July 8, 2018 League 1 Ontario--Sanjaxx Lions vs Ottawa South United Force game review (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Sunday July 8, 2018 League 1 Ontario League game between Sanjaxx Lions and Ottawa South United Force
played at Monarch Park Stadium in Toronto at 2:00pm.

Sanjaxx Lions (yellow socks and shirts, navy shorts and numbers)

..........................31 Rodolfo Aguiar
17 Kemar Rowe (cpt)...18 Joel Anderson...22 Aaron Reeves...3 Demario Phillips
13 Nicholas Charles...12 Stefan Nikolic...8 Cristiano Alves...14 Atif Hammud Ali
..........23 Morgan Copeland...2 Evan Sarginson

Subs:...1 Tayjon Campbell (gk)...4 Drai Gordon...9 Andrew Gordon...11 Nathaniel Rodney-Scarlett
...15 Leonardo Crescenzi...16 Israel Perrin...20 Ahmad Al Jarah
team officials:...team head coach Laza Lowe...assistant coaches Devon Porter, Ramon McIntosh, Remberto Luna
...manager Nicoletta Bonafede

Ottawa South United Force (all white, black numbers)

...........................1 Jared St Thomas
8 Ian Kerr...24 Haider Kadhom (cpt)...15 Turner Johnson...21 Kwabena Bempong
10 David Chung...18 Barou Junior Mbuyamba...4 Aidan Tuck...6 Hansly Malonga...7 Myles Cornwall
.........................17 Eric Watson

Subs:...12 Kirk Moody (gk)...5 Max Izzat...14 Kristopher Gamache...16 Kaweke Sophas
19 Johnny McDonald...20 Cameron Cappelli...22 Mathew McCaroon
team officials:...team head coach Peter Mapendere...assistant coach Jay Bhindi...manager Hassan Osama

Game officials:...referee Filip Dujic...referee's assistants John O'Hara and Tyler Tonet
...fourth official Alexis Vaughan...(all black uniforms)

First Half:...game starts 2:00pm...Lions defend east end. There's a bright sun in the south on this hot afternoon.
2 min...Lions Rowe 50 yard freekici chip down middle is caught by goalie.
4 min...OSUF Chung low 22 yard cross from right has defender near right poist stop ball and clear.
4 min...Lions Sarginson low cross from 25 yards on left has defender kick away.
8 min...Lions Nikolic short cornerkick from left to Lions Phillips and his 20 yard shot from left is caught by goalie.
10 min...Lions Nikolic spins around and low 20 yard shot from right is smothered by goalie.
13 min...Lions Nikolic freekick from 30 yards has goalie palm ball over net.
14 min...Lions Nikolic cornerkick from left is low and through box. Lions Phillips blasts 22 yarder through crowd
of players and over net.
15 min...Lions Nikolic cornerkick from right is short to Lions Charles who sends ball back to Nikolic and his 25 yard shot
from right is blocked by defender.
20 min...Lions Nikolic cornerkick from right is low and partially cleared. Nikolic eventually gets the ball back but rolls
it over end line as he's trying to deke defender.
25 min...OSUF Tuck 35 yard freekick from left has OSUF player pop up header on edge of box but defenders clear.
26 min...A water break is called.
28 min...play resumes.
31 min...OSUF Mbuyamba recovers Lions goalie's clearance and 30 yard shot down middle is wide left.
33 min...Lions Alves 30 yard short in middle is between players but shot is well wide left.
35 min...OSUF Chung feeds through ball up middlle but goalie charges forward to 15 yards to kick clearance.
37 min...Lions Nikolic cornerkick from right has defender flick header across box and Lions Reeves bicycle kick from 12 yards
has defender head ball away near right post.
38 min...OSUF Chung cross from 30 yards on right has Lions rowd make key header to clear between two OSUF forwards in box.
39 min...Lions Phillips 35 yard shot after run on right is well wide left across box.
41 min...Lions Ali rescues cross on left sideline and 28 yard shot is caught by goalie.
45 min...Lions sub...Gordon replaces Sarginson.
46 min...Lions Phillips blasts 30 yarder up middle is just over bar.
47 min...half ends 2:47pm.

Second Half:...starts 3:02pm...The weather and the sun are unchanged. Now OSUF is forced to looke into the sun.
46 min...Lions Phillips run into right of boxx and sharp low cross has defender conced cornerkick.
47 min...Lions Phillips high cornerkick from right has Lions player shank midair shot on left edge of box.
47 min...Lions Nikolic low cross from right has OSUF Kadhom in middle of box make clearance.
48 min...Lions Copeland pops header from 15 yards over net after receiving cross from right.
49 min...OSUF Tuck cornerkick from left is through three OSUF players jumping on right post.
50 min...OSUF Watson 35 yard shot from slight left is well high and wide right of net.
51 min...Lions Nikolic touches through ball forward but goalie beats Lions Phillips to pick up ball at 8 yards.
53 min...Lions Anderson blasts 45 yard shot up middle well wide right.
54 min...OSUF Tuck races with intercepted ball but 40 yard low shot from left bounces to goalie.
56 min...Lions Nikolic flicks through ball header from 25 yards to Lions Gordon and his 15 yard shot has goalie
parry wide right.
57 min...Lions Reeves 30 yard shot is between players up middle is caught by goalie.
58 min...Lions Gordon cross from right has Lions Phillips not able to turn header at 7 yards.
59 min...Lions work out short cornerkick from right but ball is cleared outside box.
59 min...Lions Ali high cross from left is partially cleared and Lions Gordon shot is pinballed off defenders.
60 min...Lions sub...Crescenzi replaces Alves.
.........Lions sub...Perrin replaes Ccopeland.
63 min...OSUF Tuck cornerkick from right is over players in box and OSUF Johnson heads 8 yarder from left wide
left of net.
65 min...Lions Charles rush up right and low cross is through box. Lions Gordon stops it and turns and fires
low 12 yard shot that goalie goalie catches.
66 min...Lions Phillips run on right and backheels pass and Lions Nikolic shoots low 15 yarder from right that's
saved by diving goalie on right post.
67 min...Lions goalie is injured charging out to dive on ball and OSUF forward slides into him. The players on both
take an improvised water break but are called back by the referee.
69 min...Lions Crescenzi 33 yard freekick from right bends to right corner and goalie smothers.
72 min...Lions Gor4don centers from right to Lions Crescenzi and 15 yard shot down middle is caught by goalie
in center of net.
73 min...now an official water break is called by the referee.
75 min...play resumes.
76 min...OSUF Cornwall 25 yard low shot from left is just wide right of post.
77 min...Lions Anderson blasts a tapped back pass from 30 yards well high and wide left of net bouncing ball off
truck trailer in endzone and over the fence.
78 min...Lions Ali long run up left and cross from near cornerflag is caught by goalie.
79 min...OSUF Cornwall has OSUF Watson hit shot off him when on knees after a hit so he was immediately ruled offside
in the box.
81 min...Lions YELLOW card...Charles earns it for pulling down OSUF Cornwall at Lions 30 yard line on right.
82 min...OSUF Malonga freekick from 33 yards on left is caught by goalie. OSUF Tuck had faked kick. OSUF Kadhom can't
get in front of screen shot.
83 min...OSUF Cornwall rush down left holds off defender and cross from 15 yards hits Lions Reeves and deflects back to goalie.
85 min...OSUF Kadhom is called on hand ball and that wins Lions Penalty kick on Lions long cross from right to left side of box.
86 min...Lions Atif Hammud Ali GOAL...Atif Hammud Ali blasts Penalty kick to right corner of net past flying goalie.
89 min...OSUF sub...Gamache replaces Watson.
92 min...Lions Gordon rolls ball to Lions Phillips and he shoots 22 yarder wide right of goal.
94 min...game ends 3:51pm.

Final Score:......Sanjaxx Lions.....1......OSUF.......0.........

Both teams have won only once this season after six games. I was surprised how Sanjaxx dominated for most
of the game keeping Ottawa pinned in their own end for long periods of time. To not score was not surprising
as Lions had only tallied three goals in league play. Defensively they have only allowed a respectable
seven goals against. The crowd of about 25 was coming to expect a scoreless draw when at 85 minutes,
OSUF defender Haider Kadhom was called for a handball by referee Filip Dujic on a long Hail Mary cross
into the box. Atit Hammud Ali blasted the Penalty kick to the right corner of the net past the flying goalie
Jared St Thomas. Rodolfo Aguiar earned the shutout for Sanjaxx with one official save per the league website.
OSUF had brought a full bench but made only one sub. Maybe expecting a blowout which they've often been
victim too the reserves all except the goalie were under 21 and since they were in the game competitively
right until the end that the coach kept the more experienced starters on until the end.

This was not a rough game. Referee Filip Dujic called a lot of freekicks but only game out one Yellow card
and that was a professional foul for dragging an OSUF player down on a run into the Sanjaxx box.

League stats give Sanjaxx the edge in shots at 16 to 7 but more important in shots on goal as 9 to 1. Hmmm
that did make Aguiar's shutout seem that much easier. I saw Lions other goalie Tayjon Campbell earn a shutout
against Sigma FC out in Mississauga on June 9th but Campbell practically stood on his head to preserve a tie
and that is the only points that Sigma has dropped so far this season. Defence = excellant, Offence =
needs work to push them up into the top tier.

I asked a team official what time they left Ottawa to get here. He said 6:30am and they arrived at 11:30am
surprised at how light traffic was. I'm sure the ride back will feel worse not being able to get a result.

The result flips Sanjaxx over OSUF in the standings. Now that the rest of the weekend results are known,
Lions have moved up to a tie for eleventh with a record of 2 wins, 4 losses, 1 tie for 7 points. That's an
upswing from fifteenth before this weekend round of games started Saturday night. OSUF are in a three way tie
for fourteenth with a record of 1 win, 4 losses, 2 ties for 5 points. They have a game in hand on Aurora FC
and Pro Stars FC who have one more loss each.

I drove here rather than taking transit and that was so I could drive to Birchmount Stadium in Scarborough in time for another L1O
game between Toronto Skillz and Darby FC starting in less than an hour. I did not know until I read the linescores Monday night
that today's goal scorer Atit Hammud Ali also must have made the trip as he played in the CSL league game scoring a goal for
Scarborough SC in their win against previously undefeated FC Vorkuta. Looking at the Scarborough roster online I see the
manager is Kiril Dimitrov who scored a goal for Unionville Milliken on the Saturday night I attended.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
twitter @RocketRobin01

Sanjaxx Lions starters