July 11, 2014 League 1 Ontario--Woodbridge Strikers vs Windsor Stars (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Friday July 11, 2014 League 1 Ontario Cup game between Woodbridge Strikers and Windsor Stars played at Vaughan Grove in Vaughan at 9:00pm.

Woodbridge Strikers (all blue, white numbers)

...................1 Michael Scavone
4 Kasra Dehdezi...20 Cameron Brooks...21 Christian Cavallini (cpt)
2 Hilton McPherson...16 Andrew Derayeh...10 Oscar Cordon...17 Mario Kovacevic
..............14 Stephen Almeida...11 Viktor Anastasov

Subs:...12 Matt George (gk)...8 Joshua Paredes-Proctor...9 Michael Holder...13 Gabriel Sosa...15 Luca Baldassarre...19 Damien Graham
team officials:...team head coach Peter Pinizzotto...assistant coaches Kevin Hilfold and Sam Medeiros...managers Eric Mokri and John Scarlato

Windsor Stars (all white, black numbers)

...................1 Kyle Vizirakis
3 Jamar Kelly...18 Chris Hakim...5 Christopher Suta...14 Derrick Amankwa
10 Celso Carapau...16 Gino Berardi (cpt)...12 Brydon Caesar...8 Ciprian Codea
..............9 Michael Pio...7 Erik Cirovski

Subs:...13 Michael Watson...19 Brett Holmberg
...and one of the following:...4 Patrick Lepera...6 Luis Cortes...11 Khalid Baher...15 Austin Piwinski
team officials:...team head coach Steve Vagnini...assistant coaches Eddie Krusarovski and Fabio Marras

Game officials:...referee Justin Tasev...referee's assistants Ben Jacobs and Scott Bowman...fourth official Zack Taylor
...(yellow shirts, black shorts and socks)

1st Half:...game starts 8:57pm...Strikers defend south end.
55 sec...Stars Carapau receives cross and kicks 20 yarder down middle just over net.
1 min...Stars goalie dives on through ball before Strikers Kovacevic can get to it on edge of box.
3 min...Strikers Cordon rush on left post falling defender but second defender forces him to push ball over end line.
7 min...Strikers Lo Presti 40 yard cross from left is caught by goalie.
10 min...Strikers Lo Presti 65 yard freekick from left is caught by goalie.
13 min...Stars Pio rolls ball from 25 yards through defenders and Stars Cirovski has 15 yard shot that sliding goalie makes point blank save.
14 min...Stars Pio taps ball and Stars Cirovski shoots 20 yarder just over net.
15 min...Stars Carapau cornerkick from left has Stars Codea blast partial clearance to 25 yards well over net and back fence.
16 min...Strikers Almeida cornerkick from right has Strikers Kovacevic head ball in crowd from 15 yards that bounces to left and hits post. The goalie catches deflection at 1 yard.
18 min...Stars Kelly long throw-in from right cornerflag has whistle blown in box.
19 min...Stars Berardi is injured at center line.
24 min...Stars Pio blasts 30 yard freekick down middle over net.
25 min...Strikers Lo Presti low cross from left 20 yards has defender clear.
26 min...Stars Berardi 40 yard freekick is over head of Stars player in box at 10 yards but play is whistled down anyway.
29 min...Strikers Carapau cornerkick from left is over players in box and Stars player heads ball out right side of box.
34 min...Strikers Cavallini 28 yard freekick from left has defender chest ball behind end line.
35 min...Strikers Kovacevic cornerkick from left has Strikers player not able to turn header at 12 yards.
35 min...Strikers Anastasov blasts 25 yarder from right just wide right of post.
36 min...Stars Cirovski on right rolls pass forward to Stars Carapau and he shoots 18 yarder from sharp right just wide left and step ahead of Stars player charging in on left.
39 min...Stars Carapau cornerkick from left has Stars Pio in crowd head 8 yarder that flying goalie pushes wide right of post.
40 min...Stars Carapau cornerkick from right deflects off defender and Stars Berardi blasts low 28 yard shot that deflects off defender at 5 yards for cornerkick.
41 min...Stars Carapau cornerkick from irhgt has Stars Cirovski pops up header at 10 yards and goalie catches on left post.
45 min...Strikers Almeida cornerkick from right has leaping Strikers Dehdezi twist header is wide left of net from 8 yards.
46 min...half ends 9:43pm.

2nd Half:...starts 9:59pm.
halftime sub:...Strikers Paredes-Proctor replaces Cordon.
48 min...Stars Berardi pushes pass up right and Stars Carapau runs up but runs ball over end line.
54 min...Stars Codea 30 yard freekick from left has defender kick ball out for throw-in.
55 min...Stars Berardi cross from 35 yards on right has Stars Suta shoot wide left from 12 yards.
56 min...Strikers Almeida is squeezed off ball in box by four defenders.
57 min...Strikers sub...Graham replaces Kovacevic.
59 min...Stars Pio shoots 28 yarder between players up middle but over net.
61 min...Strikers sub...Holder replaces Anastasov.
61 min...Strikers goalie runs to right side of box to clear ball before Stars Berardi can get to ball at 20 yards.
62 min...Stars sub...Watson replaces Carapau.
66 min...Strikers Michael Holder GOAL...Strikers Franco Lo Presti rushes down left and passes from 30 yards to charging Holder who shoots 12 yarder to left corner of net.
67 min...Strikers sub...Sosa replaces Cavallini.
68 min...Strikers Cameron Brooks and Stars Michael Pio are both injured on crash on right end line while on a Stars break-in. Referee Justin Tasev calls a Penalty kick.
70 min...Stars Gino Berardi GOAL...Berardi blasts Penalty kick to top right corner of net beyond goalie Michael Scavone.
71 min...Strikers Lo Presti is injured at Stars 30 yard line.
72 min...Stars Codea cornerkick from left has Strikers defender head ball away.
73 min...Strikers player rush on left wins freekick when he's knocked over.
73 min...Strikers Brooks yard freekick from left has ball cleared in crowd of players.
74 min...Strikers Almeida 40 yard freekick up middle over to left where Strikers player at 18 yards on left heads ball across box but Stars goalie runs to right to pick up bouncer.
75 min...Strikers Almeida or Paredes-Procter chips 30 yarder from left over net.
77 min...Strikers Almeida 35 yard chip from left has goalie charge forward through crowd of players to punch ball forward at 12 yards.
78 min...Strikers sub...Baldassarre replaces Almeida.
79 min...Stars Codea cornerkick from left has Stars player knock ball down for another Stars player to have 18 yard shot blocked by defender.
79 min...Stars Berardi is injured at Strikers 40 yard line.
82 min...Stars sub...Holmberg replaces Cirovski.
83 min...Strikers Holder and Stars Berardi ard both hurt in crash at 30 yards including Stars Holder flip over while on run.
84 min...Strikers goalie picks up ball tapped into box before Stars player can get to it.
84 min...Strikers Holder rolls ball from 22 yards across box from right but defenders clear.
85 min...Strikers Paredes-Procter high cross from right 20 yards has Stars Hakim slide to clear a Strikers player's shot from 10 yards.
85 min...Strikers Graham cornerkick from left wins cornerkick when defender clears ball wide right.
86 min...Strikers Paredes-Procter high cornerkick from right has Strikers Graham have shot blocked.
88 min...Stars goalie checks Strikers Baldassarre off ball at 10 yards on left.
89 min...Stars Codea is injured near center line.
91 min...Stars goalie takes freekick from 65 yards down middle wins cornerkick on left on Strikers clearance.
91 min...Strikers heads ball across box from 20 yards but defenders clear.
92 min...Strikers Andrew Derayeh GOAL...Strikers Michael Holder heads ball from right that has Derayeh blast low 20 yarder that deflected off a defender's leg into right side of net beyond reach of goalie Kyle Vizirakis.
93 min...Stars Codea cornerkick from right is whistled down before connection because of fight breaking out in box.
95 min...Stars Codea cornerkick from right has defender head ball away and whistle is blown to end the game and another fight breaks out.
95 min...game ends 10:49pm.

Final Score:.......Woodbridge Strikers.......2......Windsor Stars.....1...

Attendance was about 80 on this mild evening with the temperature not changing much even after the sun set.

The two best non-scoring chances were both early in the game. At 13 minutes Stars Michael Pio rolled a ball from 25 yards through the defenders and Erik Cirovski had a 15 yard shot saved point blank from the sliding goalie. 16 minutes had Strikers Stephen Almeida take a cornerkick from the right that had Mario Kovacevic head a ball in a crowd of players from 15 yards that bounced to the left and hit the post and the goalie was able to catch the deflection at 1 yard.

Strikers Michael Holder had only entered the game at 61 minutes and got a goal and an assist. On his assist, it was the third time within a few minutes that he'd headed the ball across the box from the right instead of taking a shot and this time it worked.

I checked with referee Justin Tasev that he gave out no cards in this game although at times there were some close tackles. Stars captain/team owner Gino Berardi was injured about three times on tough checks. After the winning goal the Stars had a cornerkick that had to be whistled down before it was taken as a fight broke out in the box between all players on both teams. The cornerkick was cleared and the whistle blown for full time and another pushing match broke out.

The Stars listed six subs but I only counted three on their bench...this was just like the bad old days of the CSL when I watched them sometimes bring nine players to the Toronto area. Team owner Gino Berardi answered me that he's quite happy that the team has made the move to this new league. He said it was hard to get enough players on a game on a Friday night with commitments for work etc (Windsor is a minimum five hour drive away). He said they have a feeder team that provides players but it's not very big. Throughout the game Strikers announced that their 15 year old boys team and 15 year old girls team would be travelling to Florida for a week of tournaments this month.

Windsor made the jump from the now desanctioned CSL to League 1 Ontario. Not so fortunate were the St Catharines Roma Wolves who from an insider that e-mailed me before the season started said with the delays in getting this league started they couldn't make the organizational and financial commitment to join and now they're without a senior team for the first time since 1978 in either league and they cut their players loose.

Vaughan Grove is only a few football field lengths away from the Ontario Soccer Centre. Their field #1 where this game was played is on natural grass. They have alumimum stands and a countdown scoreboard.

The win improved the Strikers record in the five team/four games/top two teams advance Cup competition to two wins, one loss and a good chance of advancing. This was Windsor's first game. They play in Group B. In League standings, Windsor is in second place and Strikers are in fifth.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca [Late Note: Windsor Stars stayed in town to play Vaughan Azzurri the next afternoon in a League game and they lost 1-0.]

Woodbridge Strikers starters