Foote Stadium, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Goals:
Edmonton Sibiya 37’ (Fraser)
Devlin 110+’ (Vigjevic)
Toronto Gbeke 67’ (unassisted)
Edmonton: Stankov; Ebo ( Kaushal 84), Devlin, Hart ; Bosch, Chin, Vignjevic, Dhaliwal; Fraser, Akok, Sipho Sibya (Tachie, 76)
Toronto: Hancock; Mattacchione, Arango (Mayard 45), Blois; Baxter (Munthali 74), Hughes (Batolemeu 45), Dodds , Diplacido, Gerba ; Steele (Gbeke 51) Nusum
Cautions:
Edmonton: Ibo (22)
Toronto: Nuusum (24), Steele (41), Dodds (75), Munthali (100)
Ejections:
Edmonton: None
Toronto: Blois (65)
Referees: John De La Cruz, Mike Lambert, Bruce Primeau, Dave Canta
Attendance: 473 (official, about right)
Weather: cloudy, very windy with extreme gusts from NW, cool 15 C Kick-off: 7:30 pm MDT (finished 9:45 pm, after full overtime; sunset was officially at 9:38, but it was getting dark well before that because of the clouds)
A cool, blustery evening at Foote Field grass stadium, the weather reducing last week’s Edmonton FC home opener by half. Rain was threatening all night.
Both teams had basic 4-4-2 formations. Toronto used Steele, listed as a forward, as a midfielder. Edmonton basically used Fraser as a midfielder as well.
Toronto attacked strongly, and generally had the upper hand through much of the match, with some exceptions. They had between 55 to 66 per cent possession through the match. Their ball control and domination on the one-on-ones was clear. They were very successful throughout the match at catching the generally disorganized Edmonton defense flat-footed, and would have scored a lot more goals had they been more successful at finishing. The goalkeeper Hancock was very good throughout the match, making most of the stops when Edmonton were able to mount sustained attacks. Neither of the goals were his fault. The also played an extremely physical and harassing game,, and tried the referee’s patience throughout. The referee’s spotty officiating generally favored Toronto throughout the match, as he let play continue for the most part. The linesmen were also spotty, mis-calling or missing numerous offside.
Edmonton played a spirited game, but were very sloppy in their passing. They were able to have very sustained attacks, and their attacking generally dominated in short periods throughout the match, and after the first five minutes of overtime. The goalkeeper Stankov was good at stopping initial shots, but showed decided weakness both in positioning and in dropping initial blocks. He was often caught out of position by the Lynx attackers, and was lucky to only surrender one goal.
The first half opened with sustained attacking by the Lynx in the first 10 minutes. Toronto’s attack was against a strong wind, which Edmonton did not seem able to take advantage of. Toronto hit the cross-bar, and had several corner kicks during this time.
Edmonton responded with a series of attacks for three minutes. At the 14th minute there was a minute where the ball remained in the Edmonton 18 yard box, when Toronto had a number of close range shots.
The first half could be summarized as largely being missed Toronto opportunities and awful Edmonton passing. An example of the poor passing is when Toronto got an errant pass near the Edmonton goal, and Ibo had to commit a yellow card foul to stop the breakaway. John Nusum had numerous breakaways for Toronto, and his frustration showed when he committed a yellow card pull in the Edmonton box (he committed numerous fouls throughout the evening, but was inexplicably avoided being given a second yellow on many occasions).
Although Toronto continued to dominate, Edmonton did have some limited attacks in the last part. The best chance before scoring is when Sibiya, who had an excellent match, hit a hard close shot that was only stopped by an equally excellent effort by Hancock at 27’.
The goal by Edmonton at 37’ was as a result of an incredible run up the right side by Fraser, who made a perfect cross to Sibiya, who quickly kicked it in.
The goal woke Toronto up, and at 39’ Gerba had a great shot, made after an equally great breakaway, stopped by Stankov. Toronto physically dominated the last five minutes of the match. The half ended with no injury time, even though at least 2 minutes of injury time due to real injuries should have been added.
The first 15 minutes of the first half showed continual Lynx attack, and terrible passing by Edmonton. Toronto took full advantage of the continuing strong wind at their back, but were again unable to finish.
At about 60’, the wind died down, and Edmonton managed to mount a four minute series of attacks on the Lynx. At 64’, Fraser had beaten Blois on a breakaway into the box, and was chopped down in the box from behind pretty savagely. It was typical of Toronto’s physical play, but it was the only red card of the night (to Blois). There was no penalty kick though, as the referee decided to give Edmonton only a free kick outside the box.
Gbeke's goal came at 67’, a turn and toe-poke from the left edge of the box that Stankov initially stopped, but it kept rolling to the right and caught the inside of the right post and slowly went in.
The remainder of the regular time was more of the same, and Toronto again had the advantage (and no disadvantage to being down to ten men) as the wind picked up.. Despite several injuries, there was only about a minute of extra time until the second half ended. It was already getting dark when the first 90’ ended at about 9:15 pm, and there are no lights at this stadium. The first five minutes of overtime involved domination by the Lynx. After that, Edmonton had the better chances, especially through Fraser and Akok. Toronto again had the wind. The first 10’ half of overtime ended on the dot.
One of the highlights in the second half of overtime was when Nusum of the Lynx was able to carry the ball around the Edmonton keeper on the left, leaving himself open only a few yards from the mouth of the open goal. He had all kinds of time, but somehow managed to kick it over the cross-bar. Even through the gathering darkness, the crowd could see the nightmare miss very clearly and groaned thankfully.
It really looked like the overtime would end in a tie after that. Edmonton dominated, and Toronto, settling on a shorthanded tie, started all kinds of delaying tactics. At 20:00 on the game clock, half the crowd got up to leave, However, the play continued for an extra 2 minutes plus (although there is to be no added time to overtime). Edmonton continued it’s pressure, Gordon Chin having a particularly strong shot caught by Hancock. Still the Edmonton pressure continued, the referee not blowing his whistle. Edmonton was awarded a corner kick on the left, and crowded the box with all but two defensemen. The Vignevic corner was fisted out by Hancock, but was popped in at close range by defenseman Devlin to the open right hand side of the net. The whistle blew in the gathering darkness.
The crowd was shocked but happy, the first points by the new resurrected FC entity. The Edmonton players came up to the grandstand and gave the small crowd an ovation for their noisy support on such an uncomfortable evening.
The Lynx bench were not happy at the extra time at the end of overtime, and ran out to confront the referee. They had to be physically restrained by the linesmen and some of the local club staff. The melee continued for several minutes. Although they may have had some right to complain technically, there will doubtless be some disciplinary action against Lynx coach Wilde and his staff by the league.
For the season, the Lynx fall to 7-11-1, while Edmonton FC improved to 3-11-6 (including the Aviator's run).
What a crazy ending for a match!
Quotes
-from uslsoccer.com
"We made the mistakes and have only ourselves to blame for the result," said a very disappointed Lynx Head Coach, Duncan Wilde. "We had more than enough chances to win the game but didn't make good use of them. In the end, I was very frustrated with how the outcome was determined."
-from Edmonton Sun:
"I was just in the right place at the right time - finally - and we got some luck and I just ripped it. It's a great feeling," said Devlin. "I got up as fast as I've ever got up in my life and just ran. The fans went nuts."
"We'll play anywhere," said Sibiya. "The minute we look at it as a negative, you almost defeat yourself. We're professionals and we've got to treat it like that no matter what the situation is. It could be worse, honestly. We could not be playing."
Additional Statistics from uslsoccer.com
http://www.uslsoccer.com/stats/2004/1076861.html
