Sat August 20, 2016 League 1 Ontario--Pro Stars FC vs FC London (from League 1 Ontario website)

Gigolaj Hat-Trick Sets Tone In 5-0 London Win Over Pro Stars
08/22/2016, 12:45pm EDT
By League1 Ontario staff

FC London's Elvir Gigolaj (30', 32', 53') brought himself within one goal 
of Sigma's Leaford Allen at the top of the Golden Boot race after depositing 
a hat-trick in Sunday's 5-0 away win over Pro Stars.

"We watched tapes of Pro Stars, and we saw that they like to press high, 
and that their defensive line likes to go really high up and follow 
the attackers," said FC London head coach, Mario Despotovic. 

"So our strategy was to have an overload of players in the middle so that 
we can build up the game with no pressure in the back, and then exploit 
the space behind them." 

Teammate Randy Ribeiro (55', 90') claimed a brace of his own, while keeper 
Anthony Sokalaski added his seventh clean sheet of the season.

"I think some of the players might have a future in Europe," said Despotovic. 

"We already sent a player two weeks ago to a tryout in Portugal, 
now another one I think will go to Dubai. We have some interest from 
Europe so I hope that the players don't lose their focus and just 
continue to train. If they train like this for a long period of time 
then some opportunities will show up."

Pro Stars head coach Stivon Mikhail indicated that his organization 
was currently vetting a new group of younger players, and had plans 
to increase their player pool moving forward.

"We fielded a very very young squad today, as most of the players 
we have had returned to university," he said. "In the first half we were 
pretty content with the way they played. Of course, again, there 
were mistakes, disorganization in the back, and our midfield was 
pretty much non-existent so it made it easy for an organized team 
like London to expose us."   

"What we are planning to do going forward is to bring in more players 
and have them all train within our system - from U16s to U20s," he added. 

"I think next season will be much different than this season. 
This season we were faced with a lot of variables that we were not 
prepared for, and we're they type that tries to learn from our 
mistakes and hopefully next season we'll have it organized."

FC London has played 15 matches of a 22 match season and 
is on 34 points and in second place in the west division. 
Leaders' Sigma FC are on 38 points from 18 matches.  

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