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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