May 2, 2017 League 1 Ontario Match Recap: Oakville Blue Devils vs Sigma FC (from League 1 Ontario website)
Match Recap: Oakville Blue Devils 1 - 2 Sigma FC 05/02/2017, 12:30pm EDT By League1 Ontario staff An early season tilt between two of the traditional top performers in League1 didn't disappoint as Sigma FC took a narrow 2-1 win over hosts Oakville Blue Devils on Matchday Three of L1O Kickoff 2017. "The conditions were difficult for both sides and you could see that," said Oakville head coach Duncan Wilde. "They had the better of the first half, and we had the better of the second half. They took the two chances that came along and we didn't get enough. We're disappointed because we thought we played very well for the last fifteen minutes of the first half and the entire second half. I don't think our keeper had anything to do in the second half." "We thoroughly deserved the goal we did get and we had two or three good chances in the last ten minutes. It wasn't our day, but it was a good game, really good pace to it, and an exciting game for a big crowd. We need to just come back to training now, prepare for next week, and go at it again." Sigma's Giuliano Frano (21' pen.) and Michael Matic (25') set the visitors apart from the Devils, who secured a comeback goal in the second half through Hitesh Joshi (68') but could not find the equalizer. Sigma head coach Bobby Smyrniotis was pleased with the early stage performance by his side, but felt there was room for improvement. "I think the first thirty minutes showed what we want to do on the field, to stretch the opponent, really get into the gaps in midfield and use the width to stretch the opponent in attack," he said. "I think our goals came from both those situations." "It's a tough field to play at, especially against Oakville who is a good organized team. It's a small field and there are a lot of challenges in the game from a physical aspect so we tried to open up the field and I think that worked really well for the first thirty minutes. After that, I thought the game became very choppy on both ends." Smyrniotis also felt Oakville came into the contest more and more so following the early lead, and indicated he made several tactical changes to manage the game. "I think Oakville had a very good fifteen minutes at the beginning of the second half when there was a string of maybe four or five corners in a row and they were really putting us back," he said. "We didn't have a good outlet and when we did we gave up the ball in transition in maybe three or four key moments in the attacking half and that allowed Oakville to keep the pressure on us." "We changed the game tactically, with some players off the bench and some things inside the field, and that allowed us to come out of transition better and make Oakville think about us as more of an offensive threat in the last twenty minutes." Both coaches felt the first league match for their teams did not show the best of their potential, and remarked on ambitions going forward. "Hopefully we'll have better results than last season," said Wilde. "That was a typical 2016 game for us where we dominate most of possession for the whole second half but can't get the goals." "We've got to have a better quality of final ball delivery and capitalize on the number of chances that we create. If we do that, we'll be fine. If we don't, it will be difficult again. We have to go to work on Tuesday and get ready for next weekend." "This was obviously the first game so we told the players it may not be pretty but it was important to come out of a very difficult place to play in with three points," concluded Smyrniotis. "We expected that from them and we expect going forward that our quality of football will get better and for our brand of fluid soccer to become more relevant on the field." Oakville Blue Devils will next play Windsor TFC Stars on Sunday May 7 at University Of Windsor Stadium, Windsor. Sigma FC will next play TFC III on Sunday May 7 at Kia Training Ground, Toronto.
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