September 17, 2014 League 1 Ontario--Woodbridge Strikers vs Toronto FC Academy (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Wednesday September 17, 2014 League 1 Ontario game between Woodbridge Strikers and Toronto FC Academy played at Vaughan Grove in Vaughan at 7:00pm.

Woodbridge Strikers (all blue, white numbers)

.................12 Eugenio Garro
2 Hilton McPherson...4 Jesse Andoh...5 Franco Lo Presti (cpt)...17 Jarred Phillips
7 Nicholas Chiarot...10 Oscar Cordon...21 Christian Cavallini...16 Andrew Derayeh
..............22 Julian Uccello...14 Stephen Almeida

Subs:...1 Jacob Matthews (gk)...6 Ignazio Muccilli...9 Michael Holder...11 Adrian Gallo...16 Luca Baldassarre...18 Davier Walcott...19 Damien Graham
team officials:...team head coach Peter Pinizzotto...assistant coaches Kevin Hilfold and Sam Medeiros...managers Eric Mokri and John Scarlato

Toronto FC Academy (all white, black numbers)

..................1 Filippo Di Bennardo
2 Marcus Godinho...4 Mateo Restrepo (cpt)...7 Derrick Sequeira...25 Quante Abbott Hill Smith
23 Marcos Andres Nunes...20 Luca Uccello...8 Marco Rodriguez...16 Tarik Robertson
...........11 Stefan Vukovic...17 Matt Stowell

Subs:...1 Michael Uccello (gk)...6 Aidan Daniels...3 Gabriel Boakye...9 Molham Babouli...13 Koosha Nazemi...14 Anthony Osorio...19 Tomasz Balicki
team officials:...team head coach Michael Stefano...assistant coach Nikita Komarov...managers Frank Russo and Ryan Young

Game officials:...referee Hassan Rifai...referee's assistants Scott Bowman and Zac Taylor...fourth official Rami Arbaji ...(yellow shirts, black shorts and socks)

1st Half:...game starts 7:03pm...WS defend north end.
4 min...TFCA Rodriguez is injured in tackle at WS 45 yard line.
5 min...TFCA Restrepo 45 yard freekick chip down middle has TFCA Stowell head ball across box from 15 yards on left and defender clears on right.
6 min...WS Almeida 35 yard freekick from left is over players and caught by goalie.
8 min...TFCA Restrepo is injured on sliding tackle on WS Julian Uccello at TFCA 22 yard line.
9 min...WS Cordon rushes along 25 yard line to right and pushes pass to WS Chiarot who crosses from 18 yards on far right into box where WS player has shot blocked.
10 min...WS YELLOW card...McPherson earns it for sliding tackle on TFCA Stowell at WS 45 yard line.
11 min...WS YELLOW card...Phillips earns it for tackle on TFCA Godinho injurying him.
12 min...TFCA player's 30 yard freekick from right has TFC Vukovic flick 12 yard header up middle and goalie saves.
13 min...WS McPherson high chip from 30 yards on right has goalie catch high on left post.
16 min...TFCA Luca Uccello GOAL...TFCA Stefan Vukovic rolls pass from 30 yards on left forward to TFCA Tarik Robertson who crosses from 15 yards on left and Uccello takes midair blast from 15 yards on right into top left corner of net.
18 min...TFCA Nunes receives cross from left and pops 15 yard header from right well over net.
21 min...TFCA Luca Uccello rolls ball forward from 35 yards on left and TFCA Stowell continues on left and blasts 20 yarder into outside left side webbing of net.
22 min...WS goalie leaps in crowd of players to punch away cross but wins freekick by beind bumped.
23 min...TFCA Stowell 25 yard roller down middle is saved by goalie.
24 min...TFCA Vukovic low 12 yard shot from left has sprawling goalie save on left post.
26 min...WS Almeida 40 yard freekick on left has goalie bend to catch on left post and WS Julian Uccello slide into him.
...........WS YELLOW card...Julian Uccello earns it on this play.
28 min...WS defender poke checks TFCA Stowell off ball at 25 yards on left but ball goes to TFCA Luca Uccello on left who shoots low from 17 yards and goalie slides to save at 6 yards.
31 min...Strikers Julian Uccello GOAL...Uccello beats TFCA Tarik Robertson to get away 22 yard shot from slight left over sliding goalie Filippo Di Bennardo at 5 yards into right side of net.
33 min...WS Lo Presti 45 yard chip over players in box and goalie catches at 6 yards.
35 min...TFCA Luca Uccello low 30 yard shot between players on left and ball rolls wide left of net.
37 min...TFCA Rodriguez 40 yard freekick from right has header flicked from 12 yards in crowd of players and goalie catches.
39 min...TFCA Nunes can't draw Penalty kick on run into WS box on right as he gets knocked over trying to get to pass too far forward for him.
40 min...WS Andoh diving header at 12 yards in WS box to clear away cross from right.
40 min...WS YELLOW card...Cordon earns it for protesting awarding of freekick to TFCA at WS 40 yard line.
41 min...TFCA Rodriguez 40 yard freekick down middle over players and is caught by goalie.
42 min...TFCA RED card...Luca Uccello earns the direct ejection for tackle from behind on WS Christian Cavallini at WS 40 yard line.
43 min...TFCA Nunes bounces low 30 yard shot from right wide right of net.
45 min...WS Julian Uccello 45 yard freekick from left is punched away by goalie.
46 min...half ends 7:49pm.

2nd Half:...starts 8:08pm.
halftime sub:...TFCA Babouli replaces Stowell.
.............TFCA Osorio replaces Sequeira.
.............TFCA Boakye replaces Robertson.
46 min...TFCA Vukovic is injured on tackle by WS player at WS 35 yard line.
47 min...TFCA Rodriguez 35 yard freekick has defender at 10 yards in crowd of players head ball away.
51 min...TFCA Osorio cocrnerkick from left has TFCA Hill Smith pop up header from 8 yards away from goal. TFCA players work ball into box but 12 yard shot is blocked.
53 min...TFCA Babouli 25 yard freekick from left has TFCA Restrepo at 8 yards head over net on deflection and wins cornerkick.
54 min...TFCA players work out short cornerkick from right and cross into box is headed behind end line but WS win freekick on push in box.
55 min...WS sub...Gallo repalces Derayeh.
55 min...WS Julian Uccello 28 yard freekick from left is headed thrugh box by defenders out right.
56 min...WS Julian Uccello has 10 yard shot on left is blocked by defender.
58 min...WS Julian Uccello 45 yard freekick is over players on edge of box and caught by goalie.
59 min...TFCA Babouli freekick from near left corcnerflag bounces through box and TFCA Vukovic on right hits 12 yard shot off right post. TFCA player shoots away from net to win cornerkick on deflection.
60 min...TFCA Babouli cornerkick from left has goalie step left to swat away.
61 min...WS Julian Uccello cornerkick from right is caught by goalie in box. A pushing match breaks out. WS Lo Presti and TFCA goalie gets lectured by the referee.
63 min...WS sub...Graham replaces Almeida.
........TFCA sub...Nazemi replaces Godinho.
65 min...WS player's freekick from 28 yards on far right has WS Lo Presti leap and head 10 yarder from left into netting on deflection.
65 min...WS Julian Uccello cornerkick from left drops into box but TFCA players clear from box.
70 min...WS Julian Uccello spins and shoots 25 yard roller from left that sliding defender blocks at 8 yards and defenders clear.
71 min...TFCA Stefan Vukovic GOAL...WS Julian Uccello 45 yard freekick down middle has WS player rush to right end line and shoot on net. TFCA goalie quickly punts ball high and upfield that finds Vukovic at WS 45 yard line who runs down middle and shoots low 20 yarder into left side of net past goalie Eugenio Garro at 8 yards.
72 min...WS sub...Baldassarre replaces Julian Uccello.
76 min...TFCA Osorio is injured at TFCA 35 yard line. The referee had waved off the foul.
77 min...WS sub...Holder replaces Andoh.
78 min...TFCA Hill Smith and WS Holder are both injured jumping for header at WS 52 yard line. Hill Smith has to leave the field with head injury.
80 min...WS Cavallini cornerkick from left has goalie catch overhead of WS player.
81 min...TFCA players can't get shot aweay on edge of WS box.
82 min...WS Gallo 25 yard freekick from left has ball cleared in box.
83 min...WS YELLOW card...Gallo earns it for bumping over TFCA Babouli on rush down right.
83 min...TFCA Rodriguez 22 yard freekck from right hits bar near top right corner.
85 min...WS sub...Muccilli replaces Cavallini.
85 min...TFCA YELLOW card...Nazemi earns it for flipping over WS Chiarot at TFCA 25 yard line.
86 min...WS Gallo 30 yard freekick from left has defender head ball away.
87 min...TFCA Nazemi flips WS Phillips at TFCA 50 yard line.
88 min...WS Lo Presti blasts 40 yard shot down middle wide left of net.
90 min...WS Michael Holder GOAL...WS Oscar Cordon makes long run from 50 yards down right side then cuts along end line to feed pass for Holder to pound in 8 yard shot on left.
90 min...TFCA YELLOW card...goalie Filippo Di Bennardo earns it for complaining to assistant referee about no offside call on the goal.
91 min...TFCA Vukovic pushes over WS goalie as he rushed to left of box to clear.
94 min...game ends 8:57pm.

Final Score:....Woodbridge Strikers.......2.....Toronto FC Academy....2....

Attendance was about 220 on this cool evening. This game was to make up for the game of July 22nd which was called off by lightning at the 22 minute mark while scoreless.

This game got pretty rough at times. There were eight cards given out by referee Hassan Rifai—three to TFCA including the Red. Strikers started out with the first four Yellow cards. TFCA's Red card was senseless as it was at the WS 40 yard line and there was no chance to score. There were at least incidents of a pushing match breaking out between multiple players. TFCA head coach Michael Stefano was livid after the game recapping for the League 1 Ontario reporter. He said the referee was card happy in the first half and put them away in the second half.

The Strikers had to win tonight to have any chance of catching TFCA. They played and pressed the entire game. They picked up the ball from the TFCA net and ran it back to the center circle after their first goal and that was only at the 31 minute mark! Playing with a man advantage for the entire second half gave then a chance. I'd say that was a reason for the TFCA goal at 71 minutes as their players were caught upfield leaving Stefan Vukovic with only one defender to beat at the center line to have a breakaway.

TFCA played the second half without missing a beat although they were a man down and they had as many chances as Strikers. League leading scorer Molham Babouli came in to start the second half. He combined with Stefan Vukovic at 59 minutes with Babouli taking a freekick from near the left cornerflag that bounced though the box and Vukovic on the right hit a 12 yard shot off the right post. 83 minutes had TFCA Marco Rodriguez take a 22 yard freekick from the right that hit the bar near the top right corner as all defender appeared to be expecting a cross to the left side of the box. Strikers best second half chance was at 65 minutes when a player's 28 yard freekick on the far right had WS Franco Lo Presti leap and head a 10 yarder from the left into the outside webbing of the net but it must have been a deflection because they were awarded a cornerkick.

Since the weekend where I watched midfielder Chris Mannella** play on Saturday against Sigma and Sunday against ANB Futbol (the day of the TFC season ticket holder barbecue) the pro team have signed Mannella to a contract. He was in the crowd watching the game and so was Jonathan Osorio (a former TFCA grad from CSL league days). Osorio was there to watch younger brother Anthony who subbed in at halftime.

**Just looked at pictures of him holding his TFC jersey and saw his Twitter handle. I've been using the official game sheets and they and me have been spelling his name wrong all season long! His name is Chris Mannella (double N). Making corrections will give me something to do in the off season!

For more family ties we had the opening goalscorers—Luca Uccello for TFCA and his older brother Julian Uccello for the Strikers. Also TFCA backup goalie today was Michael Uccello who is the twin brother of Luca!

There were a few announcements during the evening inviting the crowd to stay to watch the Vaughan Strikers Under 16s play West Toronto. The Under 16 Boys are the Ontario Cup Champions and will now travel to Newfoundland to play in the national championships. Their '1999' Boys team are also champions and undefeated this year and they acted as ball boys tonight.

The tie keep TFCA in first place with a record of 9 wins, 5 ties, 0 losses for 32 points. Strikers record is now 7 wins, 2 ties, 3 losses for 23 points for fourth place with two games in hand on TFCA. TFCA are 6 points ahead of Vaughan Azzurri and 7 ahead of Sigma FC and both those teams have one game in hand on TFCA. If TFCA win away in Windsor Stars on Saturday, they will be league champions because there are no playoffs.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca

Woodbridge Strikers starters