June 6, 2017 League 1 Ontario Match Recap: Woodbridge Strikers vs OSU Force (from League 1 Ontario website)

Match Recap: Woodbridge Strikers 4 - 0 OSU Force
06/05/2017, 5:45pm EDT
By League1 Ontario staff

OSU Force jumped out to an early lead over Woodbridge Strikers on Matchweek Six after 
a fantastic Marco Natoli (27') free kick, but Strikers showed their league-leading class 
by coming back and winning 4-1. 

"We have been working on trying to finish," said Woodbridge head coach, Peter Pinizzotto. 

"I keep saying we have a lot of skilled players but we seem to struggle in the last 
third of the field. We should have put this team away much earlier, we had a lot 
of breaks with 4-3, 1v1, and one player had a whole side of the net open 
and missed completely." 

"We kept Ottawa in the game this way," he added. 

"I give credit to Ottawa because they played three games this week, including 
a Cup game and a lot of travel, but we should have put them away. They had a chance 
to tie and we should have taken advantage earlier and not been in that position." 

Christian Cavallini (31'), Kyle Watson (35'), Stefano Voci (78') 
and Michael Krzeminski (85') loaded up the Strikers goal account as the game 
went on, and moved Strikers into first position in the east division, and first 
overall in the men's league with a record of 6-0-0.

"I think overall we do have a good squad, with good quality players, and that 
is one reason why this team is able to win games consistently," said Pinizzotto. 

"We have a lot of players that played at a decent level in the past and that quality 
is evident here, such as our keeper Quillan Roberts [formerly of Toronto FC]." 

"He has made a big impact on our team. He makes the big saves when we need 
it and keeps us in the game. He made two big saves today, one after the other, 
and I would say that he is another big reason why we are doing so well this season. 
We have a keeper in the back that the team have a lot of confidence in."

Despite the lop-sided final scoreline, the match was decided in the final twenty 
minutes following a double-save by Roberts that seemed to kick-start the Strikers.

"The scoreline maybe doesn't tell the story, but at the same time I think 
we failed big-time in the last twenty minutes on transition," said Ottawa 
head coach, Traian Matheas. 

"The desire to track back and recover has to be there. If you want to score 
a goal and tie the game, you must be ready to run, get goal-side and get numbers 
up when defending. I felt we didn't do well in this part of the game."

"Now we need to sort out in training why this is happening - is it fitness, 
a desire to run, a matter of passing back and making a run forward. We need 
to identify the root cause and correct that in training." 

After a promising three match run to start their season, Ottawa has lost their 
last pattern of three. 

"It is the quality we have faced recently, no doubt about it," said Matheas. 

"I was very doubtful about the results after the first three games because 
it was the first time we've seen League1 in Ottawa, but these last three 
or four teams have been very strong and we have to get prepared and find a way, 
with young players, of getting a better result." 

"The group we have is very young, anywhere from 18-21. The pace, transition, 
working for each other, it's a brand new team and all of these things take 
a bit of time." 

Woodbridge Strikers will next play Vaughan Azzurri on Saturday June 10 
at McNaughton Turf, Vaughan. 

OSU Force will next play North Toronto Nitros on Sunday June 11 
at Varsity Stadium. Toronto. 

back to 2017 League 1 Ontario Men's index

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