July 18, 2017 League 1 Ontario--Match Recap: North Mississauga Panthers vs Masters FA Saints (from League 1 Ontario)

Match Recap: North Mississauga Panthers 2 - 3 Masters FA Saints
07/18/2017, 10:15am EDT
By League1 Ontario staff

Masters FA Saints scored two goals early off the feet of Jose Melo (27') and Shawn Brown (38') to get 
an unreachable lead and ultimately beat hosts North Mississauga Panthers 3-2 at the Hershey Centre.

"We had a slow start, which was unfortunate," said North Mississauga team official, Patrick Guirguis. 
"We got caught on their first two goals off the counter. We were flat-footed and those two goals 
really set the tone for Masters in the first half for sure." 

"We made some good adjustments at half-time, got a quick goal back and made it 2-1," he added. 
"The boys really stepped up and got themselves back into the game."

"It was unfortunate that Masters got the third goal, but once we got the second to go only one 
behind again - the game was up for grabs." 

North Miss did pull back into the contest in the second half, finding successful strikes from 
Mujtaba Ameen (53') and Bradley Fenton (76'), but Masters' Jose De Sousa (62') split their tallies 
with one of his own to hand the visitors all three points.

"It was an easy game to manage in the beginning, and a difficult game to manage in the end," 
said Masters head coach Rick Titus. 

"They have a lot of pace in the wing positions and it caused us a little heartache when they 
were going over the top or playing balls diagonally through our lines. It was causing 
us some problems." 

"The first goal allowed us to manage the game a little bit more easily and control the rhythm 
of the game," he added. "We were allowed to control the pace of the game in the first half, 
which was critical because they began to play very well in the second half."

Titus said it's back to the drawing board for his team to work on closing down the opponent 
before it can find gaps for the long ball. 

"Our finishing was very good tonight and our defending wasn't the best in areas where they 
could play over the top," he said. 

"We gave them a little too much space in the backline to survey our backline and pick out holes 
over the top. We'll have to work on pressuring a bit higher as a team and not allow the other 
team to pick us apart with long passes."

North Miss have had good performances against all sides this season, and shown an ability 
to push even the biggest teams to the wire, but have struggled to stitch together results, 
gaining only three wins and two draws from 12 matches.

"It's not that it's been a bad season, I think we just need to get consistency," said Guirguis. 

"The more we are consistent in training and in game-play, the more we can be consistency 
in results. We need to make sure when we make changes that we are getting that consistency also." 

North Mississauga Panthers will next play Toronto Skillz on July 23 
at Birchmount Stadium, Scarborough.

Masters FA Saints will next play TFC III on July 22 at L'Amoreaux, Scarborough.

back to 2017 League 1 Ontario Men's index

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