - who are they? - what are they? - is it a real game? - is it an exhibition game? - it's a bit tough."

Future Lynx matches:

The Lynx next home game at Varsity Stadium is on Sunday, June 7th at 4:00pm as the Long Island Rough Riders come to town. The Lynx are also promoting a bus package trip to Rochester for their June 19th road game vs. the Raging Rhinos.  The $50 price tag includes the bus trip, match ticket, and an autographed Lynx souvenir T-shirt. For more information or to book a seat, call the Lynx offices at (416) 251-GOAL.

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