L1O Playoff Review: Expect the Unexpected

[Rintaran]

“Three is the magic number”

Last week I told you to expect the expected but maybe, just maybe, I spoke too soon because we have a few games on our hands here. Here’s a quick recap of the 1^st legs.

The only game that could be done and dusted is the game between this seasons two surprise packages Alliance and N.Miss. Alliance came out away from this away leg with a 3-1 victory. United stormed into a three-goal lead in an hour. Nicholas Osorio scoring the first and then setting up the next two for teammate Kevin Da Silva. N.Miss pulled one back with a ‘glol’ about 25 mins from time where Nicola Russo’s cross was ‘cleared’ by Kenny Lioutas but his header hit the head of Sebastian Lach who was challenging for the ball and it ended up back on net evading Denys Rylskyi and giving N.Miss a slight chance in the tie.

This, of course, means that N.Miss would need to inflict on Alliance something that hasn’t happened all season to Ilya Orlov’s side and that is to beat them by two goals. The Panthers were one of the sides to score more than one goal against Alliance during the season, although on that day Alliance scored three, so it is possible if they can keep it tight at the back. That said, Alliance could be without several the players if Orlov’s recent tweet is anything to go by as they will be heading back to Uni. It will be interesting to see what this team that has stayed pretty consistent, player turn over wise, all-season look like in the second leg and onwards. I know form the commentary during the London game that a few of the Western boys are allowed to continue with the playoffs as long as the university team comes first, I wonder if coach Orlov could make similar concessions to his players as he is the coach of both UofT and Alliance?

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