February 26, 2016 Toronto FC II--Fury FC scores first pre-season win with dramatic finish (from www.ottawafuryfc.com)
Fury FC scores first pre-season win with dramatic finish Newcomers Gerardo Bruno and Dennis Chin lead Fury past TFC II Feb 26, 2016 By: Sinisa Sindik A little magic from two of Fury FC’s new additions lifted the club to a 2-1 victory over Toronto FC II on Friday. With Fury playing its first official pre-season game on the road, a perfect ball from trialist Miles Byass in the dying minutes met the head of Dennis Chin as the Fury forward dove to make contact and secure the result on a play that started with a nice pass from Fury Academy player Zoom Langwa from the left flank. Fellow newcomer Gerardo Bruna gave Fury the early lead, firing the ball into the bottom left corner on a penalty kick awarded after Paulo Junior was taken down on a breakaway after intercepting an errant TFC pass. Fury head coach Paul Dalglish was pleased with his side’s effort in its first real test of the pre-season. "It's always nice to start your first 90-minute game with a win," said Dalglish. " It was great to test ourselves against people that are fitter than us, it makes us push a little harder. For us, to find a winner at the end showed great character and it fills me with great hope going forward." Dalglish was also happy with the number of chances Fury created in the first half. Though it took a few minutes for Ottawa to get settled in the game, once they did there was some impressive soccer on display. Moving out of the tighter confines of the practice pitch at Gatineau’s Complexe Branchaud-Briere, the wider field was key to Fury’s success in this one. "The manager wants us to play in a system which requires space," said Bruna. "It was good to play on a bigger field. We were able to combine better and use the width to our advantage." Other than the goal conceded in the 85th minute, Fury was rock-solid defensively. That included some timely interventions by goalkeeper Romuald Peiser, who played 60 mins before being substituted for Andrew MacRea, and some great tackles from 2015 NASL Best XI defender Rafael Alves. Kyle Venter proved himself as a valuable addition on defence as well as one of two players to play the full 90 minutes, along with midfielder Mozzi Gyorio. "It was a step-up in intensity from our last scrimmage against the academy,” said Venter. "Most guys got 45 minutes which is really good. Now we want to keep building that endurance so by the end of the preseason we are ready for 90 minutes of high intensity game." Fury FC will return to Ottawa before leaving for Arizona on Sunday for their third week of training camp that will include fixtures against Indy Eleven and Real Salt Lake Academy.
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