June 1, 2024...League1 Ontario Men's Premier Division...Sigma FC vs Woodbridge Strikers game report (by Rocket Robin)
Result and details of the Saturday June 1, 2024 League1 Ontario Men's Premier Division game between Sigma FC and Woodbridge Strikers played at Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga at 2:00pm. I will be posting pictures, logos, and more of a play-by-play about this game in the next few days. 21 min...Woodbridge RED card... Exosse Kadiebue earns his second Yellow card in 3 minutes for complaining about a goalkick bcall when the ball rolls over the Sigma end line. He had just picked up a Yellow at 19 min with a late foot-in on Sigma Ali El Zeir. 45 min...WS Gianluca Condello and Franz Mella work a play upfield and a chip into the box hits arm of Sigma Andres Delascio Velasco. Referee Hassane Rifai awards WS a Penalty kick. 46 min (1st half)...WS Joe Mac blasts Penalty kick low to slight right and goalie Dino Bontis dives to make a save and a defender clears the rebound. 71 min...WS Sebastian Cochrane sends in cornerkick from the right that is knocked around in the box and cleared. A WS player was injured in the 6 yard box and needs the trainer. The referee, a referee's assistant and the fourth official consult on the sideline.Final Score:....Sigma FC.......0..........Woodbridge Strikers........1.........
Attendance grew to about 120 on this warm and sunny afternoon. I was timing the skies above and the airplanes were taking off from Pearson airport and flying across our field at 2 minute-or-less intervals. The club has invested in a new larger scoreboard which needs a table to lean on—not like last year's model that sat on the table but couldn't be read across the field without binoculars. Today's couldn't be seen though as the fourth official stood directly in front of the count up section. All times, including airplane takeoff frequencies were converted from my wristwatch. This game got rough at times with a few dust-ups between multiple players. Referee Hassane Rifai gave out three Yellow cards to each team. Interesting the Woodbridge ones were two to Exosse Kadiebue and the other to backup goalie Ezequiel Carrasco for something he said from the bench (he didn't play this game). This game was not what I was expecting. I have followed this referee from the top leagues before L1O started in 2014. Most games he lets a lot go with just a few words to calm the players down without a card. I was thinking that being a man up would finally be the break that Sigma needed to score just their third goal in six regular season games and pick up their first win. No luck! Even their Round of 16 L1O Cup game against second tier BVB 1A Waterloo on Tuesday at Tim Horton's Field was postponed because of storms and will be played this Tuesday instead. When I interviewed head coach John Zervos three weeks ago, he was still waiting for his NCAA players to join the lineup now that their schooling has finished for the summer but it looks like they will take a few games to fit in. My thinking also had Woodbridge at best hold on for their league leading fourth tie of the season and lose more points to the front runners. Nope! As their head coach Peter Pinizzotto answered in my interview last week, they had eight ties last year—the most in the league. Woodbridge had to change their strategy. It was a forward that was sent off so their backline of Keegan Wilson, Elijah Viet Le, Gianluca Condello, and Sebastian Cochrane withstood the onslaught blocking a lot of shots and forcing any that did get through to be off target or catchable crosses. Their offence was disabled and relied mostly on counterattacks. Woodbridge decided to not start their two goal scorers from Sunday night's big tie result against long time rivals Vaughan Azzurri but brought Ronaldo Marshall in a halftime and Ignazio Muccilli at 58 minutes. Dante Ferraro earned the shutout for Woodbridge with a few key saves including a few leaps for crosses into the 6 yard box. Dino Bontis made a save on one of the Penalty kick chances which is not a surprise to me as he has played for Canada at the CONCACAF U-20 championships in 2022 and three games for CPL Forge FC that same year and he will turn age 20 in a few months. There were four of the six Men's Premier Division fixtures played today with the other two tomorrow. With today's results now in, Sigma's record falls to 0 wins, 1 tie, 5 losses for 1 point and they are twelfth (last) in the standings. Looks like it may be a three team duel for relegation. The win improves undefeated Woodbridge's record to 3 wins, 3 ties, 0 losses for 12 points. That moves them into third place (two more L1O results tomorrow though). Remember last year in the two year weighted standings to decide the two tier split, they finished one spot below twelfth and were destined for the 'Championship Division' but for the folding of Electric City FC they stay to play top division soccer with a newly renovated stadium. Rocket Robinback to 2024 League1 Ontario menu
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