April 30, 2018 League 1 Ontario--Toronto FC III vs FC London (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Sunday April 29, 2018 League 1 Ontario game between Toronto FC III and FC London played at BMO Training Ground in Downsview at 1:00pm. Exactly one year ago these two teams were matched up to kick off the season. The weather was cold and extremely windy—this site was the former military airport on the outskirts of Toronto. TFC III ran away with that game 6-0...more as the team that was more used to practising in windy conditions and that the visitors switched to a mainly U21 roster for the first time after playing in the PDL for years. I was expecting the game to be outside on the field turf just beside the main building doors. It was someone had the foresight to NOT take the dome down this late in the year. (this time last year it had been dismantled three weeks earlier). We had an ice storm just two weeks ago! Key moments: 59 minutes FCL Randy Ribeiro rolls his Penalty kick wide right of the post with goalie Gianluca Catalano beaten. (That makes TFC teams 3 for 3 on Penalty stops this weekend with TFC and TFC II pulling off this feat yesterday) 67 minutes TFC Shaan Hundal GOAL...TFC Kai Martin crosses from 20 yards on the right into the box and Hundal blasts an 8 yarder down the middle into the top right side of net past goalie Anthony Sokalski.
[Twitter said #7 Luca Petrasso assisted which I didn't know but I asked Hundal directly after the game and he said Martin (#2) so I'll go with that]. 81 minutes FCL Patrick Melo GOAL...FCL Randy Ribeiro blasts freekick up middle from 30 yards and the ball takes a few deflections and Melo on the left blasts a 10 yarder into the top right corner of the net over the flying goalie. 93 minutes had TFC Petrasso elude a challenge on the right end line and get away a 12 year shot that deflected off a defender and the goalie smothered the loose ball on the right post.

Final Score:...Toronto FC III.....1.....FC London.....1..... This was a rough game with referee Brandon Krampert giving out eight Yellow cards (three to TFC III). They were all earned in that they were all rough challenges or sliding tackles or strategic to prevent break outs and break ins. It was TFC Kai Martin who knocked over FCL Connor Wilson who was breaking in from the left but Wilson was fast enough he got into the box before the collision and that's what earned the FCL penalty kick instead of a Yellow and freekick with more than a dozen players in the box. Martin made up for giving up the penalty with the assist while Ribeiro's assist made up for his missed penalty kick. Some of my questions last night were answered about the TFC II roster. Unused subs Luca Petrasso (brother of Cdn Nat team and Montreal Impact player Luca Petrasso) and Steffen Yeates were both starters in today's game. Danny Dichio is back as head coach again this year. Benoit Cheyrou who was hailed in yesterday's TFC game was listed as an assistant today although he is officially the coach of their U-17 team. Defender Kembo Kibato has joined the TFC roster this year. Last year he was named as a L1O Third team All-Star while playing with North Toronto Nitros—a team that did not return to L1O this season. He could be a discovery player like Raheem Edwards who was with ANB Futbol for two seasons before they stopped fielding L1O teams and he crossed over to the TFC system. TFC III have dropped last year's defender and captain Steven Furlano who landed at new team Darby FC and scored their lone goal today in a 1-1 tie against Woodbridge. They also dropped forward and last year's L1O Young Player of the Year Cyrus Rollocks with 17 league goals last season. Rollocks scored a goal last night for his new club Master's Futbol in their 3-3 tie against Aurora. London had mostly players I've seen last year except leading scorer Elvir Gigolaj who is no longer listed on the league website. They have a new head coach in that Michael Marcoccia who coached the women's L1O team last year has now also taken over duty for the Men's team—try that John Herdman! Marcoccia played for the L1O team up until 2016 and goes back years to the London City of the CPSL where he was so valued that the club had a full sized decal of him on the side of the team bus. Attendance was about 200 that I say may not have been consistent as TFC was hosting an open house for the London TFC Academy which includes a relationship with the FC London team and people kept coming and going. There were a lot of children and many of them girls. FC London are the current L1O Women's League and L1O Cup Women's Champions. When FCL scored the tying goal the place exploded in squeals as if Justin Bieber had just come out for a concert. Hmm he's been going for ten years, maybe I should have used younger guys like Rae Sremmurd? (nah they drop the 'B' and 'N' words too often), Greta Van Fleet? (nah it's old guys like me who say they're the new Led Zeppelin). I couldn't blame them as London is their home. There's a good chance some in their L1O lineup work at their academy camps. TFC have a similar relationship with Windsor TFC. Providing coaching, training, and clinics which TFC can use as good scouting for teenagers that can be funnelled over to the TFC Academy. Also cynically building support could make it more difficult to plop a Canadian Premier League team in those cities. FCL turned in a lineup with no numbers assigned between players. Apparently the jerseys had just arrived. I was expecting a variation of TFC all-reds because of their relationship but they were black on white with sponsor 'Libro Credit Union' on the chest. Similar to last year's away kits without the neon green numbers. This was the opening game of the season for both teams as it's the first weekend for both men's and women's play in League 1 Ontario. With the all the weekend results now known including two other ties, TFC III and FC London are in a six way tie for sixth place with one point in the new seventeen team, single table league. Each team plays the other once. Top eight advance to a two groups of four playoff. Winners of the two groups play for the championship. The BMO Training Ground was renamed from the KIA Training Ground a few months ago. Because today's game was held indoors I didn't see from the outside if they've pulled down the KIA car emblem from the side of the building and replaced it with the bank logo. I lucked in to not having to watch this game in the cold and windy outdoors but was I ever going to make up for it tonight for the inaugural game of Alliance United at Centennial College in Scarborough. Rocket Robin robing@eol.ca Twitter @RocketRobin01

Toronto FC III starters