Sun July 24, 2016 League 1 Ontario--North Toronto Nitros vs Toronto FC Academy (from League 1 Ontario website)

Strong Second Half From Toronto FC Academy Topples North Toronto
07/25/2016, 5:30pm EDT
By League1 Ontario staff

It was a clash between two of the league's form sides on matchweek twelve 
as North Toronto Nitros hosted Toronto FC Academy at the University 
of Toronto Varsity Field. 

"We were going for the win," said North Toronto assistant coach, Ilya Orlov. 
"We knew what their style of play was and we knew how they were going 
to play. In the first half we did well, tactically, but in the second 
half they outplayed us and completely deserved the two goals in the 
second half. We simply were not good enough in the second half." 

The Nitros started with purpose, and Abdallah Elchanti (42') capitalized 
first at the end of the half, though North Toronto could have had 
several more goals through their dominance of the first-half play. 
The lack of goals would come to haunt them.

"We were familiar with their style of play, and we knew they would 
be hard in the tackle," said Toronto FC Academy head coach, 
Stuart Neely. "We were expecting everything that came at us today, 
but what we did not expect was our first half performance. It was 
a very weak performance and frankly the keeper made two or three 
quality saves to keep us in it." 

"We came out much better in the second half."

Toronto FC Academy's Dante Campbell (53') would signal the change 
in momentum with his equalizer just after the break, capitalizing 
on some defensive errors to slide home the opener past GK Mark Rogal.

"We noticed at half-time that they were tiring, as were we, 
but they more so than us so we felt that was an opportunity to get 
some fast-break attacks, move the ball quickly and attack their 
back-line," explained Neely. 

"We started hitting some key passes at key moments and getting 
opportunities. We left ourselves exposed a few times mid-way through 
the second half, but I think we did well in the end."

It was the Junior Reds again just before the full-time whistle, 
as Andranik Kagramanyan (90') put away the match winner. 

"It just goes to show the difference between a team in the professional 
environment and one in elite amateur, in a physical sense," said Orlov. 
"They were quicker and their football actions were better as the game 
went on." 

back to 2016 League 1 Ontario Men's index

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