July 29, 2022 League1 Ontario...Darby FC vs Electric City FC game report (by Rocket Robin)

.................

Results and details of the League1 Ontario Men's Premier Division game of Friday July 29, 2022
between Darby FC and Electric City FC played at Whitby Soccer Centre Dome in Whitby at 8:00pm.

Darby FC (all navy uniforms, white numbers, yellow trim)

..................1 Matt Zaikos (cpt)
44 Duncan Mitchell...2 Nicholas Axhorn...16 Colin Reilly...14 Jemuel Paul
.........7 Caleb Pierce...15 Cameron Brooks...13 Ethan Pierce
.........18 Marcellus Paul...8 Aaron Chia...10 Kashiff Dejonge

Subs:...22 Luigi German-Ribon (gk)...3 Russell Robertson...4 Alec Weller...11 Dylan Neill
...12 Andrew Saniga...20 Michael Maiorano...21 Hunter Closs...22 Luigi German-Ribon...47 Aaikam Nagpal
team officials:...team head coach Jens Kramer...assistant coach Billy Pachis and Christopher Reilly
...manager Bill Sidsworth
suspended:...player Tyler Sukovski

Electric City FC (all white uniforms, yellow numbers, yellow lightning bolt from right shoulder diagonally across chest)

..................18 Quillan Roberts
2 Zak Drake...4 Bradley Heath...8 Mohammad Reza Nafar (cpt)...22 Zachary Ellis-Hayden
14 Daniel Oshana...7 Ethan Gopaul...5 Adrian Gallo...15 Joshua Penello
............23 Connor Wilson...10 Jordan Webb

Subs:...1 Isaiah Cook (gk)...6 Thomas Ribeiro...11 Tomas Alvarez...12 Yuki Mandai
...13 Ryan Farmer...16 Anthony Barrese...17 Adam Wood...19 Bejamin Vyfschaft...21 Caylan Lawrence
team officials:...assistant coaches Ron Clarke and Peter Katsaras...therapist Dan Calow
suspended: team official Randy Ribeiro...player Jordan Brown

Game officials:...referee Phil Benevides...referees assistants Kurtis Portengen and Amun Binning
...fourth official Ryan Schwenger...(red shirts and socks, black shorts)

First Half:...game starts 8:02pm...Darby defends west end at this indoor facility with field turf.
15 sec...Darby Chia 15 yard blast is over players and over net.
3 min...Darby Paul cross from right is over box.
4 min...Darby Paul pops header on cross from left is wide left of net.
9 min...ECFC Webb wins cornerkick after rush on left and low cross deflection.
9 min...ECFC Gopaul receives cross after quick cornerkick on left and 20 yard shot deflects for cornerkick.
10 min...ECFC Webb rolls 15 yarder after short cornerkick from right has goalie smother.
12 min...Darby Reilly 55 yard freekick down middle has two Darby players' shots blocked on edge of box.
14 min...Darby Paul rolls cross along right end line and defender clears.
14 min...Darby Paul comes to player's bench to have his leg retaped.
18 min...Darby Pierce chips ball in box to right but Darby Chia can't get to it shielded over end line.
21 min...Darby player's freekick from 85 yards is over everyone and bounces to ECFC goalie.
23 min...ECFC Webb passes across to ECFC Reza Nafar who has 18 yard shot from right is caught by goalie.
26 min...ECFC YELLOW card...Ellis-Hayden earns it for pull down on Darby Paul on top right edge of box.
26 min...Darby Reilly freekick is bent into box and goalie flies to catch on left post preventing a tap-in.
27 min...ECFC Webb 40 yard freekick from right chip has Darby Axhorn head ball down in crowd of players.
ECFC Gopaul low 22 yard shot up middle has goalie smother.
29 min...Darby defends recover to stop three shots in 30 seconds. Darby Mitchell is injured in Darby box and needs trainer.
30 min...Darby sub...Robertson replaces injured Mitchell.
33 min...The ball hits one of the overhead hanging lanterns on south west side that stops the game for a freekick.
34 min...Darby Pierce low 40 yard freekick from left rolls to goalie on left post for pick up.
36 min...Darby Pierce cross from 33 yards on far left bounces over players in box and out right.
39 min...ECFC YELLOW card...Webb earns it for delaying a Darby freekick by holding ball in his hard at center line.
40 min...Darby player's 55 yard freekick down middle wins cornerkick on header by defender.
40 min...Darby Pierce cornerkick from left is headed away by ECFC Gopaul on edge of box.
40 min...Darby Paul cornerkick has ECFC Gopaul head ball for another cornerkick.
41 min...After the Darby cornerkick, ECFC Wilson has a quick break out and low 15 yard shot from left is saved.
42 min...ECFC Webb cross from 10 yards on left end line is caught by goalie on near post.
43 min...Darby Pierce and Paul are injured about 15 yards apart and both need trainer.
44 min...Darby sub...Stapleton replaces injured Pierce.
46 min...ECFC Webb has cross cleared in 6 yard box.
47 min...ECFC Webb has cross on left end line tipped off defender that goalie catches.
47 min...half ends 8:49pm.

Halftime: The subs warm up. The starter return to the ressing rooms in the school across the parking lot.

Second Half:...starts 9:08 pm.
halftime subs:...Darby Weller replaces Paul.
46 min...Darby YELLOW card...Chia earns it for holding ball in hands when ECFC are awarded a freekick at the
ECFC 30 yard line.
48 min...Electric City Connor Wilson GOAL...ECFC Jordan Webb long run down the left wing and he crossed
into the center edge of the 6 yard box where ECFC Ethan Gopaul headed a 6 yarder that goalie Matt Zaikos got a hand
to as he fell backwards and swatted the ball forward. Wilson headed the rebound from 6 yards into the left side
of the empty net.
49 min...ECFC Reza Nafar 22 yard shot wins cornerkick on deflection wide right of net.
50 min...ECFC players short cornerkick from right is cleared when crossed into box.
54 min...ECFC Wilson cross from 30 yards extreme right wins cornerkick on headed clearance in 6 yard box.
55 min...ECFC Webb cornerkick from right is cleared.
55 min...Darby Reilly cross from left has play whistled down on right side of box.
56 min...ECFC sub...Vyfschaft replaces Penello.
58 min...Darby sub...Robertson replaces Mitchell.
60 min...Darby Reilly high cross has ECFC Vyfschaft head away on right side of box.
61 min...ECFC Gopaul wins cornerkick on cross on right endline.
62 min...Darby sub...Neill replaces Paul.
62 min...ECFC player's cornerkick from right is cleared from box.
64 min...ECFC sub...Alavarez replaces Gallo.
68 min...ECFC Vyfschaft long run up left but his cross into the box is ruled offside.
69 min...Darby sub...Saniga replaces Brooks.
...........Darby sub...Maiorano replaces Pierce.
74 min...ECFC Webb rush on left has ECFC Gopaul receive slow cross but slip and ball is cleared from 10 yards.
76 min...ECFC sub...Mandai replaces Reza Nafar.
78 min...Darby Stapleton cross from left to center of box and ECFC Vyfschaft concedes cornerkick before Darby Dejonge
can get head to it.
79 min...Darby Maiorano cornerkick from left is whistled down in box.
80 min...Darby Stapleton from left cuts to middle and 18 yard shot is smothered by goalie.
81 min...Darby Reilly run on left and low cross into left side of outside webbing of net.
82 min...ECFC Alvarez run on right but rolls ball over end line for goalkick.
84 min...ECFC YELLOW card...Drake earns it for hand in face of Darby Stapleton at ECFC 45 yard line.
85 min...Darby sub...Nagpal replaces Chia.
85 min...Darby Reilly 50 yard freekick from left is cleared on edge of box.
86 min...ECFC sub...Barrese replaces Gopaul.
87 min...Darby Reilly 50 yard freekick is cleared on edge of box for fast break out.
90 min...Darby Neill dribbles into right of box but play is whistled down for pushing over defender.
90 min...ECFC YELLOW card...Heath earns it for something.
91 min...Darby Maiorano cornerkick from left has goalie swat through box.
93 min...ECFC Alvarez shoots wide left.
93 min...game ends 9:56pm.

Final Score:.....Darby FC.........0...........Electric City FC........1........

Attendance was about 110. This is an indoor facility where it doesn't matter what the weather
is outside...the only concern was the ball might hit a lattern in the ceiling. Tonight that happened
once. This was my third time here this season. Once in a parka, once when I could the rain driving
onto the siding while I was inside and tonight where an outside game would have been quite comfortable.
The 50/50 prize was $101 but it's hard to judge as there's a deal for 3 tickets for $5.00.

Referee Phil Benevides gave out five Yellow cards tonight (four to Electric City). One to each team
were for time wasting...identically for holding the ball in their hands when the other team had been
awarded a freekick to hold up play to get their teammates into better positions.

Darby maxed out their subs at seven tonight. Two of them wouldn't have been their choice for timing
as they had two first half injuries. (The L1O max is nine IF two of them are for head injuries).

Electric City were coached tonight by assistant coach Ron Clarke. Head coach Randy Ribeiro is serving
a suspension. Clarke answered me after the game that Ribeiro picked up a third Yellow card of the
season which comes with an immediate two game ban.

Also missing was Jordan Brown also serving a suspension. He is the leading scorer for the team
with 11 goals. Even after tonight, the team has scored 26 goals. Connor Wilson's third goal of the
season tonight puts him a four way tie for second in team scoring. ECFC worked out most of their
cornerkicks as short passes with mixed results when they finally tried to cross them into the box.

Quillan Roberts earned the shutout for ECFC without having too much to do. I expect he will continue
to see the lion's share of the playing time now that Eleias Himaras has signed a CPL contract to be
the back up goalie with York United FC. Himaras had only been in three L1O games this season
and with Niko Giantsopoulos playing almost every minute for York, Himaras may not see much action
with that team neither. Back-up goalie for Roberts tonight was Isaiah Cook who's got into one game
this season.

Darby have only scored 15 goals in 18 games so I wasn't expecting a 7-5 shootout. There was always
one more pass to make before taking a blocked shot. Maybe too much respect given to Roberts (the now
Guyanese national team goalie after famously scoring a goal from well back of the halfway line for
the Canadian U-17s in the World Cup. He could have given up a rebound. The defending foursome
of Zak Drake, Bradley Heath, captain Mohammad Reza Nafar and Zachary Eliis-Hayden kept the few shots
at a distance.

Darby was defensively sound with captain Matt Zaikos being rarely tested in goal.

Electric City wore their all-white away kit with yellow numbers which is difficult to see from the other
side of the field. I call it 'Sanjaxx Lions bad' (they wore the identical colours for at least one year
of their L1O lifetime). It was only because I'd watched them in the first half that I could figure
out the assists on the goal...blue shoes guy crossed to two-tone hair colour guy, rebound by...wait for
the announcer. This game was livestreamed on the league website but they couldn't get the sound to work
so the commentator dodged a bullet having to call out the ECFC players. I had a pair of binoculars
so I could wait until a guy turned around to figure out who made a play but live calling a game doesn't
offer that luxury.

This was a miserable night around the league for home teams as none of the five teams playing tonight
scored a goal and they all lost. More than half the teams still haven't played this weekend.
**Whoops. The L1O team site says in a sixth game St Catharines beat Masters 4-1 tonight but the league's
main page has that game scheduled for 3:00pm tomorrow when I started writing this!

The win improves the record of Electric City to 8 wins, 6 losses, 3 ties for 27 points. That's eighth
in the standings. It certainly helps their status of surviving the 2024 Premier Division formation
of finishing Top 12 with a weighted average of the next two years. The current line is 20 points.
Tougher will be a Top 6 finish this year to make the playoffs. That line has increased to 36 points
with a four way tie between Guelph (who won tonight), North Toronto Nitros and Simcoe Country Rovers
(both have games later this weekend). Pro Stars hold third with 37 after keeping the pace by winning
tonight.

The loss for Darby keeps them in sixteenth of the twenty-two teams with a record of 4 wins, 10 losses,
4 ties for 16 points. Woodbridge holds the twelfth spot with 20 points but they haven't played yet
this weekend.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
twitter @RocketRobin01

Darby FC starters