from a newsgroup forum. Written by Alan Douglas.
Vancouver 86ers - 2, Toronto Lynx - 1 (Overtime)
Goals
Vancouver 2, Jordan 87', Jordan 102'
Lynx 1, Thomas 19'
Attendance: 3,277
Line-ups
Vancouver: Mike Franks; Randy Samuel, Steve MacDonald, Richie Sumner; Aaron Keay (Chris Franks 45'), Oliver Heald (Spencer Coppin 76'), Steve Kindel (Alfredo Valente 57'), Craig Dalrymple, Ian Clarke; Garret Kusch, Jason Jordan
Toronto: Hubert Busby; Rick Titus, Franco Spadafina, Daryl Holmes, Peter Sarantopoulos; Ralph Golen, Kevin Holness, Brian Ashton, Guiseppe Lanotte (Phil Caporrella 45'); Nikola Vignjevic, Elvis Thomas
Yellow cards:
26' Titus - time wasting
32' Kusch - late tackle
39' Jordan - retaliation
67' Holmes - dissent
77' Dalrymple - from behind
The Game
Coming on the tail end of 16 World Cup games in just four days, a good degree of soccer saturation could be felt as Vancouver hosted Toronto. The result was a lacklustre game before a small and disinterested crowd, or at least that's how it was for the first 87 minutes. What came after that was a whole different story.
The opening exchanges were almost non-existent. A bustling run forward by Jordan, who stole the ball and raced past two defenders, got the crowd momentarily excited, but his square ball was anticlimactic, being well behind Kindel. The visitors took the lead soon after on a goal worthy of the World Cup, if only for its controversy. With his back to goal at the top of the area, Elvis Thomas miscontrolled a pass from Sarantopoulos and used his hand to settle it. With everyone in the park shouting "handball" Thomas turned quickly and used his great acceleration to pull away from MacDonald before firing inside the far post from a sharp angle on the right. Goal given, amid howls of outrage from the crowd.
The Sixers hit back for the instant reply, but Toronto keeper Busby had other ideas. First he dove to his left to palm away a bending free kick from Heald, then he came sliding out to rob Jordan who had charged past three defenders after a nice give and go with Kusch. But the home side was lacking spark and were being frustrated by the savvy defending of the much older Lynx side. Toronto were also proving dangerous on the counter, with the speedy Thomas a constant threat. He again outpaced MacDonald to break in on goal, but was forced wide to an acute angle by Mike Franks who played it well. Then later Thomas should really have scored on a cross from Vignjevic, but stabbed it over the bar from 5 yards out.
Half-time: Vancouver 0 Toronto 1
This was the farewell game for Garret Kusch who heads to Belgium shortly to begin his European career with Ostende. It was not one of his better efforts, but he's the type of player that's always going to be involved in the play. He started the half with a good chance as he showed nice control to turn his marker and dribble into the box only for Busby to smother his shot from an angle. He was also involved later on with two very similar plays just a minute. Both times he got up well to flick on a long throw-in, and both times the ball was only half cleared giving a Vancouver player a chance. Dalrymple was the first, but his volley was deflected wide, while MacDonald was the second, but his shot whistled just over.
86ers chances were proving few and far between though in what was proving a pretty dismal outing. Paul Dailly was clearly missed, and the desperation of Vancouver's manpower shortage was made all the more apparent when rookie central defender Spencer Coppin had to come in to play midfield. Thomas almost put Vancouver out of their misery in the final minutes when he beat the offside trap cleanly on a ball from Holness and had a clear breakaway against Franks. The 86ers keeper, who will soon be off to Europe himself having signed with Sheffield Wednesday, again came up big though, and came out quickly to make a desperation save. It would prove to be a key moment.
Soon after, in the 87th minute, Jordan salvaged the evening with a strike of breathtaking ferocity. Dalrymple had fed him the ball in space on the right side of the penalty area, and the young striker took it in stride, set his sights on goal, and signed, sealed, and delivered it to the far top corner. Busby could do nothing but wave at the ball as it hurled past. Suddenly, we had ourselves a game.
Amazingly though, the 86ers almost threw it away seconds later as they were caught pushing forward and were left wide open at the back. Thomas lead a 2-on-1 break and looked to have the legs to go it alone, but Dalrymple tracked back superbly and flung himself in to break up the play. Toronto appealed for a penalty but none was given, and so on to overtime.
End of regulation: Vancouver 1 Toronto 1
The extra session was action packed, in contrast to the sterile 90 minutes that preceded it. The half-time subs for each team, Mike Caporrella and Chris Franks, were both causing problems on the wing for the opposing defenders, including each other. But no shots on goal materialised. Man-of-the-Match Elvis Thomas almost snatched victory when a favourable bounce gave him acres of space in which to shoot, but Mike Franks got down quickly to save well. At the other end, Dalrymple nearly capped a strong game with the winning goal, but Busby dove across to grab his 25-yard volley.
In the 102nd minute, the crowd was given all the reason it needed to go home happy. Kusch flicked on a long ball which Spadafina should have dealt with but stumbled. Jordan was onto it in a flash. He ran in from the right, settled, picked his spot, and then celebrated his second game winning goal in a row and fourth in two matches. Jordan had died his hair blonde for this game, but certainly didn't need it to catch one's eye on this outing. At least now though his short curly locks are a match for his talent -- gold, pure gold.
Final score: Vancouver 2 Toronto 1 (OT)
The 86ers next game is Wednesday July 8th at home against hapless California. The 86ers will welcome the rest in the hope of getting some of their injured players healthy again.
Player Ratings:
M Franks - 7, made some key saves
Samuel - 8, superb in all aspects
MacDonald - 6, not one of his best
Sumner - 7, some blunders marred a very good game
Keay - 6, filled in well for Skinner
Heald - 7, lively enough
Dalrymple - 8, really turned it up a gear
I Clarke - 4, stuck in neutral
Jordan - 9, candidate for A-League player of the week
Kusch - 6, had his moments, but not the send-off he would have wanted
Valente - 6, didn't really put his mark on the game
C Franks- 7, a little rusty, but still a breath of fresh air
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