May 2, 2017 League 1 Ontario Match Recap: Toronto Skillz vs North Toronto Nitros (from League 1 Ontario website)
Match Recap: Toronto Skillz 1 - 5 North Toronto Nitros 05/02/2017, 12:15pm EDT By League1 Ontario staff North Toronto Nitros showed they haven't lost a step off their opening season form after taking all three points at Toronto Skillz following a 5-1 win. Braces from new recruits Lael Daniel (6', 21') and Mirza Custovic (52', 81') along with a single tally from Kyle Laborde-Arges (86') did the business for the Nitros, while their well-organized defense kept the Skillz to a single goal from Mario Ramalho (71'). "We were happy with the game," said Nitros assistant coach, Gary Fleming. "We've had a hard time getting the squad together because most of them go to university and have been in exams and stuff. But a lot of them played together last year so we just moved on with that." "We brought a couple new guys in, who actually scored a pair of goals each, so that was good to see. Basically I think they guys played to our gameplan, keeping possession, moving the ball to the flanks and keeping the ball on the deck, which was very important in this weather." Both sides had to deal with difficult conditions, with high velocity winds making it difficult to play or judge a ball in flight. "The weather may have actually helped us today because sometimes we have a problem getting them to keep it on the deck, sometimes they have a tendency to go with the long ball, but today the players knew the wind would affect that so they kept it down," explained Fleming. "If anything, the weather helped us." Toronto Skillz head coach Leslie "Tiger" Fitzpatrick revealed that his side had suffered some unexpected set-backs in the lead-up to the match. "We're disappointed," he said. "We put a lot of preparation into the start of the season and care into how we wanted to play and that, but in the last week we had some issues with players still being involved at school and some injuries. It kind of foreshadowed what happened here today." "That being said everyone in this team has a role and today I think we got beat in every aspect of the game, from the coaching all the way down to the individual players," he added. "So we know that and lucky for us it is just the first game of the season so we can only go up from here. We will take that part of this lesson and just continue to work hard and prepare." As an academy, Toronto Skillz is committed to providing opportunities for their youth graduates at the high-performance senior level of the game, but Fitzpatrick indicated the club was searching for the appropriate balance of their goals. "It has been one of the things we have gone back and forth on because obviously we are an academy and one of our goals coming into League1 was having a place where our young talent can move forward and get an opportunity to showcase themselves, so we are always trying to integrate some of the younger ones into the process," he said. "As well, we want to give some of the older ones a shot so that they can further their careers, so ultimately it is about getting the right balance to secure positive results as a team and with individuals, and improve on our place in the standings from last year." "Obviously we have aspirations to get into the top half of the table and from there seeing if we can challenge the top." Toronto Skillz will next play Vaughan Azzurri on Saturday May 6 at McNaughton Turf, Vaughan. North Toronto Nitros will next play Aurora FC on Saturday May 6 at St. Maximillian Kolbe H.S., Aurora.
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