May 19, 2018 League 1 Ontario--Masters FA Saints vs Windsor TFC game review (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Saturday May 19, 2018 League 1 Ontario game between Masters FA Saints and Windsor TFC
played at L'Amoreaux #1 in Scarborough at 8:00pm.

Masters FA Saints (all red uniforms, white numbers)

......................1 Spiridon Koskinas
18 Johnson Jonathon Amoo...5 Marc Jankovic...2 Adam Czerkawski...3 Jayden Meikle
70 Jose De Sousa...8 Sahjah Reid...90 Josue Jaramilio...10 Jose Melo
.........30 Rohan Ricketts (cpt)...14 Reshaun Walkes

Subs:...2 Damon Johnson-Holder...4 Justin Robertson...6 Eddy Davire...12 Antoine Paul
...13 Evan James...17 Bradley Fenton...99 Gregory Chac
team officials:...team head coach Rick Titus...managers Junior Groves and Stephen Blackburn

Windsor TFC (all white uniforms, red numbers)

..................22 Adam Cesare
19 Martin Torres-Lopez...5 Brendan Woodfull...8 Korede Adepitan...2 Derrick Amankwa
7 Cristian Mayorga (cpt)...4 Brydon Caesar...13 Kyle Leon...10 Leonardo DaSilva
...........3 Davide Dipoce...11 Stefan Milidrag

Subs:...6 Chad White...12 Fiston Mumbere...15 Ameen Rashid...16 Surab Akbari
...18 Trueman Lam
Team officials:...team head coach Zibby Piatkiewicz...manager Vancho Cirovski

Game officials:...referee Marco Ristic...referee's assistants Tyler Tonet and Jerome Watts
...fourth official Joey Filipic...(yellow shirts, black shorts and socks)

First Half:...game starts 8:01pm...MFA defends sourth end on this mild and mostly overcast
evening but the temperature is cooling rapidly, The field is wet from the earlier rain.
4 min...W Caesar rush down middle from center line and shoots 30 yarder up middle has goalie
catch under bar.
6 min...MFA Reid run up right and rolls pass when 1 on 1 with goalie sends ball over
to MFA Ricketts who from 8 yards on left rolls shot that hits outside of left post with
entire open net.
11 min...MFA Walkes intercepts pass at 50 yards up middle but has defender catch him on edge
of box preventing shot.
14 min...MFA players have been burned on at least three offside calls so far usually on the edge
of the W box.
15 min...W goalie catches MFA Reid's quickly taken freekick from 45 yards.
16 min...W Dipoce rolls cross from right to center for W Milidrag who rolls left for W Mayorga
to blast 25 yard shot well over bar.
20 min...W goalie is out to left to beat MFA Ricketts to ball and dribbles and clears.
21 min...MFA Walkes low shot across box from 8 yards and goalie tips ball to right. MFA De Sousa
blasts 12 yarder from right that's blocked by defender.
22 min...MFA Melo blasts 20 yard shot through crowd of players high and wide right.
23 min...MFA goalie is out to top left of box to smother ball ahead of W DaSilva.
26 min...MFA Melo is tapped back pass and blasts low 25 yard shot wide left.
27 min...MFA Ricketts chips pass forward from 50 yards over players and MFA Reid midair shot
from 18 yards is wide right of net.
29 min...MFA Walkes is found in alone with no offside flag up and shoots 18 yarder over bar.
30 min...W Dipoce chips 40 yarder from left over players and goalie catches.
33 min...MFA De Sousa from 35 yards on right threads pass forward and to left but no MFA players
run for it and goalie picks up ball on bounce.
33 min...Masters FA Jose Melo GOAL...Melo intercepts pass at W 45 yard line and runs forward on left and takes
quick 25 yard shot that goalie Adam Cesare standing at 7 yard dives to left and ball hits him and pops up
and momentum carries it forward into center of net.
35 min...W goalie is out to edge of box to catch MFA Ricketts bouncing pass upfield.
36 min...W goalie is out of box to beat MFA Ricketts to through ball.
40 min...W YELLOW card...Dipoce earns it for delaying MFA Melo from taking quick freekick at MFA 40 yard line.
41 min...W Mayorga cross from 28 yards on right and MFA Jankovic heads ball from 10 yard preventing W players
from getting to it on left post.
42 min...W Mayorga cornerkick from right and jumping W Woodfull can't twist header at 2 yards on right post
and pops ball over bar wide left.
44 min...MFA Ricketts rolls pass from right side of box to MFA Reid on left who rolls 8 yarder but defender
stops it and clears.
45 min...half ends 8:46pm.

Halftime Entertainment: There's a parent and child 'Win It In A Minute' challenge. The prize is an MFA retro jacket.
It's a contest where the winner is the first person to hit the crossbar from the penalty spot in the south end.
It takes awhile to rustle up some contestants but finally there are four combos. The parents start out with their
child fetching the ball. A father hits the bar within a minute for his daughter. I learned something! Just because
Masters only has a team in L1O Men's Division does not mean they don't have girls in their academy. They do I realize
after checking out their website. (Sigma and Toronto FC are two I can think of that are boys only).

Second Half:...starts 9:03pm.
47 min...Two W players miss scissor kick attempts on same cross from right into MFA box.
49 min...Masters FA Jose De Sousa GOAL...MFA Jose Melo checks W player off ball at W 30 yard line in middle
and rolls pass to right for De Sousa who dribbles forward to right edge of box and shoots around defender
blocking him and ball is also around goalie at 6 yards aligned with right post and catches left corner
of net on bounce.
54 min...W Leon recovers partial block and low 18 yard shot from left smothered on left post by goalie.
55 min...MFA Czerkawski is back to stop W Dipoce from getting shot.
56 min...MFA Jaramilio is injured on edge of MFA box and needs trainor.
57 min...MFA sub...Dabire replaces injured Jaramilio.
58 min...MFA De Sousa chases pass down right line and goalie is over to kick ball out of bounds then
races back to goal to protect from quick throw-in.
59 min...MFA sub...Fenton replaces Walkes.
60 min...MFA Czerkawski makes key header in box to break up crossed pass from right.
61 min...MFA sub...James replaces Ricketts. De Sousa becomes captain.
63 min...Masters FA Joey Melo GOAL...MFA Jose De Sousa is given pass on right at 25 yard line and runs
forward. The goalie charges to right side of box and dives at 12 yard to block shot. De Sousa jumps
over goalie but he had already rolled centering pass from 8 yard line that was behind an MFA player but
Melo runs across box from left and shoots low 12 yard shot down the middle between two defenders into
the left side of the net.
65 min...W DaSilva on charge up middle for bounced pass but overruns ball and can't win his plea for defender
hand ball.
67 min...W DaSilva can't win freekick call at MFA 25 yards when tripped and W Dipoce gets to loose ball and
shoots 20 yarder justr over top left corner of net.
68 min...MFA goalie makes incredible flying save to get hand to stop ball on left post.
69 min...W Mayorga 35 yard freekick from left is between players on right side of box and over end line.
71 min...W Dipoce on left passes around MFA Jankovic on left end line but another defender clears ball
in 6 yard box.
71 min...MFA De Sousa pulls up lame at W 40 yard line.
72 min...MFA sub...Robertson replaces injured De Sousa. Melo now becomes captain.
73 min...W goalie beats MFA Meikle to pick up ball on left side of box.
74 min...MFA goalie makes overhead catch of cross from right.
75 min...W DaSilva blasts 25 yarder up middle on bounce well high and wide right of net.
78 min...W Mayorga rushes for pass on left and crosses from 20 yards that's through box unplayed.
78 min...W Mayorga 40 yard freekick from left is into crowd of players on right side of box and defender
heads away.
81 min...MFA sub...Paul replaces Meikle.
83 min...Masters FA Bradley Fenton GOAL...MFA player at 80 yards clears ball downfield and charging
MFA Evan James gets to bouncer at W 30 yards. Retreating defender on edge of box shoves him forward
as he's lining up shot and he falls forward at 15 yard line. Defender and goalie look at each other
expecting a possible Penalty kick call but James hops up and gets to ball and takes 17 yard shot that
goalie bats away and ball deflects out to Fenton who blasts 20 yard shot down middle under sprawling
goalie at 7 yards and into center of net.
84 min...MFA Czerkawski makes key header to stop cross from left into box.
84 min...MFA goalie catches cross from right just under bar on top left corner.
84 min...MFA Fenton low 22 yard shot between players is wide left.
85 min...W sub...Rashid replaces Leon.
86 min...W sub...Lam replaces DaSilva.
87 min...W goalie beats MFA Reid to pick up through ball pass on right.
88 min...W goalie out to 30 yards to clear ball.
89 min...MFA goalie catches bouncer before charging W Lam can get to it at 5 yards.
91 min...W player's cornerkick from right has defender head ball away. W Dipoce lofts 25 yard shot over
player in box wide right.
92 min...W goalie catches 30 yard shot sent between players up middle.
93 min...MFA Fenton cross from 20 yards on left has W Caesar head ball for cornerkick.
94 min...MFA players cornerkick is passes around to kill time.
94 min..game ends 9:52pm.

Final Score:...Masters FA...4.......Windsor TFC......0......

Attendance was about 40 on this mild night with the temperature cooling after the sun went down.
The field turf was damp from the rain that fell in the afternoon.

Referee Marco Ristic gave out only one Yellow card to each team (the MFA card listed on the league
webpage I didn't even notice). He didn't fall for any pleas for Penalty kicks and mostly let
the players play unhindered. MFA players and officials didn't like the referee assistants for
the number of times they were burned on offside calls. I'd counted three by the first fourteen
minutes and that continued the rest of the first half.

Masters head coach Rick Titus was not pleased with his team's play in the first half. Even the
team's surprise first goal didn't satisfy him as he was still telling them off for a play seconds
earlier when De Sousa had threaded a pass across the field into the box and no teammates made
a run for it so it was an easy pick up for the goalie. The team performed much better in the
second half. I was impressed with the speed and dribbling skills of teenager Reshaun Walkes but
he must have been the player called for the most offsides this game.

Masters ended up with three captains tonight. Rohan Ricketts started but when he left
at 61 minutes he gave the armband to Jose De Sousa. When De Sousa pulled up lame at 72 minutes
and needed to be subbed out, he gave the armband to Joey Melo.

Ricketts played for Toronto FC between 2008 and 2009 after a long career in England. His time
overlapped with Melo who was with them as a local player between 2007 and 2009 although
he is seven years younger than Ricketts.

Spirodon Koskinas earned the shutout for MFA. He had a few stops to make of a few overhead
crosses but was well protected by the backline of Johnson Jonathan Amoo, Marc Jankovic,
Adam Czerkawski, and Jayden Meikle. If one defender was beaten, the man behind him was there
to head away or clear the ball.

Windsor had come to play with five subs. It's a good five hour drive to the GTA and they
appeared to have no team bus. There has been some articles from the league that Windsor
will not be using players that will disappear to NCAA schools in August like last year leaving
them with some trips with no bench at all. Still they have only two players who have played
in their four games this season—leading scorer Stefan Milidrag (2 goals) and defender
Korede Adepitan. Stars of last year Jamar Kelly (their other goal) and Michael Pio did not
make the trip. They didn't get around to making any subs until the 85 and 86 minute mark
so I'm not sure that's a comment on the strength of their bench tonight.

Windsor used goalie Adam Cesare for the first time this season. He was quite aggressive
with ventures not just to the edge of the box to cut off angles and pick up balls but outside
it too. There was one play where he came over to the right sideline to boot a through ball
out of play and his clearance hit the fence so he had to race back to his box to beat
the ensuing throw-in.

Best chances for Windsor were few but at 42 minutes Cristian Mayorga took a cornerkick
from the right and a jumping Brandon Woodful couldn't twist a header at 2 yards at the
right post and he popped the ball wide left just over the bar. At 47 minutes two Windsor
players missed connecting on their scissor kick attempts on the same cross into the MFA box.
Two minutes later and the MFA second goal put the game away.

L1O 2017 Young Player of the Year winner Cyrus Rollocks wasn't in tonight's Masters lineup.
He earned that honour while playing for TFC III.

I wasn't expecting at any L1O game tonight but the TFC II USL game was moved from BMO Field
to Charlotte North Carolina so the grass at BMO wouldn't be stomped up. This is the second
time this has happened this season (actually the third as the schoolday game was moved
to Monarch Park in eastern Toronto). TFC II lost 2-1 to continue their 0 wins, 2 ties,
in 10 games. I've been wondering if Rollocks could have moved up from TFC III if he'd
stayed and helped them score more goals than they have now.

Masters win their first game of the season. Their other two games have been ties.
This slingshots them up the table with all seventeen teams being mashed onto one table
but with two other games going on tonight and two more tomorrow it's hard to figure out
their position. Windsor's record falls to 0 wins, 1 tie, 3 losses which must be near the
bottom. You use be in eighth or better to continue playing after the third week of Setpember.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
twitter @RocketRobin01

Masters FA Saints players