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.
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