Sat July 30, 2016 League 1 Ontario--Pro Stars FC vs North Toronto Nitros (from League 1 Ontario website)

  
Elkinson Brace The Difference In 3-1 Nitros Win Over Pro Stars
07/31/2016, 3:15pm EDT
By League1 Ontario staff

North Toronto Nitros returned to winning ways with a 3-1 result over 
Pro Stars on Saturday afternoon at the Ontario Soccer Centre. 

Abdallah El Chanti (10') put the Nitros up early, but Pro Stars'
Maan Slewa (20') clawed one back for the home side, punishing 
a Nitros error.

"At the end, three points is important and after we had a bit of a fall 
last week after a good run of games we needed to bounce back," 
said Nitros assistant coach, Ilya Orlov.

"First half we started well. They scored a goal off our mistake, 
but second half we changed a couple things." 

The Nitros' signature defensive industry and organization paid 
dividends in the second half, as the team turned the screw on the 
Pro Stars defence, creating valuable interceptions and leading 
to an increased quantity of counter-attack opportunities. 

"I thought we started off fine, but then to be honest with you 
I don't know what it was - humidity, heavy legs, too much training 
this week - we just got really heavy and started becoming slow," 
said Pro Stars assistant coach, Stiven Mikhail. 

"Our backtracking was non-existent and our middle was absolutely 
left wide open." 

Bermuda international and former Toronto FC player 
Killian Elkinson (53', 84') took advantage of the opportunities, 
bagging a brace that brings his total to seven goals 
in 474 minutes - a impressive strike ratio of a finish 
every 67 minutes. 

"Killian, our striker, definitely provided us with the quality 
we needed up top today," said Orlov. 

"It was a very hot day, and playing in the afternoon made 
it exceptionally hot, but we kept up the intensity well," 
he added. "We changed a couple things and began pressuring 
higher up and winning the ball higher up the field, which 
helped us." "

Also when we got the lead, we kept the ball really well, 
kept it moving and saw the game out."

Pro Stars' Mikhail was ultimately disappointed in his team's 
defensive organization. 

"We really need to learn how to tighten up," he said. "I don't 
know how many training sessions I need to keep running 
on being compact, but we're going to keep doing it until 
we get it right."

"We may get zero goals a game until we get it right, but 
we need to learn how to play a zero zero match before 
we can build." 

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