August 19, 2023 League1 Ontario...Alliance United vs Simcoe County Rovers game report (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Saturday August 19, 2023 League1 Ontario Men's Premier League game between Alliance United
and Simcoe County Rovers FC played at Birchmount Stadium in Scarborough at 9:10pm.

Alliance United (all orange uniforms, black numbers)

........................30 Shane Perera
2 Zak Drake...8 Mehdi Essoussi...14 Toby Richardson...16 Shon Siegalwachs
.........7 Russell Stewart...20 Nicholas Castillo...10 Ferrell Francis
........15 Kingsley Belele...12 Andrea Schifano...11 Christian Keshishian

Subs:...0 Liam Janicki-Zeballos (gk)...3 Korede Kadiri...6 Kalvin Alphonsus...17 Adriano Andonoff
...18 Jacob Prested...19 Michael Zammit
team officials:...team head coach Ilay Orlov...assistant coach Eric Nelson...manager Eric Silvestri
...equipment manager Goran Stakic...therapists Daniel Dalla Rosa and Michael Silvestri
Suspended players: none

Simcoe County Rovers (all navy uniforms, gold numbers)

.........................1 Baj Maan
16 Allen Saye-Blegay...3 Tajay Reid...24 Cameron Dasilva...8 Alejandro Portal
.........19 Justin Earle (cpt)...12 Javier George...11 Shawn-Claud Lawson
.........17 CJ Smith...20 Payul Karagianakos...9 Jevontae Layne

Subs:...7 Gabriel Boakye...13 Michael Markac...14 Feargod Ozomba...21 Chiemeka Zaurunwa
...22 Shamir Akbar...25 Peter Sheberstov
team officials:...team head coach Jason Beckford...assistant coach Paul Smith and Zak Zico Mahrady
...equipment manager Bola Avolonto...therapist Milad Mohib
Suspended players: Orlendis Benitez

Game officials:...referee Mahboob Gulastein...referees assistants Kim Lee and Austin Fromhold-Treu
...fourth official GTwayne Anderson...(chatreuse socks and shirts, black shorts)

First Half:...game starts 8:15pm...Alliance defends south end.
3 min...AU Belele deflected shot from 20 yards has goalie dive on left end line but is not able to keep it in.
3 min...AU Essoussi cornerkick from left is over box and cleared on right.
6 min...SCR Smith cross from right end line has goalie catch near right post.
7 min...AU player's 40 yard shot down middle is well over net.
10 min...SCR Lawson cornerkick from right has defender head away on right side of box at 6 yards.
15 min...SCR Portal throw-in from left is cleared on left edge of box.
16 min...AU Belele gets back to clear ball into AU box.
17 min...SCR Lawson cornerkick from right has defender head away.
The game is being played in the AU half of the field.
22 min...AU goalie catches 60 yard chip down middle on bounce.
23 min...AU Keshishian receives cross on left and shoots well over net.
24 min...SCR Lawson cornerkick from right is cleared by header. SCR George blasts 35 yard rebound down middle high and wide right.
25 min...SCR Lawson taps ball back on right andd SCR Saye-Blegay chips cross from 30 yards that goalie runs forward to catch.
26 min...AU Siegalwachs eludes defender on left and 18 yard low shot is stopped by goalie on near post to catch in middle at 15 yards.
27 min...SCR Lawson 35 yard freekick from right has charging SCR player head 10 yarder from left into top right corner of net
but play is flagged offside.
29 min...SCR defenders block two AU players' shots on edge of box.
31 min...AU player chips 35 yarder after receiving tapped freekick and defender heads 5 yarder back to goalie.
32 min...AU Siegalwachs can't turn header on cross from right at 15 yards on left.
34 min...SCR Smith passes over AU end line on left when SCR goalie at SCR 40 yard line chips him pass at AU 30 yard line.
35 min...AU Belele sends pass to AU Keshishian whose 20 yard ball tips off defender and bounces to goalie.
37 min...SCR Portal 40 yard freekick from left is wide right of net.
37 min...SCR YELLOW card...Earle earns it for complaining about a call.
41 min...SCR YELLOW card...Smith earns it for foul at AU 35 yard line.
41 min...Simcoe County Rovers Paul Karagianakos GOAL...Karagianakos intercepts an AU centre back and blasts 20 yarder
down middle between players and over goalie Shane Perera and just under the bar into the center of the net.
45 min...SCR goalie 60 yard freekick chip down middle is headed away on edge of box.
46 min...half ends 10:01pm.

Second Half:...starts 10:17pm.
45 min...SCR goalie is out to 30 yards on left to clearance but deflects to AU Sohifano who crosses and cleared in center.
46 min...SCR player 40 yard freekick from left is rolled up left and SCR player crosses near end line that's cleared in box.
48 min...AU Belele midair shot from 25 yards on left is well high and wide right.
50 min...SCR defender pops up cross behind end line to prevent AU play.
51 min...AU Essoussi cornerkick from right has SCR Dasilva make dangerous header over own net from 12 yards just over bar.
52 min...AU Essoussi cornerkick from right has defender head away on left side of box.
54 min...SCR goalie is out to edge of box to beat AU Belele to through ball.
56 min...SCR Dasilva falls backwards at SCR 40 yard line away from play after seconds earlier complaining about headache
and dizzyness.
58 min...SCR sub...Boakye replaces injured Dasilva before play resumes.
58 min...SCR defenders are able to clear bouncer in to box before any AU player can control a shot.
60 min...AU Essoussi freekick from 45 yards on right has defenders clear without shot.
63 min...AU YELLOW card...Richardson earns it for knocking over SCR player on edge of box.
64 min...SCR Lawson 20 yard freekick down middle hits outside of right post.
65 min...AU sub...AU Alphonsus replaces Francis.
69 min...AU Essoussi 60 yard high freekick down left is wide left of net.
70 min...SCR Boakye and SCR Layne give and go down right and Boakye has clear 12 yard shot from left is well over net.
71 min...AU player's shot is deflected wide right for cornerkick.
72 min...AU player's cornerkick from right is low and he gets clearance back to him and crosses from 20 yards to AU player
who has off balance header wide left of net.
75 min...AU sub...Prested replaces Belele.
76 min...SCR Lawson can't get by last defender and another defender clears ball at 7 yards.
77 min...AU Essoussi cornerkick from left has AU Siegalwachs not quite able to fully turn header sending it out of box over to right.
80 min...SCR defenders block two shots from right edge of box.
81 min...AU Essoussi cornerkick from right is though box and AU Richardson gets foot to on left side of box on end line and tips
it wide left.
83 min...SCR sub...Ihama replaces Smith.
84 min...AU Keshishian taps pass forward and AU Schifano low 15 yard shot up middle hits outside of right post.
86 min...SCR players tap around freekick at AU 30 yard line and never get ball into box. AU players break out downfield requiring
goalie to catch low cross from 15 yards near right end line with AU player waiting to tap-in.
88 min...SCR sub...Azurunwa replaces Layne.
...........AU sub...Kairi replaces Drake.
89 min...AU goalie beats SCR Lawson to high bouncer.
91 min...AU Zammit long throw-in from left is cleared on edge of box.
92 min...AU Essoussi cornerkick from left is low and cleared by closest defender.
83 min...game ends 11:05pm.

Final Score:....Alliance United.......0......Simcoe County Rovers......1.......

Attendance was about 60 for this late starting game. This game was moved from Bill Crothers Turf Centre back in April when the league first moved Alliance and Unionville Milliken SC out of those facilities when officials from the City of Markham notified them the building which held washrooms and the training rooms were not part of the rental agreement. So four months later the league found out Birchmount was double booked! There was a youth game taking place. I asked a parent after their game what was going on as it looked like a co-ed game. It was 'I Model' from the Toronto District League. 'I' standing for Integrated. The girls on the team were among the better players. The dad said it's co-ed until their age group. I estimate they were about age 13. The green team had names on their uniforms. One of the girls was 'Taylor'...hey music fans, how fast did she run?

Anyway the L1O teams warmed up in the endzones until 8:40pm then they continued on the field once the kids left. The game was rescheduled to kick off at 9:10pm.

Referee Mahboob Gulestani gave out only three Yellow cards (one to Alliance) in a pretty even game.

The lighting wasn't so good here to catch the gold numbers on black of the SCR players so my longer report will have lot of “an SCR player took a shot...”. SCR could have put this game away a lot earlier if they could have connected on more of their chances.

37 minutes had SCR Shawn-Claud Lawson take a 35 yard freekick from the right that had a charging SCR player head a 10 yarder from the left into to top right corner but he was flagged offside. 51 minutes had AU Mehdi Essoussi take a cornerkick from the right that SCR Cameron DaSilva headed dangerously back over his own net from 12 yards just over the bar. 64 minutes had Lawson take a 20 yard freekick down the middle that hit the outside of the right post. 70 minutes had SCR Gabriel Boakye and Jevontae Layne play a give and go down the right side and Boakye got into position to take a clear 12 yard shot from the left when given the cross and skied it over the net. 76 minutes had Layne get to a bouncer and lofted a 20 yarder down the middle just over the bar.

Rovers goalie Baj Maan earned the shutout with help from his defensive line of Allen Saye-Blegay (wow a 2006), Tajay Reid, Cameron DaSilva, and Alejandro Portal causing a lot of blocked and rushed shots.

Rovers striker and leading scorer with 15 goals Orlendis Benitez (I remember him with four names) was listed on the game sheets as suspended for this game. He was in the stands watching. Also absent was speedy winger Ijah Halley.

I was sitting in the stands in the first half but the announcer missed calling a Yellow card because he was too excited announcing the goal. At halftime I went up to ask and it was only a tech guy and he pointed to 'the guy with the baseball cap'. Oops wrong one. It was Chris Pozniak (used to rock the number #13 with Toronto Lynx then Toronto FC back in the day) who is now a scout with the TFC Academy...hmm sitting in the Alliance end, OK wonder if he sees anyone interesting?

I walked around the track to watch the second half by the fourth official's table and find out some good stuff.

I didn't recognize many of the Alliance players. The L1O official and me asked head coach Ilya Orlov who these players were. He said they were mostly current University of Toronto players and they and eight other guys not here tonight will be playing tomorrow for the school in an exhibition game against University of Western. Then they have a midweek game against McMaster University. The chances of Alliance making the playoffs were about impossible even before this weekend started so I could see why they would use this game as a school tune up. They had good skills but it looked like they hadn't played together before. Orlov said the older guys had finished their careers and it was decided to play this new lineup. OK looking back through the league site it shows Alliance had only won once in their last six games before tonight (with three ties) with the experience players and had fizzled out of the playoff picture.

Mehdi Essoussi took many of the set piece kicks for Alliance. I remember him with Toronto FC III of this league then Toronto FC II later until last season. Orlov said he wasn't a U of T student. He's only age 22.

Scary incident was at 56 minutes when SCR Cameron DaSilva fell backwards at the SCR 40 yard line away from the play after seconds earlier complaining about feeling dizzyness and having a headache. The game was stopped and the trainer was brought on immediately and bottles of water were thrown onto the field to help revive him. Gabriel Boakye became their first sub of the night. I watched DaSilva walk off the field after the game without wobbling so assume things turned out alright.

The loss means Alliance finish the season at 9 wins, 5 losses, 6 ties for 33 points. That's eighth in the twenty-one team league and that position will stand as the two teams following them, Sigma FC and North Toronto Nitros tied earlier today.

Simcoe finishes the regular season at 15 wins, 4 losses, 1 tie for 46 points and move up to second in the table. That would be good for a bye right to the semi-finals except that Vaughan Azzurri could flip back over them for that spot when they play their home game on Sunday night. Rovers finish with six wins in a row including the last five games which were all on the road so all the other teams would like to avoid them as long as possible.

Rocket Robin
robin.glover.1958@gmail.com
twitter @RocketRobin01

Alliance United starters