July 1, 2017 League 1 Ontario--Match Recap: FC London vs Toronto Skillz (from League 1 Ontario)

Match Recap: FC London 8 - 0 Toronto Skillz
07/01/2017, 7:00pm EDT
By League1 Ontario staff

Four goals for the 2016 League1 Ontario Golden Boot winner Elvir Gigolaj (14', 76', 80', 89') 
marked a watershed moment for FC London as they hammered Toronto Skillz 8-0 on their home patch 
at German Canadian Club, London. 

A brace from Sandro Rajkovic (50', 70') and singles from Connor Wilson (15') and Braeden Gee (90') 
capped a perfect day for London, with a clean sheet by Anthony Sokalaski as the cherry on the cake.

"Overall I'm feeling sorry for the opponent," said FC London assistant coach Eduard Schmidt. 

"They played many very good games and we analyzed them a lot. It is a compliment to them as well 
that we adjusted our game a bit. Usually we want to keep the ball all the time but their high 
pressing is quite good and there are other ways of course to exploit this."

"We had some players today that played a perfect game," he added. "We talked about scoring a lot 
of goals and with a group of players like we have you can have a performance like this." 

"That's really what we needed because in recent games we have missed chances with our finishing 
and we have had many draws in a row. Today we wanted to score as many goals as possible and that 
is why we adjusted our general strategy a bit. If you watch us you will see that we don't 
typically hit as many long balls as we did today, but usually the opponents are physically 
stronger than us, but today it was the other way around."

With his four goal haul, Gigolaj moved into a five way tie for second place in the 2017 Men's 
Golden Boot race with seven goals on the season.

"This was a very good game in terms of statistics, of course I put in four goals today, 
but I would say I played better last week against Woodbridge," he said. 

"I think we held the ball a lot better then and were more confident, but when three or four 
goals go in against a team it is normal that morale on that team falls and you will get a few 
more really good chances."

Toronto Skillz head coach Leslie "Tiger" Fitzpatrick thought his side started out well, 
but after conceding some goals at inopportune moments their momentum could not be sustained.

"I think we came in discussing the importance of having the right mentality, not letting 
adversity to get us down," he said.

"This was a tough team to play against last year. Even though results at the end didn't 
go their way, I always said this is one of the best teams in the league in terms of the way 
they play the ball, their combination play and they are very organized and disciplined. 
They have some experience on the field and you can tell the difference in levels between 
their experience and our youth." 

"We tried to start positive and then I think once we gave up the penalty we fell apart for 
about five to ten minutes and that set us back," Fitzpatrick continued. 

"Coming back from that we tried to adjust in the second half and get back into the right 
mentality but then an early goal, another penalty, and then shoulders drop. It became 
a matter of how quickly the clock could wind down for us." 

FC London will next play OSU Force on July 8 at MNP Stadium (Carleton University), Ottawa.

Toronto Skillz will next play Oakville Blue Devils on July 9 at L'Amoreaux.

back to 2017 League 1 Ontario Men's index

.

.