EDMONTON - June 28, 2004 - A hot summer night with a cool and soothing breeze blowing through Commonwealth Stadium provided the background for the Edmonton Aviators' much deserved first win of their inaugural season. A Chris Lemire feed to the industrious Gordon Chin was rewarded with a well struck shot that did not give Mustangs keeper Lutz Pfannenstiel a chance and gave the home side a taste of victory.
Both teams fielded a 3-5-2 formation, with the visitors lining up Pfannenstiel in goal, Christopher Kooy, Charles Peszneker and Angelo Sestito on defense, Jaime Auvigne, Geert Brusselers, Steffen Holdt, Sergei Kolomiets-Raad, and Mesut Mert in the midfield and Zdravko Savic and Conrad Smith on attack. Edmonton employed defenders Liam deSilva on the right, Chris Handsor in the middle and Jaime Lopresti on the left all of whom protected Luis Campi and the Edmonton net quite well. In midfield, the booed Nikola Vignjevic and Sean Fraser began on the wings, with Gordon Chin, Kurt Bosch and Ebo Mollaibrahimagaoglu providing support for Chris Devlin and Sipho Sibiya up front.
The game started with both teams exchanging early chances, none of which really troubling either keeper. At the 7 minute mark and after a minute's worth of backpassing by the Aviators, the Mustangs were able to pry the ball away ang give Edmonton goalie Campi his first test of the night. He passed it with no problems. Two minutes later, Sean Fraser went on one of his raiding runs along the right hand side, cut into the box and unleashed a shot that was unfortunately blocked.
At the 10th minute, Calgary had a good chance but the cross into the box arrived too early for the streaking forward and the ball went wide. At the 12th minute, Vignjevic made some nice moves around some Mustangs' players but his shot went high. A minute later, Fraser outran two Calgary layers on the right, shot into the box, but again no one was there to receive it. At the 15th, Edmonton had the best chance of the game at that time, when Fraser's run into the box and challenge of the goalie left Sibiya with a wide open net once Fraser passed him the ball. Unfortunately, Sipho overran the ball and the trailing defender was able to clear.
At the 18th minute, Vignjevic fed Bosch who in turn fed Fraser who proceeded to run into the box and unleash a misguided shot on the way. The Mustangs were able to apply some pressure of their own, but at the 21st Vignjevic impressing the crowd with some defensive skills was able to break up the visitor's play. Seven minutes afterwards, Devlin chased down the ball beating two defenders, but was unceremoniously clipped by a sliding Pfannenstiel who also got the ball at the edge of the box. Four minutes later, two Calgary players collided hard in midfield allowing Fraser to run up the right flank unchallenged and gain a corner. From the Vignjevic corner kick, Handsor headed the ball wide.
At the 37th minute, Calgary's Conrad Smith made a nice move around deSilva but was unable to set up a play. Two minutes after and with Calgary still pressing, Mert walked around Lopresti who as a good defender should, promptly knocked him off the ball. On the ensuing free kick, Campi did well to get to the left of the net in time to knock the ball over the net. A minute later, Fraser went raiding again and fed Vignjevic who ended up losing possession. A minute after that, Calgary had two close range chances on goal, but Campi blocked the first and Lopresti blocked the second. Brusselers from Calgary was given a verbal warning by referee Paul Ward for simulation after losing possession. A couple of more chances for both teams as the half drew to a close but Calgary's Mert picked up a yellow card for taking out Handsor's knee at the halfway line.
The second half began with the flood lights adding to the atmosphere provided by the 2,437 fans whose youth members were vocal enough to get one chant of A - V - A - TORS - clap, clap - clap, clap, clap going for five minutes. At the 50th minute Ebo was replaced by Paul Dhaliwal who took over the duties of the left midfield winger. With the fresh legs, Edmonton began utilizing the left side of field for their offensive forays, providing Fraser with some recovery time on the right side. Two minutes after getting on the field, Dhaliwal outran some Mustangs, cut in and fed Bosch whose shot was blocked.
On a free kick at the 54th, Vignjevic kicked the ball into an open area for Sibiya to run into, but the striker was unaware of Nikola's intentions and possession was lost on what should have been an easy set-up. Two minutes after, Chris Lemire came into the game replacing Sibya and providing a more central midfield attack-minded flow to the game. At the 58th, Lemire's cross was headed wide by Dhaliwal.
At the 62nd minute, Calgary substituted Nicolas Zuniga for Kolomiets-Raad. A minute afterwards though, the fans were treated to a bit of foreshadowing as Chin rattled a mid-range shot off the post with Vignjevic's rebound header going to the keeper. Shortly after, on a Calgary free kick, the crowd on the southwest portion of the Stadium was treated to Campi setting up his wall in half English and half Spanish. Unlike Sibya's and Vignjevic's earlier miscommunication, it worked though.
20 minutes from time, Lemire let a beautiful shot go from the top of the box that Pfannenstiel was able to parry. A minute later, Fred Akok came in, replacing Devlin and on the corner kick, the Aviators utilized a nice set play with a short pass followed by a return pass to the kicker who then crosses it more accurately into the box. Unfortunately, it was headed wide. Calgary then made three substitutions the first of which at the 75th being Holdt replaced by Jordan Gillespie and at the 77th minute, with Damir Jesic and Mark Slade coming in for Savic and Smith.
The Aviators looked as if they could smell blood and began playing with a little more desperation, but their passes were often short or mistimed and no clear cut chances materialized. At the end of regulation, the score remained at 0 and threatened to end that way once again. Both teams began the extra time much as they did the beginning of the game with half chances at either end of the field. Vikram Kaushal came in at the 93rd minute at the expense of Bosch. At the 99th, Handsor trying to play the offside trap got caught, but luckily, deSilva was able to steal possession.
The second extra time period got under way with Edmonton being awarded two corner kicks and then at the 105th minute, Lemire's pass to Chin resulted on the first Aviator's goal on home turf and their first win of the season. Congratulations guys! After some very close games, frustrating off field developments and deflated expectations, you definitely deserved that one. Then again, it was only Calgary....
Sergio Teixeira
