June 19, 2014 League 1 Ontario--Woodbridge Strikers vs Vaughan Azzurri (from League 1 Ontario website)

  
Woodbridge Strikers 0 - Vaughan Azzurri 3
. Sat Jun 21 
Written By: Cromie, Chris  

Vaughan Azzurri notched their first League1 Ontario Cup win of the season with a 3-0 victory over 
Woodbridge Strikers thanks to Joey Cicchillo's brace and a goal from Daniel Fabrizi. 

With goals coming at the end of each half, the scoreline doesn't immediately tell the story 
of the match. It was a game of resistance and resilience as Vaughan worked to frustrate Woodbridge 
into defensive lapses and mistakes. 

For the better part of the first half hour, Strikers carried the lion's share of possession, 
patiently working the ball from left to right. Much to their trepidation, Azzurri's rigid shape 
gave no quarter. In the thirty-first minute, Woodbridge winger Stephen Almeida played a looping 
through ball to forward Armin Tankovic who was thwarted only by the quick reactions of opposing 
goalkeeper Colm Vance. 

It was a frustrating half for Tankovic as he frequently found himself crowded out with no space 
to work in. The moment he received the ball near the box, he found himself immediately surrounded 
by two, and sometimes three, Vaughan players snapping around his ankles. Azzurri defenders 
Mathieu Laurent and Daniel Fabrizi combined well to snuff out any glimmer of opportunity.

And yet it took Fabrizi to break the deadlock. With forty-three minutes gone, the ball broke 
to the Vaughan defender inside the area and he finished coolly into the right corner with 
a striker's touch. 

The second half brought more of the same with Vaughan, now nurturing a 1-0 lead, content to sit 
back and soak up the pressure. Their closed ranks and regimented back line relegated Woodbridge 
to taking shots from distance, with Almeida blazing well wide in the sixty-fourth minute. 

Strikers' composure and retention of the ball was a strong positive in the game, however they 
lacked that final pass to crack open the defence. In the seventy-first minute, coach 
Peter Pinizzotto replaced the battling Joshua Paredes-Proctor with dead-ball specialist 
Ernesto Gaita. The move looked to be having a positive effect as Gaita played a part 
in a superb play that finished with Oscar Cordon narrowly screwing the ball wide from 
close range.

With time running out, Woodbridge pressed for an equalizer into stoppage time but found 
themselves on the wrong side of a counter attack. Joey Cicchillo's good work on the left was 
rewarded as he swung in a shot that fooled goalkeeper Michael Scavone and ended up in the 
back of the net. Less than a minute after the restart, Cicchillo was at it again, this time 
bundling in the rebound from a Matthew Arnone shot. 

The victory gives Vaughan Azzurri their first win in the League1 Ontario Cup and leapfrogs 
them over Woodbridge Strikers in Group B. Vaughan's next Cup game sees the Azzurri take 
on Windsor Stars on July 1st. For Woodbridge, their next shot at redemption also comes against 
the Stars as they take on the Windsor outfit July 11th. 

back to League 1 Ontario 2014 menu

.

.