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League 1 Ontario 2017--Championship Final


Rocket Robin

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Result and details of the Friday October 20, 2017 League 1 Ontario game between
Woodbridge Strikers and Oakville Blue Devils played at the Ontario Soccer Centre
in Vaughan at 7:30pm.

This game involves the winner of the Eastern Conference Woodbridge Strikers
against the winner of the Western Conference Oakville Blue Devils.  Tonight's
winner is considered champion of League 1 Ontario and also the winner gains entry
into the 2018 Canadian Chmpionship. 

10 min...Woodbridge Marcos Nunes GOAL...OBD Taylor McNamara chips ball from 25 yards
down middle over players in box which WS goalie Quillan Roberts catches on bounce
at 8 yards.  Roberts steps forward and punts ball downfield from edge of box and it
bounces at OBD 40 yard line and Nunes has cut behind defenders Connor McNamara
and Victor Gallo who whiffs on ball at 25 yards and when they can't control it dribbles
in from 22 yards and shoots low 15 yarder up middle into left corner of net past
diving OBD goalie Matt George. 

60 min...Oakville Brandon Duarte GOAL...OBD goalie Matt George receives defender's
pass back wide left of net and blasts high clearance from own 5 yard line downfield
and OBD Stephen Ademolu flicks header forward from WS 40 yard line behind defender also
jumping for ball.  OBD Filipe Vilela cuts over from middle to right to get to bouncer
at 25 yard line.  He dribbles forward to right edge of box and sends low cross
along 6 yard box a step ahead of charging OBD player in middle but Duarte is unmarked
and charges to edge of 6 yard box in line with left post and slides to connect a roller
past sliding goalie Quillan Roberts at 3 yards and nto right corner of net.

79 min...OBD RED cards to two backup players...There's a dustup in the OBD end when
WS are not awarded a Penalty kick.  Referee Fabrizio Stasolla gives out Yellows
to WS Kyle Watson and OBD Brandon Duarte for their part in the play.  He sees two
OBD players in pinnies (or had a WS player point them out) who had come around from
behind the OBD net—players are supposed to warm up on the side of the field—and sent
them off.

99 min...WS RED card...The referee orders off a WS backup player who had stepped
on the field to argue a play. 

99 min...regulation time ends with the score tied 1-1.  There is no extra time and
so the game goes straight to Penalty kicks. 

Penalty kicks:

1  OBD Filipe Vilela GOAL...blasts low to left as goalie dives right.

1  WS Emmanuel Issac GOAL...shot low to right as goalie dove to left. 

2  OBD Victor Gallo shoots low and towards right and goalie dives right and
bats ball away. 

2  WS Luca Baldassarre GOAL...shoots low to right as goalie slides to left. 

3  OBD Taylor McNamara GOAL...shoots low to right as goalie slides to left. 

3  WS Michael Fayehun blasts shot well over net as goalie slumps to left.

4  OBD Stephen Ademolu GOAL...shoots to top right corner over goalie who dove to right. 

4  WS Joshua Paredes-Procter shot to low left and goalie dives to left to bat ball away. 

5  OBD Braden Culver GOAL...rolls shot to right corner of net as goalie slides to left. 

Final Score:...Woodbridge Strikers...1...Oakville Blue Devils...1...
Oakville wins Penalty shootout 4-2.
   
* Some media reports/tweets have the shootout score as 4-3 but WS did not get
a fifth round shot.

Attendance was about 1200 people with a large contingient of Oakville fans including
their youth teams.  The grounds are only about the width of three football fields
from Vaughan Grove, the home of Woodbridge Strikers, which is diagonally across
from here so they were going to get a large turnout.  Last Saturday night,
Toronto FC II of the USL had their home finale here and drew 1119 but that was
greatly exagerated because of a non-stop hard rainstorm that night that maybe
60% showed up.  Last Saturday night was originally supposed to have been the
L1O Championship L1O chair Dino Rossi answere me a few weeks ago but TFC II bumped
them back in March because of their agreement with Ontario Soccer Centre. 
Now TFC II repays the OSC by moving next year to hold their games at Lamport Stadium
and BMO Field.  Tonight's weather by contrast was pleasant with windbreakers being
enough to keep warm this late in October.  There may be another few fans show
up Saturday night thanks to Duane Rollins on his Two Solitudes podcast giving
the wrong date on his Thursday show.  (I tweeted him in time for his Friday morning
show but he didn't mention the game at all). 

USL Ottawa Fury coach Julian de Guzman was the celebrity brought in for the coin toss. 
I hadn't thought of it at game time but there is a good chance that tonight's winner
will play Ottawa in the opening round of the Canadian Championship next year.  
Oakville and their PLSQ champion counterpart AS Blainville will NOT face each other
in the first round but one will face Ottawa and the other will face FC Edmonton
of NASL.  The winners will then play each other and the next round the winner
of that will join the MLS teams in the semi-finals. 

The start of the Canadian Championship will be held in May from what I've heard which
shouldn't cause a problem as the L1O season will be into its first month by then. 
Since these games are usually played in midweek it will mean Oakville won't play
at their usual home Sheridan College because there are no stadium lights.  Rumour
has it they will be trying to arrange to play at Tim Horton's Field in Hamilton.  
Will there be a sponsor or will they have to raise funds to fly to Edmonton if that's
the team they draw?  A joke going around after the game was 'how about a car wash?'.   

Referee Fabrizio Stasollo was also the referee in last Saturday's USL game.  Tonight
he gave out three Yellow cards to each team and didn't fall for any of the soft
Penalty kick pleas from either team.  The game was 'spirited' with lots of close
checking and injuries to both teams. 

OBD goalie Matt George was announced as the game's MVP.  Well that was obvious with
making the huge save in the Penalty shootout but he made some other key saves. 
George played for Woodbridge for the last few years before this season.  It was his
decision to switch teams to OBD before the season started as he lives a lot closer
to Oakville than the drives to Woodbridge (he answered my question earlier this
season).  That was months before the Strikers signed Quillan Roberts dropped
by Toronto FC to replace him. 

It's almost like both regulation time goals were rehearsed as just a moment before
each goal an almost identical play was run.  WS goalie Quillan Roberts punted a ball
upfield at 9 minutes and only because it turned into a 1 v 4 was the Strikers player
not able to get through and at 59 minutes OBD Khody Ellis sent in a low cross
from 20 yards on the right that OBD Felipe Vilela blasted from 10 yards down the
middle that was blocked by a defender and he shot a rebound high and wide right. 

A change at halftime brought in Khody Ellis and Stephen Ademolu up front for Oakville
replacing Mathew Santos and Anthony Novak.  Their attack immediately became more
dangerous. 

A scoreboard problem meant there was no timer from the twenty minute mark on so the
PA guy would announce the time in five or ten minute intervals.  All times after that
in my report are from my wristwatch but I'll insist that the OBD goal was at 60 minutes
(not 66') and the second half went on until 99 minutes (seven minutes announced injury
time with another injury during that time). 

I noticed standing behind me during the game Canadian Men's National team coach
Octavio Zambrano.  He has praised this league in the past.  I was boasting to him
that this was my sixty-third L1O game this year when he asked me about OBD's #10. 
Braden Culver.  Ooh I don't know too much about him.  Zambrano called him 'interesting'. 
He'd subbed in at 54 minutes.  (Zambrano's comments were well before he took the winning
Penalty kick).  After the game I said to Culver that Zambrano was interested in him
but by then the coach was gone.  I mentioned it to the OBD media guy and head coach
Duncan Wilde so he could forward info to Zambrano.  "Oh he graduated from University
of Buffalo this year, he teaches at the TFC Academy" is what Wilde said.  I know
Zambrano has used L1O players at national training camps.  Woodbridge defender
Michael Krzeminski (who tonight was injured and subbed off at 60 minutes) was brought
into the training camp this summer.  Whether Zambrano needed human pylons for the
regular team or impressive play might earn him a place is unknown but he deserves
a chance.        

There was a medal presentation after the game and Woodbridge got their medals first
then disappeared back to the locker room.  Oakville got theirs and then the trophy
was presented.  If Woodbridge would have won I'd be dropping names on that team
in this report like head coach Peter Pinizzotto who coached Toronto Lynx when they
first entered the A-League in 1997 and CNSL Toronto Italia before that.  Etc etc.  
After something like every player and official on the Blue Devils held the trophy,
a team rep handed it to me and I posed for a picture.  That was something I never
yearned for but it's the Voyageur's Cup I want to fondle because I tell anyone who'll
listen that "I helped pay for that trophy".  

I congratulated a few of the OBD players on the field or at the food room inside
the OSC building.  Captain Taylor McNamara who I reminded that I watched him play
for Toronto Lynx of PDL (before Toronto FC had team for a few years), I only found
out tonight he is a school gym teacher.  Stephen Ademolu who joked that now he can't
retire (age 34, because of the chance in that chance in May).  He joined OBD halfway
through this season, although he was signed but injured last year, from
Windsor TFC Stars (who ended up bringing undermanned rosters to the GTA).  He has
five hour drives to get to the OBD home games and most of the teams being in the GTA. 
"Yes" he answered it was worth it.   Coach Duncan Wilde for years coaching Toronto
Lynx of A-League and PDL and Blue Devils when they were the Lynx farm team and won
the CSL championship in 2005. 

Wilde answered me the 'OBD Women' have filed an application to enter a team into
the L1O Women's Division.  The league sometimes doesn't announce decisions like
that until their banquet or meetings after that.  Oakville has a history of having
the best girls'/women's teams in Canada for various tournaments over the years
so should be a natural.  He said they'll start with players from their
Junior Lady Lynx roster. 

Blue Devils won the league in 2015.  There's only been four years of the league's
existance so they can say they are the first multi-time winner.  I was surprised
that their 2017 name plaque had been adhesed to the trophy already but I expect
the league had a Woodbridge name plate made just in case.  In 2015 the season
OBD won by finishing first in the 12 team single table. 

It wasn't a lost season for Woodbridge.  They can still brag that they finished
first in the East and they won the L1O Cup trophy competition this season. 
Hmm Woodbridge won the Cup in 2015 too! 

I will say that 2018 is the best chance for the L1O representative to advance
in the Canadian Championship.  This may be the only year without teams from the
new Canadian Premier league which may start halfway through 2018 or by the start
of 2019.  It's not just that there will be more rounds for the L1O representative
to get through but I can see the new league skimming the best five players from
the better L1O teams to stockpile their own rosters.  The amateur L1O teams
(just a handful of semi-pros on some teams) won't be able to compete with
retaining players to a professional league.

Holding the game Friday night will mean that many of the players won't miss
their college or university games this weekend. 

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
twitter @RocketRobin01 
 

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5 hours ago, Rocket Robin said:

Wilde answered me the 'OBD Women' have filed an application to enter a team into
the L1O Women's Division.  The league sometimes doesn't announce decisions like
that until their banquet or meetings after that.  Oakville has a history of having
the best girls'/women's teams in Canada for various tournaments over the years
so should be a natural.  He said they'll start with players from their
Junior Lady Lynx roster. 

Interesting development!

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On 22/10/2017 at 3:33 PM, Rocket Robin said:

The amateur L1O teams
(just a handful of semi-pros on some teams) won't be able to compete with
retaining players to a professional league.

Do you happen to know which players have contracts? Or a list of which teams are semi-pro?

Thanks for all the reporting this season Robin. It's very much appreciated!

One more question. I was at the game and was impressed with the size of the crowd, but I had only ever been to one other L1O game ever. I usually check your estimated attendance numbers which tend to be around 50 or so. Are there any other games that have had attendance anything like this? Maybe a Cup final or the Interprovincial Cup games in past years?

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7 hours ago, Kent said:

Do you happen to know which players have contracts? Or a list of which teams are semi-pro?

Thanks for all the reporting this season Robin. It's very much appreciated!

One more question. I was at the game and was impressed with the size of the crowd, but I had only ever been to one other L1O game ever. I usually check your estimated attendance numbers which tend to be around 50 or so. Are there any other games that have had attendance anything like this? Maybe a Cup final or the Interprovincial Cup games in past years?

There aren't any teams that are even semi-pro from what I know.  Some guys have been given contracts by TFC III to move up to their USL team and can still bob up and down.  

If you want to make some money, you can work at some team's youth summer camps coaching etc.

I don't know if Master's had any of the coach Rick Titus guys that came over from starting the year in the CSL.   I don't know if CSL pays anything or gas money in these times. 

I'll go with my estimates of 50 for most GTA games unless they are pre-organized to involve youth teams and parents of those players packing the stands--but not on school nights etc.  I've heard attendance is better for non-GTA teams where entertainment wise that night may be the only game in town. 

The Cup final/Interprovincial Cup was quite well attended. 

 

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