April 30, 2017 League 1 Ontario--Toronto FC III vs FC London game review (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Sunday April 30, 2017 League 1 Ontario game between
Toronto FC III and FC London played at the KIA Training Centre in Downsview at 1:00am.

Toronto FC III (all red, white numbers)

..............1 Phil Di Bennardo
15 Steven Furlano (cpt)...4 Nikola Stakic...3 Robert Boskovic...2 Andrew Dias
19 Dante Campbell...10 Matthew Srbely...22 Kota Sakurai...16 Marko Mandekic
.............18 Nicholas Osorio...5 Ethan Beckford

Subs:...12 Cristian Rossi (gk)...6 Malik Smith...8 Jacob Maurutto-Robinson...13 Riley Ferrazzo
...20 Daniel DaSilva...21 Glenn Muenkat...23 Christopher Castillo
team officials:...team head coach Danny Dichio...assistant coaches Gianni Cimini and Luciano Lombardi
...equipment manager Kevin Murphy...therapist Kevin Halford

FC London (black socks and shorts, white shirts, green numbers)

...................1 Anthony Sokalski
2 Dominic Szyszka...42 Aaron Schneebeli...4 Sandro Rajkovic...5 Mark Searjeant
6 Sean Fawsitt...10 Elvir Gigolaj (cpt)...44 Mohammed Reza Nafar...11 Christian Devia
..............14 Chad Gopaul...12 Alberto Barquin

Subs:...25 Connor Dalton (gk)...7 Zach Witt...9 Michael Marcoccia...17 Justin Wood
...18 Patrick Melo...23 Jonathan Kam...38 Cyrille Ndikizang
team officials:...team head coach Domagoj Kooosic...assistant coaches Edward Schmidt and Phillip Millar
...manager David Goigitzer

Game officials:...referee Fabrizio Stasolla...referee assistants Bradley Doubrough and Sean Simpson
...fourth official Pawel Horoczak...(yellow shirts, black shorts and socks)

1st Half:...game starts 1:01pm...TFC defend west end on this cold and overcast afternoon with an extreme
gusty crossfield wind from the north.
3 min...TFC player makes long throw-in into the box has defender clear.
4 min...TFC Beckford rush on left to end line and wins cornerkick on shot.
5 min...TFC Mandekic 22 yard freekick from right has goalie stop with hand while flying to top left corner
of net and defender cleare from left end line.
9 min...TFC Beckford has shot stopped.
24 min...TFC YELLOW card...Goalie Di Bennardo earns it for dissent by kicking the ball away from the edge
of the box after whistle.
25 min...FCL Gigolaj blasts 22 yard freekick from right edge of box well over net.
27 min...TFC Beckford is tapped centering pass and rolls 20 yard shot wide left of post.
30 min...TFC Furlano low freekick from 25 yards on far right is rolled to TFC player but shot is blocked
then headed to cornerflag.
32 min...TFC Ethan Beckford GOAL...Beckford is given pass for break-in
down center by TFC Dante Campbell and rolls 22 yarder past sliding goalie into right side of net.
35 min...TFC Ethan Beckford GOAL...Beckford beats goalie Anthony Sokalski
to the ball at 40 yard line, rounds him and shoots low 28 yarder up middle into
open net. TFC Matthew Srbely had given Beckford a pass upfield that
convinced the goalie to come that far out of his net.
40 min...TFC Nicholas Osorio GOAL...TFC Marko Mandekic gives crossfield
short pass to Osorio at 22 yards and he blasts shot into top left corner.
43 min...FCL Reza Nafar is tapped ball in box getting away and shot and gets
up and taps pass to FCL Fawsitt who blasts 12 yard shot on far right well over net.
46 min...Half ends 1:47pm.

Halftime: It starts to rain but stopped before the second half started. I took shelter under
an awning. There was no canvas tent brought out to the officials' table so no sound system
was set up and that meant no national anthems, music nor game announcements were made.

2nd Half:...starts 2:05pm.
48 min...TFC Dias rush on left and 20 yard shot has goalie stop at 15 yards.
49 min...TFC Campbell blasts 22 yarder from right that goalie catches at 7 yards as he falls.
51 min...FCL sub...Witt replaces Searjent.
53 min...FCL goalie is trapped by two TFC players on a bad backpass and TFC Beckford strips him
of ball on right end line and cross into 6 yard box has retreating defender chests down and clears.
54 min...TFC Osorio low cornerkick from left is cleared in box on right.
56 min...TFC Mandekic slides to clear centering pass over own net to prevent FCL tap-in.
58 min...TFC YELLOW card...Osorio earns it for dissent after being called for a hand-ball near FCL box.
59 min...TFC Beckford rush up middle spins to get away from defender and 15 yarder is saved by goalie.
61 min...TFC Nicholas Osorio GOAL...TFC Nikola Stakic feeds ball up the middle
at center line for TFC Dante Campbell to run up the middle and tap ball
around goalie at 15 yards for Osorio to shoot 15 yarder from left into empty net.
64 min...TFC Dante Campbell rolls pass to TFC Nicholas Osorio who's tripped
up in the FCL box and referee Fabrizio Stasolla calls a Penalty kick.
65 min...TFC Ethan Beckford GOAL...Beckford blasts a Penalty kick to his left
which flying goalie gets a hand to but only pushes it to the left corner of the net.
68 min...TFC sub...DaSilva replaces Osorio.
.........TFC sub...Muenkat replaces Beckford.
75 min...FCL sub...Kam replaces Reza Nafar.
77 min...TFC sub...Castillo replaces Sakurai.
78 min...TFC Furlano low crossfrom 20 yards on left has FCL Witt clear over own net.
78 min...TFC Mandekic cornerkick from left is caught by goalie in crowd of players.
79 min...FCL Wood replaces Barquin.
80 min...FCL Gigolaj and Devia work ball to edge of box with multi passes but group of four defenders
swarm them and clear.
80 min...TFC Daniel DaSilva GOAL...TFC Steven Furlano taps pass at center line
as he's being upended and DaSilva races down the middle, dekes diving goalie
at 10 yards and taps ball into open net.
83 min...TFC YELLOW card...Srbely earns it for tripping charging goalie out of box.
84 min...FCL goalie catches chip shot from 15 yards.
85 min...TFC Muenkat rolls pass across box and TFC DaSilva blasts 15 yard shot off
underside of bar but ball stays out and goalie picks up on bounce.
86 min...TFC sub...Maurutto-Robinson replace Furlano.
89 min...FCL Witt recovers poor TFC back pass but takes off-balance 18 yard shot well wide right.
91 min...TFC Campbell long rush on right and pass to TFC Muenkat but goalie slides out injurying him grabbing ball.
93 min...game ends 2:53pm.

Final Score:....Toronto FC III.......6.......FC London........0.......

Attendance varied with the weather conditions but peaked at about 60. It was
overcast, very cold, and extremely windy. It also started to drizzle at halftime
but had stopped before the second half started. Parkas were worn by everyone
except the on-field players and officials. Tomorrow is the first day of May! I took
my pass off from around my neck as the wind caught it a few times and slapped
me in the face. No sound system was brought out today and the corner flags
were allowed to stay blown over.

For my notes, a play would have to be pretty special for me to pry my mitt
off to write it down so my more detailed notes are not going to be
a play-by-play.

Filippo Di Bennardo earned the shutout for TFC in a very easy game. An L1O
tweet revealed that FCL didn't have one shot on goal. The TFC defence was
solid with 2016 league-leading scorer Elvir Gigolaj and captain
Christian Devia being held to very few chances.

There wasn't too much to learn strategy wise on a day like today except
keep the ball low so it doesn't get caught in the wind. The wind was
strong and from the north which was cross-field so it didn't give either
team an advantage in either half. Both teams were caught offside
quite a few times.

A security guard answered me that it's been three weeks since the winter
bubble had been taken down leaving this field turf open to the elements.
The FCL players never adapted the entire afternoon while TFC settled down
after a few atomic crosses. TFC have changed their parka colours to gray
and black so their subs didn't need to wear pinnies while warming up.
I was wearing last year's red (thanks again Jason Bent!) so the ref
requested I put one on and I wrestled for a few minutes to get it
on in the wind.

Best non-scoring chances were at 5 minutes when TFC Marko Mandekic
took a 22 yard freekick from the right that had the goalie fly over to the
top left corner to get a hand to and a defender cleared behind the end
line. 43 minutes had FCL Mohammad Reza Nafar get tripped up in the
TFC box getting away a blocked shot but got up and tapped the ball
to FCL Sean Fawsitt who blasted a shot from 12 yards on the far right
well over the net.  53 minutes had the FCL goalie trapped by a bad
backpass with two TFC forwards on him in the box. TFC Ethan Beckford
stripped him off the ball and crossed to the center of the box but
a defender got back in time to head the ball away. 85 minutes had
TFC Glenn Muenkat roll a pass across the box and TFC Daniel DaSilva
with an open net blasted a 15 yard shot off the underside of the bar
but the ball stayed out and the goalie picked it up on the bounce.
89 minutes had FCL Zach Witt recover a poor TFC back pass but his
off balance shot from 18 yards was well wide right. Injury time had
TFC Dante Campbell have a long run up the right and center a pass
to Muenkat but the goalie slid out to the edge of the box
to grab the ball and Muenkat fell over him injuring himself.

TFC got off to a slow start last year before finishing strongly. This year
rather than being their U-17s, they are referred to as U-19s and so most
of the players I recognized from last year's roster. With TFC not operating
a PDL team this year and their USL team stacked with foreigners,
the Academy team is staying together at the T1O level. An FCL official
before the game was telling me how much their roster has changed from
last year by now being filled with U-21s but I didn't risk pulling the
game rosters out of my bag for fear they'd blow across the field.

The two teams' return match is Friday night August 25 at the German
Canadian FC Stadium Field. I've been to 'Cove Road' years ago and
maybe FCL can ensure an extra helping of mosquitoes for revenge
against today's game.

FC London captured the Western Conference title last season with
TFC Academy (their name last year) finishing third. Sigma FC
finished second.

Toronto FC III will be back here next Sunday at 1:00pm for a home
game against Sigma FC. Those two teams have a rivalry for who can
put the most grads into the MLS. Sigma's most famous grad Kyle Larin
is expected in town on Wednesday night for Orlando City's game
against Toronto FC at the MLS level.

Strange that in the parking lot at The Hangar and in then in my own
driveway right after the game the wind was only a third of the
speed of the KIA field.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
@RocketRobin01

Toronto FC III starters