Fri August 26, 2016 League 1 Ontario--Windsor Stars vs FC London (from League 1 Ontario website)

Gigolaj And Sokalaski Lead FC London To 2-0 Away Win Over Windsor
08/28/2016, 8:30am EDT
By League1 Ontario staff

FC London's Elvir Gigollaj (43', 90') shot to the top of the 2016 Golden Boot 
race with 19 goals from 15 outings, while teammate and keeper Anthony Sokalaski 
added his eighth clean sheet of the season following a 2-0 away defeat 
of Windsor Toronto FC Stars.

"First of all, we saw that Windsor was a very good team, and playing on this 
pitch you have to change your playing style a little bit," said FC London 
head coach, Mario Despotovic. 

"Second half we did just that, also because I was not happy with the number 
of chances that Windsor produced based on their quality," he added. "They have 
this player Dragoi, who is really making a difference in Windsor's team and 
it is hard to stop him so we created an overload in the middle and played 
more defensively because we had the 1-0."

Windsor head coach Dave Rimbert explained that the loss was frustrating, 
not least as Windsor had the chances to open the scoring early and could not 
take them. 

"Yes, well especially in the first half we had our chances but that's the game, 
you cannot squander that many," he said. "The keeper made a really good save 
on one header but we had our chances."

"We gave up a cheap penalty, a mistake, and the mental part of it is just 
as important in sports and we weren't mentally strong today." 

"That's the way the game goes, sometimes the ball goes in and sometimes 
it won't go in and today was one of those things," he added. 

"It's a little disappointing because that's twice we've played these guys 
and twice I felt we could have came out with points but both times we lost." 

London made some tactical adjustments to counter Windsor's strengths, 
and Despotovic explained that his team's versatility and fortitude were for 
him the highlights of the match. 

"Today was not a beautiful game to watch but it was a good game," he said. 

"I think every time you come to Windsor from London there is always a bit 
of tension between the teams and I think this type of game was really good 
for my team."

"I told them in second half that we needed to continue playing defensively 
well and focus on counter-attacks. The counters were there, we found 
the spaces very well, but the execution was a little bit weak today."

Despotovic also had words of praise for his keeper. 

"It was [Sokalaski's] third clean sheet in a row, and I think this season 
he has the most in the league," he said. 

"Sokalaski is really improving as a keeper and how he commands the defence 
and builds up from the back on better pitches is amazing, so I'm really 
happy with him."

With the result, FC London (37) pulls within one point of west division 
leaders Sigma FC (38). Although Sigma will play on Sunday and look to pad 
out their lead further, FC London also holds advantage in matches played, 
with only 16 completed as compared to Sigma's 18 matches played.   

back to 2016 League 1 Ontario Men's index

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