USLsoccer: Aristodemo gears up for 2002
by
Newswire
Aristodemo gears up for 2002
By Douglas E. Roorbach
HOUGHTON, N.Y. (April 12, 2002) – The Toronto Lynx are going through set
pieces during a morning workout at training camp when a defender sends a long
diagonal out of the back towards the right corner flag. It’s obviously going
into touch, except it doesn’t, because flashing down the line is Lynx midfielder
Robbie Aristodemo. Aristodemo settles the ball and scorches a cross into the
six, where it’s banged home. Coach Peter Pinizzotto grunts his approval.
“That’s my game,” says Aristodemo later, “Get up and down the sideline;
use my quickness; take ’em on a lot of runs.” He grins, “I can use my fitness to
wear defenders down.” It was his quickness that brought Aristodemo a lot of
attention last year—enough to win the A-League’s Rookie of the Year award. The
24-year-old Toronto native enjoyed playing at home, in front of friends and
family.
Still, Robbie calls the season “bittersweet,” since the Lynx
failed to make the playoffs. “I have to step it up another notch,” he says, “Be
a little bit more of a leader.” One place he wants to lead by example is on the
scoreboard. His lone tally last year was indicative of a team-wide dearth of
goals—Toronto was last in the league in goals scored. Aristodemo hopes that a
change in alignment from a 3-5-2 to a 4-4-2 will help the Lynx attack. “It frees
us up to move forward more, since there’s always someone behind us,” he says,
speaking of the outside midfielders.
After the season, Aristodemo would
like to make his way to Europe and catch on with a team there. “They play 11
months a year,” he says, “that’s hard to do in North America.” Aristodemo has
the resume to make teams look twice—he’s played on Canada’s U-17 and U-20 World
Cup teams, as well as on its Olympic and full international sides. He would
especially like to add to his seven caps by working his way back onto the
Canadian national team.
For now, though, Robbie is looking to the Lynx’
season. The team is spending this week training at Houghton College in western
New York state. “This training camp is a good start,” he says, “No distractions,
nice facilities, quiet. It’s perfect. Even the food’s good!” Still, Aristodemo
is eager for the season to begin, so that “we can all play with full intensity,”
he says. You can almost hear the defenders huffing and puffing to keep up with
him as he works the sideline.
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