Toronto Lynx: 2, Seattle Sounders: 1
Starting Line Ups:
Toronto-Zagar, Titus, Henry, Arango, Dodds, DiPlacido, Aristodemo, Munthali,
Matondo (SUB: Ali, 56th), Fraser (SUB: Mattachione, 82nd), Gbeke (SUB: Belotte,
71st).
Seattle- Burpo, Sleeth (SUB: Sagare, 46th), Graham, Edwards, Scott, Klaas,
Sakuda, Gregor (SUB: Sturm, 77th), Somoza (SUB: Whitfield, 46th), Levesque,
Melo.
(Centennial Park Stadium, Toronto) IT has arrived. The match when the Toronto
Lynx finally got themselves kickstarted, brought key players back from injury,
and look henceforth as though they could compete effectively with any
opposition in the USL Patience, frustration, nail biting cynicism; all have
bean hallmarks of the TO campaign thus far, from player and supporter alike.
But when a team like the Sounders come to town, astounding performances are
brought to the table by returnee fullback Andres Arango, and definitive one-
strikes are sent home by Charles Gbeke (21st minute) and Wyn Belotte (81st
minute), you can’t help but believe.
From the opening whistle on a damp early evening, Toronto brimmed with
confidence and free-flowing movement. A near-tangible wave of cognizance and
expectation flowed through the lads, and the best football of 2005 at
Centennial so far was crafted for 1,811 to see. Seattle’s right flank looked
shaky from the start, and was exploited repeatedly through the snarling prowess
of Jamie Dodds and sparkplug legs of Sean Fraser; both had quality attempts
throughout the match, either weaving or plowing through a Sounders defence with
strangely apathetic resistance.
Seattle are a quality squad, make no doubt. However, the visitors seemed
victims to both fatigue and a bench of little depth in terms of numbers.
Perhaps the most bizarre feature of their game was the inability to capitalize
on the drizzle the came and went for almost the full-90, something you would
think came as second nature for the northwestern squad. Still, while their game
was neither inspired nor high energy, they kept the resurgent Lynx down to two
goals, and pulled back a consolation goal in the last minute of stoppage thanks
to tricky Welton Melo.
Despite some eyebrow raising ferocity from Toronto’s Matondo (witness his
yellow in the 23rd minute for chopping down Ryan Edwards mercilessly on a well
placed but overly-solid slide tackle) and physical stuff from Rumba Munthali,
perhaps the hardest performance of the home squad was from Robbie Aristodemo,
and ex-Sounder who was released mid-season in 2004 without ceremony. While the
compacted midfielder played down the ‘bring up my game to stick it to my ex-
team’ angle afterwards, his game-face dictated differently. With solid physical
grappling for 50/50 balls, excellent service to the wings (he sprung Fraser for
a one-on-one with Burpo in the 14th minute while surrounded by three Sounders),
and an optimistic but powerful blast from almost 40-yards in the second half,
hometown Robbie took the game to his ex-teammates.
The return of Andres Arango though was the high water mark of the evening for
the Lynx, dominating and stalking the backline with seemingly effortless timing
and positioning. Flanked by the tough tandem of Titus and Henry, the centreback
literally saved the match for Toronto with a magnificent clean tackle from
behind on Melo in the 85th minute who was sent in alone on Zagar; with an
expertly-timed scissor of the legs and just enough fulcrum, young Arango
stripped his opposition of the ball and killed the play with extreme deftness.
Despite some great work by Zagar in net over the match, it was the defining
defensive play of the evening. Seeing long-serving Joe Mattachione return for a
short stint in the last 10-minutes of play was also an uplifting sign of things
to come.
Burpo too earned his paycheck repeatedly with two game-steering tips over the
crossbar and several stretches to either post on threatening low grounders;
certainly the standout for the visiting squad.
The Lynx, while still hovering in last place, are now undefeated in three and
looking to go nowhere but up. There is no reason this rejuvenated squad cannot
make a run for a playoff spot, and with the uniformed excellence seen recently
from such a promising squad, disasters like the 5-3 drubbing against Rochester
last month seem now nigh impossible. Balanced well with grit, speed,
leadership, finesse, and finishing ability (notice their balanced scoring
beginning to take shape), not to mention the Godsend return of powerful Gbeke,
the Lynx could very well be the surprise team of the 2005 season, like Atlanta
from 2004 or the Charlotte Eagles of 2002.
The Lynx next defend their unbeaten streak against the visiting midtable
Atlanta Silverbacks on Wednesday July the 20th, a team with a very strong away
record.
Card Infractions: Seattle- Levesque (YELLOW, 85th min). Toronto- Matondo
(YELLOW, 23rd), Belotte (YELLOW, 81st).
