August 15, 2004 - EDMONTON - Edmonton FC played by far the worst 45 minutes of the year, conceding 3 goals and creating no quality shots on goal, before switching gears and trying to make a game of it in the second half. Missing Sean Fraser and Chris Devlin definitely hurt the home side's chances this early evening.
As usual, Edmonton utilized its standard 3-5-2 system with Nik Stankov in net, but this time using Simon Kassaye on the left side of defense, Ibrahim (Ebo) Mollaibrahimagaoglu in the centre and Liam DeSilva on the right. The midfield consisted of Robin Hart on the left flank, Nikola Vignjevic, Gordon Chin and Captain Kurt Bosch in the middle and Paul Dhaliwal on the right. Fred Akok and Sipho Sybyia were the two strikers as always.
The Milwaukee Wave also used a 3-5-2 with Jim Larkin in goal, Steve Lawrence, Joe Hammes and Chad Dombrowski on defense, Nick Walls, Nino Marcantonio, Matt Schmidt, Johnny Torres and Jamar Beasley in the midfield and Greg Howes and Todd Dusosky up front.
Milwaukee started strong from the get go. At the 4' minute, a nice passing play allowed Milwaukee to go up field, but some poor finishing allowed Stankov to cover easily. A minute later, Howes put the ball over the bar after a nice feed from the corner of the box.
The Wave would finally get their first goal when at the 9' minute, a simple cross from the left corner found Schmidt who made no mistake. 1-0 Milwaukee.
Two minutes later, Edmonton would have a good opportunity at having their first shot on goal when they were awarded a free kick, but Vignjevic's cross into the box was in vain as a foul was called on the home side.
Gordon Chin received a pass from Captain Kurt two minutes afterwards, but kept the ball up and as he was fighting for it, got clobbered by a Wave defender. No call on the play.
On the corner kick though, Vignjevic played it short to Chin who crossed it well to Sibiya who headed it wide of the target.
Both teams began a see-saw battle, going end to end but with Milwaukee enjoying an edge in midfield through better positioning and desire to fight for the ball.
Stankov came up big a few times, especially in the 25' minute when a Milwaukee attacker running along the touchline of the box, made a short pass that was headed towards an incoming attacker, but Stankov reacted quickly and was able to smother the ball.
The contrast in both teams' effort was evident two minutes later as Sibyia was issued a yellow card for shoving a Wave defender out of the way rather than positioning himself for an incoming pass that would have found him all alone in the left side of the box.
At the 31' minute, Milwaukee took a corner kick which got to Howes on the far side, who made a nice moveand threaded the ball through the box as everyone stood and watched, with the exception of Dombrowski who was too busy putting the ball in the back of the net. Absolutely dreadful defending, but the goal did serve to light a fire for Edmonton who went to enjoy a good spell ofpossession as the Wave fell back to defend their 2 goal lead.
With Edmonton pressing and the defense pinching up though, a near breakway for Milwaukee was stopped when Ebo slapped down the rushing Wave player and was promptly added to Referee Mark Budda's naughty list with a yellow card. Captain Kurt must not have wanted to be on Mr. Budda's Christmas list either and was given a yellow card for dissent. It would have been a perfect time for the announcer to have played Inner Circle's song, 'Bad Boys' made popular as the theme song from 'COPS'.
The Wave would stop the Edmonton momentum and move the action back into the home side's half of the field, keeping possession and gaining several corner kicks. Edmonton did gain a glorious opportunity though in the 41' minute when a corner kick from Vignjevic resulted in a goal mouth scramble with several Edmonton players poised to strike, but a couple of bad bounces kept the ball out.
Coming back the other way, Beasley and Howes combined well, beating Ebo on a 2 on 1 and Howes sealed the deal making it 3-0 visitors. Ouch!
Both teams made substitutions at the half with the good guys taking out Kassaye and Dhaliwal and replacing them with Desmond Tachie and Eric Munoz. The Wave replaced Walls with Marcelo Fontana.
The game continued with both sides exchanging rushes, although this time Edmonton looked like they were in the game. At the 53' minute, Chin unleashed a beautiful curling shot that unluckily hit the woodwork. Two minutes later, Sipho was sent in alone on the left side of the box and his simple tap in crossed the line but the linesman called it on the offside. Very disappointing but the crowd was back in it.
Milwaukee, sensing Edmonton might have a chance at coming back took out Dusosky and replaced him with Kevin Burk a minute later. Edmonton would go upfield though two minutes after the substitution on a 3 on 2 but Akok was stripped of the ball, before he had a shot. The Wave made another change with Andrew Roseband caming on for Beasley.
Edmonton continued to press and gained a few corner kicks but nothing of consequence. Then at the 70' minute after Christopher Morman replaced Dombrowski, Vignjevic was issued a yellow card for one of the most memorable events this season. While getting ready to take a free kick, Vignjevic asked the Referee to move the wall back. When the Referee didn't, Vignjevic took it upon himself to measure the distance from the ball to the wall. Needless to say, Mr. Budda was not amused. The subsequent shot did make it past the wall but right at Larkin.
Three minutes later a falling Vignjevic managed to chip the ball to Sibiya who rather than having an effort on goal, crossed it back into the box where there was no one. Two minutes after that, Chin was booked for clipping a Wave player in the heel from behind as milwaukee was rushing upfield.
Vignjevic came off at the 77' minute and went straight to the dressing room as Carmelo Rago Jr. came on to replace him. Edmonton continued to pressure Milwaukee but were unable to penetrate for a clear chance on goal. Milwaukee made their final substitution at the 82' minute bringing in Boureima Kante for Torres. Three minute later, the Wave had a good attack going with Marcantonio doing a slalom run through the Edmonton back line but he passed it to Howes who was a little more physical than necessary with the Edmonton defender. A yellow card to Howes made it 5 yellows for Edmonton and 1 for the Wave. At least we beat them in something.
The game dwindled down with the result unchangeable and with Edmonton doing enough to somewhat redeem themselves after a terrible first half. An acknowledgement should be made of the hard work done by the www.90Minutes.ca team who once again published a match day programme, threw towels into the crowd everytime Edmonton had a corner kick, and threw jerseys into the crowd at halftime. Their dedication is outstanding.
Sergio Teixeira
