from WayMoreSports.com and The Toronto Star.
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It
wasn't pretty, but the Toronto Lynx didn't care about
esthetics after beating a team from Germany's top soccer
league yesterday.
Before 2,790 shocked and cheering fans at York
University, the A League's Lynx upset 1860 Munich 1-0. The
German team was missing five of its stars who are serving with
national teams preparing for the World Cup. Among those
missing was Croatian striker Davor Suker.
The lone goal for the Lynx came from former Trinidadian
national team member Irasto Knights in the 16th minute, when
he outraced 1860 netminder Simon Jentzch to a loose ball,
dribbled around Jentzch and then calmly tapped one into the
back of the net.
Although Knights has scored seven times for Trinidad's
national side, he ranked yesterday's goal as one of the
biggest of his career.
"That one was a classic. I'm truly grateful for it,''
said Knights, whose goal was one of the few offensive flashes
in a game marred by an extremely muddy field and six yellow
cards. Striker Martin Max, the top scorer in the Bundesliga
this season with 18 goals, came the closest to beating Lynx
netminder Theo Zagar on a header from in close late in the
game, but he put the ball right into Zagar's hands.
Lynx coach Peter Pinizzotto said 1860 simply took his
team too lightly.
"I think we surprised them. Probably they thought this
would be another game like the ones they'd already played in
North America,'' said Pinizzotto. In the first two games of
their three-game North American tour, 1860 beat the A League's
Milwaukee Rampage 7-0 and a Canadian Professional Soccer
League all-star side 6-0. In A League play this season, the
Lynx have just a single win and a tie to go along with three
losses.
Getting the opening goal was crucial for the Lynx to
have any chance of beating the highly-touted German side,
Pinizzotto admitted. "Scoring first really helped us,'' he
said.
After Knights' goal, the Lynx retreated into a
defensive shell, and neither side got many scoring chances.
For most of the game, many 1860 players looked as though
they'd rather be anywhere else than the muddy York field, but
coach Peter Pacult denied Max and his other players had
drifted through the game.
"There were enough chances to score for us, but they
scored and then closed the field for passing,'' said Pacult.
Max could be forgiven for drifting. He had been touted
for a position on the German national side, but head coach
Rudi Voeller decided he had enough offence.
"It doesn't matter what I think or what Max thinks. It
matters what Rudi Voeller thinks, and he thought he had enough
scoring,'' said Pacult, who pointed out Germany didn't have
any scoring troubles yesterday when they crushed Austria 6-2.
Among the goal scorers was 1860 striker Daniel Bierofka.
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