May 8, 2017 League 1 Ontario Match Recap: Vaughan Azzurri vs Toronto Skillz (from League 1 Ontario website)
Match Recap: Vaughan Azzurri 3 - 2 Toronto Skillz 05/08/2017, 2:15pm EDT By League1 Ontario staff A back and forth match in Vaughan eventually ended up as a 3-2 victory for the Azzurri over visitors Toronto Skillz with Vaughan's Jarek Whiteman (43', 79') potting an all-important brace. Vaughan Azzurri had jumped out to an early lead after a Mario Kovacevic (7') goal, but Skillz came back through Liam Cox (31') to tie it up just after the half-hour. Jarek Whiteman's first goal restored the lead just before the interval, but Mario Ramalho (45') brought parity again for the Skillz and set the stage for a determined performance from both sides in the second half. "We let them back in," said Vaughan head coach, Carmine Isacco. "We scored in the sixth or seventh minute of the game and I thought we should have put the foot on the pedal and got a few more but we were sloppy. A lot of individual mistakes, and we just need to be better." "Credit to them, they dug in and fought hard, but with the amount of depth and talent that we have we shouldn't have been complacent. But again, credit to them. They worked hard, fought hard, pressed hard and were organized. At least we found a way in the end." Amid some tough weather conditions, and up against the league's defending champions, Toronto Skillz head coach Tiger Fitzpatrick was impressed with his team's ability to come back on two occasions, and indicated there were some tactical flourishes at play as well. "We switched a few things but I can't show my hand too much because we play them again on Tuesday night," he said. "For the most part we had a strategy going in and both the goals they scored early were off our mistakes, so we just made adjustments according to that and not really in terms of formation and stuff." "We scored the goals based on the strategy we had going in, in terms of how we set up and how we wanted to attack them. I think the biggest thing for me, the biggest takeaway was that ability to come back from being down on two occasions." "Coming off that loss last week, once the first goal went in today it would have been easier for the players to just go into the tank. Against these guys, in these conditions, the fact we were able to fight back twice - that showed me something about our mentality and our mettle moving forward." Vaughan's Jarek Whiteman ultimately put the game away with just over ten minutes remaining, handing the Azzurri their first victory of the 2017 season. Isacco also revealed there were some tactical adjustments at work, and that some major improvements needed to be made to the team's performance. "We did make some tactical adjustments," he said. "We saw that they played a little higher than usual, and we thought we could get behind them quicker with a 4-4-2 and Jarek did but missed a breakaway right off the bat. We got in behind a few more times, so it was more like a 4-2-4 transitionally and gave us a little more width." "I think the adjustment in the middle made a difference as well. Dena [Iezady] came in and made a difference physically and winning second balls, which was important for us. So we adjusted, and I think that adjustment was more with players than the system, but we are blessed with a lot of good players." "They have to put the work in and do what it takes to win and we barely did this week. Hopefully we will pick up from there and get better. We have too much individual sloppiness in possession," he commented. "Coming out of the back we are atrocious, even just our spacing when we come out of the back. Our ball movement in the defensive third, coming into the middle and final thirds, was awful. We really need to work on coming out of the back faster, crisper, and doing those things well. We'll go from there." Vaughan Azzurri and Toronto Skillz meet again Tuesday May 9 in the first round of the 2017 L1 Cup at Monarch Park, Toronto.
back to 2017 League 1 Ontario Men's index
.
.