August 31, 2024...League1 Ontario Scrosoppi FC vs ProStars FC game report (by Rocket Robin)

......................

Result and details of the Saturday August 31, 2024 League1 Ontario Men's Premier Division game between Scrosoppi FC
and ProStars FC played at Zanchin Automotive Soccer Centre (formally Ontario Soccer Centre) 2:00pm.

Scrosoppi FC (all black uniforms, white numbers)

.............................1 Jared Maloney
5 Tristan Marshall...14 Nathaniel Susnik...16 Matthew Paiva...2 Marcus Channer
..........11 Faris Ammari...6 Joshua Parades (cpt)...27 Matias Cortes
..........18 Khody Ellis...8 Tomasz Skublak...20 Jacob Carlos

Subs:...99 Robert Barkman (gk)...4 Brayden Borutskie...7 Omari Cotterell...9 Noah Dedomincis
...10 Michael Crocco...12 Luke Rankin...13 Manveer Gill...15 Tyler Martins...22 Danial Rafisamii
team officials:...head coach John Yacou...assistant coach Manuel Corona...goalkeeper coach Shayne Griffin
...athletic trainer Uros Urosevic...physiotherapist Michael Wong...kitman Julien Brown-Latham

ProStars FC (white socks and shirts blue shorts and numbers)

.............................1 Sunny Dhaliwal
..........14 Lucas Doros (cpt)...6 Santiago Ubate...5 Raffaele Pisani
18 Tomas Joseph...15 Mashhood Rehman...7 Justin Cabral...22 Edric Velazquez
...........8 Bradley Ogbevuon...20 Darrian Sinclair...9 Kyse Majel

Subs:...29 Justin Quiroga (gk)...2 Gabriel Graterol...3 Sebastian Witko...4 Paolo Vaiano
...10 Jacob Nogueira...12 Michael Romano...21 Jakub Pyziak
team officials:...head coach Danny Costa...team manager Emilio Vaiano...physiotherapist Antonio Petrolo
...other Noah Costa

Game officials:...referee Kevin Kim...referee's assistants Joey Filipic and Petros Vasilos
...fourth official Mahboob Gulestani...(red socks and shirts, black shorts)

First Half:...game starts 2:02pm...Scrosoppi defends north end.
2 min...Scr Carlos steals ball off PS Doros at 22 yards on left and breaks in for 8 yard shot blocked point blank by sliding goalie
and ball spins wide left.
2 min...Scr players work out short cornerkick from left and ball is crossed high over box and wide right for cornerkick.
4 min...Scr Skublak pops ball over defender on rush but bounces to goalie at 12 yards on right.
6 min...Scr Ellis runs to ball up on right and cross through 6 yard box is unplayed.
7 min...Scr Marshall on rush on right pushes ball over end likne jostling with PS Majel.
9 min...PS Majel cornerkick from left has nearest defender on left side of box is headed away.
11 min...PS Ogbevuon has bounced cross find him on left and his low shot from 12 yards bounces to goalie.
11 min...Scr Carlos on left of box is checked off ball at 10 yards.
12 min...PS pressure ends when player shoots 20 yard roller wide left of net.
16 min...PS Sinclair gets pass on 1 v 2 but gets shot from 18 yards on slight left that flying goalie pushes wide left.
17 min...PS YELLOW card...Pisani earns it for body check on Scr player running down right sideline at 35 yard line.
19 min...Scr Ammari finishes Scr pressure by poking 10 yard loose ball in middle high wide right.
20 min...PS Ogbevuon roller from 25 yards between players and smothered by goalie.
20 min...PS Ogbevuon rush down right and on 1 v 1 rolls ball across box but no one is there.
23 min...Scro Marshall high cross from 20 yard line on far right is high and wide left of net.
23 min...A water break is called.
25 min...play resumes.
26 min...Scr Marshall puts in cross from right on run and PS goalie makes point blank save on Scr player's 12 yard shot. Scr Skublak
finishes play with 10 yard shot high and wide right of net.
27 min...Scr Paredes high cornerkick from right is over two leaping Scr players on left post and it sails over end line for goalkick.
27 min...Scrosoppi Tomasz Skublak GOAL...Skublak on breakaway from 40 yard line is behind defenders and takes 20 yard
shot that hits inside of right post and deflects over to just behind left post so behind the goalline for a goal.
31 min...Scr Marshall is given pass behind defenders and 15 yard shot has goalie fly left to make stop and defender clears.
31 min...PS goalie in crowd of players leaps to catch high freekick from the left.
32 min...Scr Joseph cross along 6 yard line from right has Scr player not able to stop ball to take shot.
34 min...Scr player's cornerkick from left has Scr Cortes shot saved and rebound is whistled down in box.
37 min...PS Sinclair rush down left and cross along 15 yard line is cleared by defender on right side of box.
39 min...Scr Marshall low cross from 25 yards on right is bounced to goalie.
44 min...PS Ogbevuon cornerkick from right is low and cleared. SCR Ellis is injured in box and needs trainer.
47 min...Scr Channer ends pressure with low 25 yard shot is deflected for cornerkick on left.
48 min...SCR Carlos cornerkick from left has defender leap to head away on left side of box.
49 min...half ends 2:51pm.

Halftime: Some Scr subs stay on field to practice, others go to locker room with their team. The PS subs stay out.

Second Half:...starts 3:08pm.
halftime subs:...Scr Barkman replaces Maloney as goalie.
..................Scr Dedomincis replaces Ellis.
46 min...Scr Ammari has two low crosses just outside of left side of box blocked.
46 min...Scr Skublak taps ball over to Scr Ammari who has 20 yard shsot stopped by ball spins out for cornerkick.
47 min...Scr Ammari 25 yard chip is headed high from left through Scr players and just wide right of post.
48 min...Scrosoppi Jacob Carlos wins Penalty kick when a defender knocks him down on his second try to dribble into
the right side of the box in the past three seconds.
49 min...Scrosoppi Tomasz Skublak GOAL...Skublak rolls Penalty kick to right side of net as goalie Sunny Dhaliwal
is already diving left.
50 min...Scr sub...Crocco replaces Ammari.
50 min...PS Joseph chips from right bounces over left end line.
51 min...Scr Marshall is injured at Scr 40 yard line and needs trainer. The players sneak in a water break.
53 min...play resumes.
53 min...Scr Dedomincis run down right side and he centers ball for Scr Skublak to shoot 20 yard roller up middle wide left.
55 min...PS Ogbevuon high cross from 25 yard line on right that's out over left end line.
56 min...PS sub...Witko replaces Pisani.
............PS sub...Nogueira replaces Sinclair.
57 min...Scr Skublak rush to left for ball which he crosses low to right side of box. Scr Dedomincis charges to ball but taps centering
pass that's cleared.
59 min...PS YELLOW card...Cabral earns it for argueing a freekick call.
...........PS YELLOW card...Joseph earns it for the foul itself which I hadn't noticed. *I may have gotten these two players mixed up
in their parts of the incident.
60 min...Scr Carlos 22 yard freekick from slight left is into player wall.
62 min...PS sub...Pyziak replaces Cabral.
65 min...Scr Dedomincis receives pass on right pushing ball forward to Scr Marshall and his cross from right end line is cleared.
67 min...Scr Marshall makes big headed block of cross from left and goalie catches recross on near post.
67 min...Scr Skublak and Scr Dedomincis tangle up on getting to pass at PS 25 yard line. PS Velazquez suffers leg injury on the play
and needs trainer.
69 min...PS sub...Graterol replaces injured Velazquez.
70 min...play resumes.
71 min...PS Ogbevuon gets pass on right and rolls pass a step ahead of PS Nogueira and ball rolls wide left of net.
72 min...PS sub...Romano replaces Ogbevuon.
73 min...Scr Dedomincis rolls pass to Scr Skublak who tries to pass to Scr Carlos but defender intercepts.
73 min...Scr sub...Gill replaces Carlos.
74 min...Scr Skublak finishes Scr player's high cornerkick from right that's headed into box from left but partially cleared
with shot cleared.
75 min...Scr Skublak runs ball over right end line when on 1 v 3 play in PS box.
76 min...PS player's 35 yard freekick down middle has PS Joseph get ball and have shot from 18 yards that was blocked then
a second attempt stopped by diving goalie. PS Majel has his 12 yard rebound saved.
80 min...PS Majel feeds through ball pass to PS Nogueira at 20 yards up middle who shoots and flying goalie bats shot to left
at 8 yards where it was cleared.
82 min...Scr sub...Martins replaces Cortes.
82 min...Scr Marshall can't win Penalty kick on rush into right side of box. A throw-in was given.
85 min...PS Joseph cornerkick from right has defender head away and PS player's 22 yard shot is blocked.
88 min...Scr multi-player pass play ends up knocking ball over PS end line.
89 min...Scr Crocco 12 yard shot from left on run is stopped by diving goalie. PS Witko clears rebound from 4 yard line.
92 min...Scr Martins shoots 18 yarder low and down middle and is stopped by goalie.
94 min...game ends 3:57pm.

Final Score:.....Scrosoppi FC..............2.............ProStars FC...........0.........

Attendance started off slow but after halftime actually picked up to about 250 people on this very hot, sunny, and humid day. Every fan knew this could be the game that won Scrosoppi the title but within the last week Scrosoppi games have all been relocated to the Zachin Automotive Soccer Centre. Their game Wednesday night (A 1-0 win against Alliance United) was to squeeze it onto the schedule after a thunderstorm cancellation from the last weekend in June. Their game this coming Wednesday against Burlington for a postponement from two Sunday's ago can also be explained as field availability but right from the schedule coming out, this game was to be in Milton 45 km away and at 7:00pm. Glad that this many fans showed up.

The ProStars goalie Sunny Dhaliwal kept them in the game during the first half with some point blank saves. The soccer dad sitting beside me said to his young son that 'if it wasn't for the goalie, it would have been 3-0 by now'...He revised that to 5-0 at the end of the first half. Scrosoppi then wanted to score and took one too many passes to set up or put their final shot off target looking for that perfect goal.

Jared Maloney and Robert Barkman shared the shutout for Scrosoppi. Each played one half with Maloney starting the game. I don't recall any injury but it might be squad rotation because they've had a lot of games to make up recently. Barkman is also listed as only age 17 so if the team is in trouble with not enough under age 20 minutes this would be a way to squeeze some in. Also a good resume builder “I shared a shutout in the game that won my team the league title...”

Referee Kevin Kim gave out three Yellow cards (all to ProStars players). Two of them were back to back at 59 minutes for either a foul which I missed and argueing the freekick call...or both for argueing the call! He also called a water break at 23 minutes. There was also an improvised one at 67 minutes when PS Edric Velazquez went down with a leg injury and needed the trainer. By the time they got a subbed inserted before the restart three minutes later, everyone who wanted some water a gotten some.

So there we go. Scrosoppi won the league title with one game to spare. They were always near the top but because they had played two or three games less than Vaughan Azzurri at some points of the season, they looked they were always the second place team. Both teams only lost once all season but Vaughan two more ties in their results.

The match commissioners had to erect a aluminum column in case Scrosoppi won today. It was somewhat like a pop up tent with a bolt missing which would then have a champions canvas stretched over it for Scrosoppi players to pose under with their medals and trophy if they won today.

Scrosoppi officials unpacked a box of black t-shirts for their players that had the SFC logo on one side and '2024 League One Champions' on the other when it was time to collect their medals. They'd also brought a box of 100 scarves that were to be given away at the gate to the first fans who got here.

Photographer Martin Bazyl who takes pictures for this league among others said he received a call to get over here as they would need him to take pictures when it became clear Scrosoppi would win. Also Scrosoppi head coach John Yacao wasn't listed on the bench today did get here in time to receive a medal. I asked him about his absence and it was his commitments to TMU (university) that made him late. Last night I saw him when I went to watch L1O North Toronto vs Alliance United at Downsview Park and he was helping TMO Women's team beat Trent University. TMU teams had two more games today. The North Toronto game was suspiciously marked as POSTPONED hours before gametime on the L1C app but it turned out it will go down in the books as a forfeit win for North Toronto as Alliance couldn't muster enough players with absences for schooling and stacking their U-20 teams etc.

Scrosoppi's record improves to 15 wins, 5 ties, 1 loss for 50 points with one game to go. They are second best at scoring goals 51 to 55 for Vaughan but lead the lead in goals against with a microscopic 12 against. Hey that one loss this season was against ProStars back at the end of June out in Brampton...I was there! Uhh more history.

ProStars finished their season today with a record of 7 wins, 3 ties, 12 losses for 24 points. They finish tenth in the twelve team league well ahead of twelfth place Hamilton (automatic relegation) and eleventh place Guelph United who will play against the Championship Division (second tier) runner up although that one was complicated by the fact that winners TFC Academy finished first but declined the promotion and in fact withdrew their participation in League1 Ontario because of pressure from the American MLS NEXT Pro forces who have created a new tier to finish their pyramid for their next season.

Medals given out? Yes. Well let's clear the field. Players you can pose for pictures with the trophy in Locker Room 13 as now the field will be used for the Pickering FC vs Scrosoppi FC L2 men's Pro/Rel Playoff at 5:00pm!
(Late news: Scrosoppi FC 2 wins promotion to the Championship Division next season which means they are only one division below their main team). They won 6-2 against the Championship Division Pickering to take their place. Hey Barkman and Maloney each played one half in goal with Maloney starting this game as well.

Rocket Robin
robin.glover.1958@gmail.com
X @RocketRobin01

Scrosoppi FC starters