May 31, 2005 USL Toronto Lynx vs Rochester Raging Rhinos (from a-league.com)
Raging North Of Their Border
by Rob Lynch, a-league.com Match Reporter
31.May.2005
Toronto Lynx: 3, Rochester Raging Rhinos: 5
Starting LineUps:
Toronto-Theo Zagar (SUB: Richard Goddard, 29th min), Rick Titus, Josue Mayard (SUB, Niels Dekker, 46th min), Robin Hart, Rumba Munthali, Abraham Francois (SUB: Jeremie Piette, 46th min), Urbain Some, Jamie Dodds, Sita Taty Matondo (SUB: El Tabe Huffman, 45th min), Conrad Smith (SUB: Sean Fraser, 46th min), Dave Simpson.
Rochester- Dusty Huddock, Tenywa Bonseu, Frankie Sanfillipo, Scott Schweitzer (SUB: Stoian Mladenov, 32nd min), Billy Sedgewick, Kirk Wilson, Rene Rivas, Pato Aguilera (SUB: Scott Palguto, 79th min), John Ball, Jonathan Bolanos, Tony Rougier (SUB: Jamel Mitchell, 68th min).
(Centennial Park Stadium, Toronto) Not unlike Saturday’s match versus the visiting Islanders, today’s stand off against Rochester was a spiraling, out-of-control competition with loads of offense and plenty for a footer fan to sink your teeth into. Then again, a case could be made against this if you happen to be a Lynx supporter. While they were able to finish the match out at a respectable 5-3 loss, a mere 20-minutes in the visiting Rhinos were ahead 4-0 and the home squad looked on the verge of self-defacing implosion.
The attacking prowess of ‘chester old-guard Kirk Wilson, who earned a hatrick in this matinee showdown, and set-up seer John Ball looked uncontainable for the majority of the first 45-minutes, snaking and finishing from every direction around an exasperated Lynx backline with smarts and speed. The introduction of tank-like Tony Rougier in the Rhinos frontline was a behemoth thorn in the Lynx’ side as well, using his considerable frame and pick-up to create fits with Toronto whenever on the rush (I can’t imagine this fellow playing for his former club, Nanjing Yo Yo FC in China; insert Godzilla reference here).
The scoring opened for the visitors a mere 4-minutes in, with a rushing Sanfillipo breaking up the left side and lobbing the ball over a scrambling Zagar when his backline was nowhere to be found. Again, this would be repeated 8-minutes later when John Ball (who, incidentally, was easily two feet offside) came in from the right and pulled the exact finish on Toronto’s GK who was forced to tear out for the top of the box in lack of home shirts anywhere nearby.
Then, the Kirk Wilson show came to town. At the 14-minute mark, big Rougier shook off Toronto’s Francois to scream a low grounder from a near-impossible angle about 20-yards out; Zagar half-trapped the powerful effort under his frame, but the ball trickled past and lay for an easy tap-in on the goal line by johnny-on-the-spot Wilson. 3-minutes after that, Rochester vet Sedgewick ran the left, offered a chance of his own, but Zagar was able to deflect the effort. Again Wilson, poorly marked and given far too much room, sent it home from close range. 4-0 to the former A-league champs, a mere 17-minutes of play having gone by.
“This is what I’ve been preaching to the boys all season”, said Rochester head-coach Laurie Calloway after the game, “strikers are supposed to score but you need it from midfielders too, and that’s what Kirk Wilson did for us today.”
The Lynx then offered a glimmer of hope in the form of Jamie Dodds. A 30-yard free kick in the 43rd minute, eerily identical to his master effort on Saturday versus the Islanders, sailed over the Rhinos wall and into the top right corner, putting home his third of the season. Also like the Islanders game, the Lynx were caught napping when Rochester put another in their column less than a minute later, Kirk Wilson capitalizing on a now-notorious lapse in concentration for the Lynx with a one-time header off a deep Rougier cross ball. If that wasn’t enough, newly signed striker Matondo was stretchered off seconds from the whistle when a nasty solid elbow (albeit entirely accidental) from Mladenov connected with his head on a high 50/50 ball. His condition remains unknown at time of this writing; his last sighting being in the hands of a paramedic team, but a concussion is feared and entirely possible.
One thing that can be said in Toronto’s favor, they do not shrink after half time when down. Indeed, with little more than pride to play for at this point, a flurry of well-timed substitutions injected life and greater focus into the Lynx, who took the game to the Rhinos from the second-half whistle. Whether it was urgency or desperation, the Toronto boys finally came out to play.
Strangely, some well-need offense was supplied repeatedly by fullback Jeremie Piette. Perhaps poaching up front because of his size, the tall Texan offered up a wide side-volley in the 68th, a set-up on Some’s goal in the 83rd, and a flashing turn-and-strike at close range in the 91st. From the same “defenders who want to be goal scorers”-file, Toronto’s Rick Titus was robbed off a downward header on a Dodds corner in the 66th minute, swept off the line when it beat Huddock with a desperate swipe by Bonseu.
Toronto’s third goal was in the 72nd minute by Sean Fraser.
Again, as with what we saw on Saturday versus the Rico’s, Toronto is not well suited to the “put a few in on us and THEN we’ll come out” style. Their current form puts a spectator in mind of the slow lumbering boxer who needs to get his bell rung with a few roundhouses before he wakes up and fights back. Against an inconsistent squad like the Islanders it may work (and almost did), but against a pedigree squad like Rochester, you’re playing with fire and entertaining a losing battle from minute one. Then again, I’m sure this is not a game plan of choice, but more of desperate necessity. The leaders on this team need to emerge.
The passing over of industrious midfielder Darren Baxter, a marvel of ingenuity from the 2004 campaign (and always troublesome to the Rhinos), would’ve been acceptable had a sturdy replacement been in line and already proven. To date, his position and role remains unfulfilled. The list of growing injuries doesn’t help, either: with Mattacchione and Faria already out on long term afflictions, they are now joined by David DiPlacido (who took a nasty ankle knock last game) and starting ‘keeper Theo Zagar (his quad torn in the opening moments of the game today); both will sit for anywhere from one to two weeks. With tomorrow’s expected signings of Edgar Bartolomeu, Robbie Aristodemo, and former Battery man Nigel Henry, these could be the injections Toronto so desperately need, and not a moment too soon. (And where IS striker Winston Griffiths, anyway?) Coach Busby Jr’s early season promise of competitive entertaining football is already a distant memory, and a team still looking for its first win 10 games into the season, a squad with a hearty tradition like the Lynx, is unfathomable and, daresay, a disgrace.
Card Infractions- Toronto: none. Rochester: Sedgewick (YELLOW, 83rd min), Mladenov (YELLOW, 45th min, RED, 87th min).
.
.