May 26, 2006 USL Toronto Lynx vs Miami FC (from Rob Lynch of uslfans.com)
"Yes, He Came, He Conquered…"
by Rob Lynch, uslfans.com Match Reporter
26.May.2006
Toronto Lynx: 0, Miami FC: 1
Starting Lineups: Toronto-Goddard, Titus, Mattachione (SUB: Dekker, 78th), Williams, Arango, Bedenikovic (SUB: Sheppard, 61st), Dodds, Chin (SUB: Baxter, 46th), Aristodemo, Neto (SUB: Helinho, 72nd), Palleschi (SUB: DiPlacido, 39th)
Miami-Doyle, Handy, Erush, Rodrigues, Polido, Adeyemi, Gil, Ramirez, Zinho, Fraser (SUB: Walsh, 71st), Romario.
(Centennial Park Stadium, Toronto) It's a feeling that, over his spanned career, Brazilian demigod Romario must be used to: the match winning goal, delivered with panache and unassisted. His solo strike, a screaming right footer belted into the top right corner of the net at 19-minutes of play, was enough to put the visiting Floridians up and walk away with the 3 victory points.
Lynx defender Rick Titus quipped casually afterwards "well, that's Romario, that's what he does. With him it just seems to be a question 'should I go left or right foot?' He had his chance and did what he gets paid to do."
Despite the goal, Lynx backup keeper Richard Goddard served his team admirably with a multitude of breathless saves over the course of the match, including a flashy one-handed turn outside the post on a Romario shot at 10-minutes. Goddard's personal war with the World Cup winner was an intriguing angle to the briskly-paced affair, matching the aged star step-for-step on a handful of finishing attempts.
Oh yeah, and there was another fellow by the name of Zinho (you may have heard of him too) acting the role of Miami's general right behind the striking line serving slinky passes and composed dictation of the game's pace. (In fact, Tottenham Hotspur's Canadian fullback Paul Stalteri was in attendance as well, so the list of football "who's who" was both long and distinguished; who says there's no really soccer in Toronto without MLS?)
The on again/off again drizzle notwithstanding, the match was a spirited one, two evenly matched sides probing for methods to break the opposition down, and using the slick pitch to full advantage with slippery tackles and wing-man feeds alike. In spite of the rain, the match was also a relatively clean affair with little in the way of blatant fouls oft chalked up to weather conditions.
Toronto had a flurry of scoring chances at the 25-minute mark, beginning with hardman Titus creeping deep up the left side and hurling a snappy curler to Jamie Dodds; Toronto's #13 connected well with a forceful header, but the attempt was wide of the near post. On the pick up play, Toronto's Marko Bedenikovic shook his marker Rodrigues at the top of the box and skidded a low attempt at the goal, only to graze the far post and out of play. Seconds later, on a botched attempt by the Miami backline to clear the play up-pitch, tough Dodds hammered a 17-yard shot on target, but was nestled in by the visitors' impressive GK, Chris Doyle.
The two squads exchanged control of play for the remainder of the first half, with Romario up to his old tricks again on a cannonball strike in the 42nd; loosening Titus with a dropped shoulder and gained half-step, he simply put too much on the strike and whistled it well over the crossbar from outside the box.
Toronto's own newly-acquired Brazilian, Osni Neto, showed great legs up the left flank at the beginning of the second half. Almost mirroring the attempt by his fellow countryman at the end of the first, Neto pulled loose of his man and threw out a powerful attempt at 48-minutes; the curling shot sailed over the Miami crossbar with little to spare. Busy Bedenikovic did the same on a Toronto corner kick 4-minutes later, finding a lane through the clogged goalmouth but well over the mark.
With the inclusion of scrappers DiPlacido and Baxter for the second half, the Lynx' physical element helped corral some momentum and threw Miami back for the duration of the contest. Both speedy Aristodemo and newcomer Helinho had solo runs into the box in the final third of the game, but Doyle was far too crafty to be duped on a cheeky beat-the-trap, and met both shots with graceless but effective turns.
Miami looks a club with intriguing promise, their record now being a respectable 3-2-2, but perhaps an insistence of relying on the sheer presence of Romario and Zinho, could be their downfall once the code is cracked by league opposition. Toronto meanwhile, playing better with each consecutive game, are still awaiting the arrival of both Kevin Jeffreys (the sublime ex-striker of the Richmond Kickers, still snaggletoothed with work permit problems for Canada) and definitive recognition of player roles, abilities, and limitations. Montreal Impact assistant coach Peter Pinnizotto, taking in the match for scouting purposes when his own squad faces Miami FC this weekend observed, "Toronto is a good team this year, they've got excellent players, they just have to figure out what everyone's place is." Stated Miami's Zinho (via translator) following the waterlogged contest "I'm not surprised by the opposition we received from the Lynx today; they are a hard-working team. We were lucky in some cases to get the win."
Toronto cannot feed from simple high praise any longer though; 6 games, no wins, and only 1 goal scored, Coach Wilde's boys need to find their focus before the hole is too deep to negotiate out of. In the meantime, Romario has inched himself closer to the well-publicized and self-serving benchmark of 1000 professional goals scored, Toronto being the latest casualty in his string of victims.
The Lynx next face the visiting Virginia Beach Mariners on June 4th at 4pm.
Card Infractions: Toronto: Titus (YELLOW, 45th), Helinho (YELLOW, 80th). Miami: N/A
NOTE: In the previous Lynx match report versus the Rochester Raging Rhinos, it was Rochester's backup keeper Patrick Hannigan who received the red card for leaving the bench, and not Neil Dombrowski.
[Opinion pieces written by fans do not represent the views of uslfans.com, but rather that of the writer.]
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