Sun October 2, 2016 League 1 Ontario--Woodbridge Strikers vs Aurora United FC (from League 1 Ontario website)

Baldassare Hat-Trick Ends Woodbridge Season On High Note
10/06/2016, 12:45pm EDT
By League1 Ontario staff

Woodbridge Strikers ended their season with a strong 5-0 victory over visitors 
Aurora United FC following a hat-trick from Luca Baldassare (58', 69', 88'), 
and a brace from Oscar Cordon (13', 74'), but though they secured second position 
in the east division, it was too late for the team to reach their objective. 

"I'm not satisfied with the way our season went because our objective this year 
was to finish in first, and this is the third year in a row we'll finish 
in second spot," said Woodbridge head coach, Peter Pinizzotto. 

"I thought we had a pretty good team to compete for first place, but we had 
a lot of injuries and suspensions this year and so we had to bring in a few 
new players. I would have liked to have won it, for sure."

With one match remaining in Aurora's season, both sets of technical staff 
were understandably compelled to reflect on the season past.

"This was our first year in the league, and we didn't really know what the 
league was about, but for us it was about getting young players involved 
and showcasing themselves," said Aurora head coach, Jimmy Brennan. 

"In our team tonight we had some kids that were 15, 16, 17 years old, 
playing alongside a few of our older guys. This is the experience they 
need in order for them to get to the next level, so from a development 
point of view we thought it was great for us this season. We got a lot 
of young kids playing and overall we are happy with the way things went 
for us this year," he added. 

"For us, there are a couple areas we need to improve," said Pinizzotto. 
"I'm not going to say where position-wise, but overall I think we need 
to improve a couple of areas in order to compete for first place."

"It's a bit disappointing that we couldn't reach our goal, but we went 
to the final of the Cup too and finished second, finished second in the 
division... we're pretty close to what the objective will be again for 
next year. Let's hope we can fill up in a couple of areas and positions 
that we feel need to be improved." 

The coaches were also keen to discuss plans for the off-season, and 
preparations already in place for the 2017 season.

"We have a lot of young players and depth in our club, but we lose 
players to school sometimes, including some of the younger ones," 
said Pinizzotto. 

"We need to be ready for that period because across the league 
it is the same thing. You have to get your points where you need them. 
Unfortunately we had a couple losses in the last few games, and 
it has cost us," he concluded. 

We do want to get wins, but we want to develop these kids and then 
in one or two years we will have the team that want, the conveyor 
belt coming through the system," said Brennan. 

"For us to say we were going to win the league in the first year, 
that didn't even cross our mind. There are some very good teams 
in this league, and for us we just have to keep building our club 
and keep having these players coming through to the point where 
we will have a big player pool. We will have the U23s, U21s coming 
through and supporting the club. That's what we want to do, 
and we got a good start on it this year."

back to 2016 League 1 Ontario Men's index

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