April 29, 2018 League 1 Ontario--Match Preview: Oakville Blue Devils v Toronto Skillz (from League 1 Ontario website)
Match Preview: Oakville Blue Devils v Toronto Skillz 04/29/2018, 3:00pm EDT By League1 Ontario staff The fifth League1 Ontario season starts with a bang this weekend, featuring 14 matches across the men's and women's divisions. In Game 12 of Matchweek 1, we're off to the home of the 2017 champions as Oakville Blue Devils take on Toronto Skillz: Oakville Blue Devils begin their title defence at Sheridan College against Toronto Skillz on Sunday April 29 (4 p.m.). Players: Oakville Blue Devils Coming off the high of winning their second League1 Ontario Men's Championship in 2017, the Oakville Blue Devils' head coach Duncan Wilde sat down to discuss the 2018 side ahead of their late-April home opener against Toronto Skillz. "I think the biggest message is that we think we have added to and complemented our squad," he said. "I pretty much have my core group returning, I haven't lost any big names." "Khody Ellis has been our MVP for the past two years and he has looked good in preseason training thus far," he began. "He's unfortunately carrying a bit of an injury so he may not play in the opener, but I think he has been in pretty much every League1 All-Star team over the years." "Filipe Vilela is another one, and he's just had a very strong tour to Bermuda," said Wilde. "Scored a very good goal against the national team. He's trained well, looks sharp and we can use him in a variety of ways." "Taylor McNamara, our captain returns," he added. "He's another one that had a great tour in Bermuda, he's our leader on the pitch, and he's almost like an extension of me on there organizing everyone." "We have Karman Saini back in net. He was with us when we won League1 in 2015 and he has returned from playing in Europe. So Karman and Matt George are fighting for a starting spot." "I have three or four new players as well and the first one is Marco Gennaccaro," he revealed. "If I'm not mistaken, he played for McMaster and was in the North Miss League1 program at one stage. He has come in well-recommended and he can play a variety of roles for us. He's trained well and travelled to Bermuda with us, and we liked what we saw. He gives us cover and complements us so we're happy with that." "We signed a player from Japan called Sakho, but that's just his nickname," said Wilde. "We signed him in March and he's a central midfielder that brings something different than what we've had before. He breaks up a lot of plays for us and gets us restarted and he gives us good cover in that area of the pitch." "And Stephen Ademolu is back," he concluded. "He travels some distance to be a part of the team, but he comes in as an impact player for us and I think he is the strongest impact player in the league. I think every team would like to have that for the final 20-30 minutes and we used him and Khody to great effect in the final. He brings a lot to our locker as well." The Blue Devils have been on point for months, organizing the squad and structuring plans for an exciting and historic summer ahead. 2018 marks the first year that Canadian DIII champions have been integrated into the Canadian Championship competition. "We've got good depth with 26-27 players in the first team pool and they have done a lot of work, which is good because we really do have a crazy few months upcoming," explained Wilde. "We have the Canadian Championship beginning in June, the defence of our title, and we also want to focus on going deep in the L1 Cup." "We need the depth we have coming through from our U21 squads as well and so the whole squad is looking about as good as we could have expected at this stage." "It's been a good but long preseason. We hope we're ready but you never know until the whistle blows." Toronto Skillz Toronto Skillz has two years under their belts in League1, and despite struggling for results over that time - the team has stuck with a policy of bringing through academy products. Can all that experience and youth pay off in the season ahead? League1 caught up with Toronto Skillz owner, Jake Doodnath, who shed some light on the 2018 squad. "The team has been very focused in training and worked very hard to improve our on field performance from last year," he said. "We do have young squad with a lot of talent." "We do have players such as Wadohi Fadul who have come through our academy and played in League1 for the last two years," he added. "In addition we have players such as Spiros Koskinas and Michael Jahshan who played in our inaugural season before spending a year playing in Sweden." Objectives: Oakville Blue Devils "The priority for me is to defend our league championship," said Wilde. "That's the priority that I see as a head coach, to do it again and qualify for the National Championship again in 2019." "What we want to do with our big squad is to try and prepare our first eleven in the league and open cup environment for the first games of the Canadian Championship," he said. "Once early June is here, all of our attention turns to those first games versus AS Blainville." "We'll prepare match by match for everything, but our main focus is to defend the league championship, do well in the open cup and to challenge the national championships as best we can." "It's a great time for the Blue Devils with all of these important games, and as well the launch of our women's program. We now have home games at Sheridan College every Sunday throughout the summer." Toronto Skillz "We are very excited heading into the 2018 season, we learnt a lot of lessons in the first two years which has helped us in preparing for the upcoming year," said Toronto Skillz' Doodnath. "All of our players are working hard and really focused on having a good season and hopefully have chance to move on to the next level, whether it is the CPL or in Europe." "We are very excited to be playing our first game against the defending champions and it will give us a good measure of where we are as a team." Prediction: How can you bet against the defending champions on their home opener? They only lost twice last season. The champs have been to Bermuda on a pre-season training camp, playing the club national champions and the national team in the process. Oakville's squad is pretty much fully intact from last season and they've added a few intriguing new parts as well. Remains to be seen for Toronto Skillz, in their third League1 season now, if they've learned from mistakes in the past and begin to reap the rewards of having such a young group gain experience in the league during that period. We certainly hope so, and getting a result in this match would be as big of an upset as they get. Result: win for Oakville.
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