August 24, 2022 League1 Ontario Quarterfinal...North Toronto Nitros vs Simcoe County Rovers game report (by Rocket Robin)

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

Results and details of the League1 Ontario Men's Premier Division game of Wednesday August 24, 2022 between
North Toronto Nitros and Simcoe County Rovers played at Downsview Park in North York at 8:00pm. This is a one game
quarterfinal playoff with the winner advancing to one of the semi-finals this weekend.

North Toronto Nitros (red socks and shirts, black shorts, white numbers)

.....................................1 Ali Ghazanfari-Moghaddan
11 Kai Martin...3 Thomas MacCarone...5 Christian Westlaken...4 Brandon Barone...19 Justin Santos
............13 Abdullah El-Chanti...6 Juan Delgadillo (cpt)...21 Akeim Villous
.........................8 Zakaria Abdi...7 Luca Dimarco

Subs:...50 Daniel Delo (gk)...9 Bilal Reslan...14 Luca Porfiris...16 Oliver Wales
...17 Daniel Casa...20 Aidan Hugo...22 Tristan Marshall
team officials:...team head coach Marko Milanovic...assistant coaches Antonio Greco and Filip Prostran
...manager Daniela Barillari...therapist Marwah Hashimi

Simcoe Country Rovers (all black uniforms, light blue numbers)

.......................1 Richard Gomes
2 Tristan Gayle...3 Jarred Phillips...4 Illelabola Avolonto...17 Kahlil John
19 Justin Earle...16 Tre Crosby...11 Shawn Claud-Lawson...6 Jordan Dover (cpt)
................10 Ethan Beckford...8 Gregory Moulopoulos

Subs:...13 Ryan Collins (gk)...7 Jah-moises Corona...12 Ryley Wishart...14 Frank Marchesan
...18 Francisco Curry...21 Michael Globocki...22 Justin Yarde
team officials:...team head coach Jason Beckford...assistant coach Ali Sozeri...equipment manager Sebastian Trinchini
...therapist Taylor Ley

Game officials:...referee Brian Butler...referee's assistants Vasyl Dzikh and Eduard Bosioc
...fourth official Mahboob Gulestani...(teal socks and shirts, black shorts)

The players come onto the field as the WWE John Cena music plays! Haven't heard that before.
It's the version where he raps "my time is now".

First Half:...game starts 8:05pm...NTN defends north end on this warm night.
30 sec...NTN goalie catches 40 yard chip.
3 min...SCR Avolonto 50 yard chip from left and SCR Crosby takes 20 yard shot from right over net and back fence.
5 min...NTN Delgadillo sends through ball from 45 yards that's too far forward for NTN Villous and goalie picks up ball at 15 yards.
7 min...NTN Santos receives pass on left and 25 yard shot is a roller wide right of net.
10 min...SCR Beckford turns ad low 20 yard shot is wide right.
12 min...NTN Santos cross from 30 yards on left has NTN Abdi in middle deflect ball off his chest at 12 yards and wide right of goal.
14 min...SCR Gayle knocks down charging NTN Santos on left side wide of box for freekick call.
15 min...NTN Delgadillo 22 yard freekick from 8 yard line on left is rolled out to charging NTN Santos who flubs 20 yard blast
up middle and SCR players start fast break out.
16 min...NTN YELLOW card...Santos earns it for grab on SCR Moulopoulos breaking upfield at NTN 50 yard line.
17 min...SCR John bends 28 yard shot down middle well wide right of net.
17 min...SCR YELLOW card...Dover earns it for high mid air kick on NTN Villous at center line, injurying him.
20 min...NTN Barone makes key clearance in NTN box. The NTN goalie then catches a 35 yard chip.
22 min...SCR Phillips gets back to head bouncer back to goalie to beat NTN Abdi to ball.
23 min...SCR player sends 30 yard bouncer from right well wide left of net.
24 min...NTN El-Chanti is checked off ball on right side of box.
24 min...SCR Crosby gets centering pass and low 12 yard shot from right has diving goalie tip ball wide left.
25 min...SCR Claud-Lawson cornerkick from left is caught by goalie in crowd of players.
26 min...SCR John breaks into box on let but is checked off ball.
27 min...NTN El-Chanti run on right and cross has defenders clear at 15 yards in center of box.
29 min...NTN YELLOW card...DiMarco earns it for tackle on left at SCR 40 yard line.
30 min...NTN Martin forward pass to NTN Abdi but goalie dives on it. No Penalty call is given.
32 min...SCR Claud-Lawson 35 yard freekickc from left has goalie bat down and smother. The NTN goalie is injured and needs
trainer. An SCR player holds off kicking him on the ground.
34 min...game restarts.
38 min...NTN Martin long throw-in has NTN El-Chanti slide at 10 yards on right and poke hall over end line.
41 min...SCR Crosby cross from left across 6 yard box has defender head out right side of box.
42 min...SCR John cornerkick from right is whistled down in box when goalie is pushed over.
43 min...NTN Martin long throw-in from right has NTN Abdi pokes ball over end line.
45 min...NTN Martin cuts in from right and chips bouncer from 25 yards wide of net.
46 min...half ends 8:51pm.

Halftime: Only the SCR subs stay on the field. There are lots of NTN academy players playing on the field.

Second Half:...starts 9:08pm...the SCR subs move to the endzone to continue to warm up.
47 min...NTN Delgadillo low 30 yard freekick from left is cleared by defender.
49 min...SCR Earle 10 yard shot is a poke wide left of net ending SCR pressure.
49 min...SCR Dover chips ball from 35 yards over defenders down middle and SCR Beckford in middle chips 15 yarder well
over net.
50 min...NTN Abdi and NTN Santos miss ball crossed over from right.
52 min...NTN Santos chips 40 yard cross from left well wide right of goal for goalkick.
55 min...SCR John 45 yard freekick from left is caught by goalie at 15 yards.
56 min...NTN Abdi gets high pass down right and 20 yard shot near end line is high and wide left.
57 min...SCR Crosby shot from 15 yards wins cornerkick on left.
58 min...SCR Crosby cornerkick from left is over players in box and out right side for goalkick.
59 min...SCR goalie is out to 15 yards on right to beat NTN El-Chanti to long cross.
62 min...NTN Delgadillo cornerkick from left is over players in box.
63 min...SCR Gayle cross along 25 yard line from right has SCR Crosby blast 25 yarder down middle over net.
65 min...NTN players balls are sent into box but can't away shot. NTN Abdi is injured on edge of box.
68 min...SCR Moulopoulos long run down left and cuts towards goal and 18 yard shot is well high of net.
70 min...SCR Moulopoulos midair shot rolls 22 yard shot from left wide left of net after cross by SCR Earle from right
is partially cleared.
72 min...NTN El-Chanti 35 yard freekick down middle to NTN DiMarco who chips into box. NTN MacCarone 15 yard shot
is saved by sprawling goalie. NTN Abdi shoots rebound over net.
74 min...SCR YELLOW card...Claud-Lawson earns it for complaining about being called offside.
76 min...SCR sub...Corona replaces Crosby.
78 min...NTN sub...Reslan replaces El-Chanti.
79 min...SCR sub...Wishart replaces Moulopoulos.
80 min...NTN Santos 35 yard freekick from right wins cornerkick when SCR defender pops ball over the end line with header.
80 min...NTN Delgadillo high cornerkick from left is cleared out right side of box.
82 min...Simcoe Ryley Wishart GOAL...SCR Shawn Claud-Lawson takes cornerkick from left and Wishart in crowd
of players flicks header from 5 yards in center of box to top right corner of net.
83 min...NTN Abdi pops header from 15 yards well over net.
85 min...NTN sub...Hugo replaces MacCarone.
86 min...Simcoe Ethan Beckford GOAL...Beckford makes a great solo run up the right sideline from 60 yards eluding
two checks on his way. When he gets to 15 yard line he cuts towards middle and shoots 20 yarder from right
over goalie Ali Ghazanfari-Moghaddan who'd come out to 8 yards and into the top left corner of goal.
88 min...NTN player's freekick from near right end line has NTN DiMarco chip cleared in SCR box.
91 min...SCR YELLOW card...Goaltender Gomes earns it for timewasting taking a goalkick.
93 min...NTN Reslan high cornerkick from left has defender knock away at 5 yards. NTN Martin has low 19 yard blast
from slight right through crowd of players that's stopped by diving goalie on right post. NTN Barone charges across from left
to blast loose ball along right end line from 8 yards which goalie saves on near post. Defender chips ball away on clearance
from 3 yards. NTN Hugo connects on midair 25 yarder up middle that's tipped off defender wide right.
94 min...NTN Santos cornerkick from right has defender clear on near post flick header across goal and deflected away
by another defender.
94 min...game ends 9:57pm.

Final Score:.....North Toronto Nitros......0.....Simcoe County Rovers.......2.......

*The L1O website lists NTN Zakaria Abdi getting a Yellow card but I didn't notice it.

Attendance was about 250 people which surprised me for a midweek game whose time and date were only
announced two days earlier. What got the great turnout was a practice of North Toronto's boys and girls
youth teams. Their practices ran until 7:00pm and I'm sure something had been organized beforehand
to get them to stay. Someone must have got a hold of a microphone to lead chants and I expect it was
coming from the announcer's tent. A group of traveling fans had staked out a section of stands in the
south end of the stands (there are one set of six row bleachers stretching from the north to south side
with a few breaks in between) but they were being squeezed by the overflow crowd. Head coach
Jason Beckford reminded his players to go over after the game to greet them.

This was a quarter-final match of the regular season fourth and fifth place finishing team which just
ended on Sunday. Making the third through sixth place teams play midweek should help the first
and second place team who earned a bye directly to the semi-finals as the QF winners in theory would
be tired out by a midweek game besides playing last weekend.

I just heard at the game that the semi-finals will be on Saturday and Sunday so it is possible for me
to get to both games. The (first place) Vaughan Azzurri game will be Saturday night (their home games
are usually Sunday night) while the (second place) Blue Devils FC game will be Sunday at 4:00pm.

If any playoff game ends in a tie after 90 minutes of regulation, the game goes straight to Penalty
kicks to decide the winner. I asked about that to make sure before this game began. It's in the L1O
rulebook somewhere.

Referee Brian Butler gave out five Yellow cards (three to Nitros). These playoff games are rewards
for the best officials in the league. Giving a card to one player from each team at around the 17 minute
mark for separate incidents seemed to keep the players in check for the rest of the game.

This was the third time I've seen Nitros in the last two weeks. They only scored one goal in those
three games and that was on a Penalty kick. Both teams had scored 37 goals in the 21 game regular
season which are the second and third worst of the top twelve teams in the future division split
coming in 2024 so I shouldn't have expected a goalfest.

Richard Gomes earned the shutout for Simcoe. I only counted him having a to make a few important
stops at the end as the the Nitros shooting was off target. Gomes was well protected by his defensive
line of Tristan Gayle, Jarred Phillips, Ilieiabolo Avolonto, and Kahlil John. The crowd was so loud
that I couldn't hear if Gomes swore at all tonight!

Both teams had shorter benches than the L1O rules allow (20 players). Both brought 18. Neither team
subbed until Rovers got started at 76 minutes. Both teams eventually made only two substitutes each.
Rovers sub of Ryley Wishart at 79 minutes proved very effective as he scored the winner within three
minutes of coming on.

I was somewhat surprised by seeing Ali Ghazanfari-Moghaddan in goal for Nitros. On Friday I saw him
leave the game against Darby (a league official immediately said 'hamstring injury' and I thought he'd
miss months of play, oops, too much reading the sports pages). He went down batting down a freekick
at 32 minutes then smothering it while a Rovers player sportsmanly held back from kicking him in the
head. Play restarted at 34 minutes and he did stay in the game.

A group of NTN fans asked me what I thought of the game and when I mentioned the Nitros scoring drought,
one mentioned that their 'best player' Ali El-Zeir wasn't allowed to play because he had signed
a contract with Rovers in the pre-season and although he 'never played a minute for them' he couldn't
play tonight. I don't understand L1O contracts but I noticed that he was a late 'scratch off' from
the Nitros game sheets so that rule must have caught Nitros officials off guard too or they wouldn't
have typed it on in the first place.

Rovers don't know tonight who they play on the weekend. If the third place Alliance United win tomorrow
night, Rovers will travel to play first place Vaughan but it sixth place ProStars FC win tomorrow,
Rovers will travel to Oakville to play second place Blue Devils FC.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
twitter @RocketRobin01

North Toronto Nitros starters