A-League game of Saturday July 5, 1997.
Here are the results of the A-League game between the Toronto Lynx and the Richmond Kickers played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto with an 8:15pm kickoff.
Toronto Lynx (white socks and shirts, black shorts, purple numbers, yellow names)
.................................................1 Pat Onstad
16 Rick Titus....3 Franco Spadafina....17 Daryl Holmes....2 Ralph Golen
23 Phil Caporrella....10 Paul Stalteri....14 Martin Dugas....11 Tommy Kouzmanis
............................8 Darren Tilley...............7 Dwayne De Rosario
Subs:...22 Joe Ciaravino (gk)...4 Ian Carter (def)...20 Danley Johnson (def)...12 Lei Gong (mid)...18 Luca Centurione (mid)...24 Christian Lombardo (mid)...9 Elvis Thomas (fwd)
Richmond Kickers (red socks, white silk shorts, black shirts, white numbers, white pin-hoops on shirts)
...............................................0 Alex Deegan
23 Craig Appleby....2 Paul Lekics....15 Scott Cannon....16 Josh McKay
..................17 Carlos Garcia....7 Dian Angeulov....20 Fabian Davis
.................6 Rob Ukrop....18 Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi....14 Gerson Echeverry
Subs:...1 Mike McGinty (gk)...8 Randy Sheen (mid)...9 Gabe Garcia (fwd)...10 Mac Cozier (fwd)...11 Mario Lone (fwd)...19 Andrew Pfennig (mid)...22 Matt Borgard (mid)
Officials:...Referee Steve Mortimer...Referee's Assistants Zoran Kristo and Neil Scoffield. 4th Official Frank Marciello. They wore green shirts tonight.
In a pregame celebrity shootout, Patrick Reynolds of CITY-TV kicked the ball through the $100 hole to win money for charity. These were kicks from the penalty spot and the other celebrities flubbed their shots.
There was also a special ceremony in honour of the 31st Annual Robbie Tournament of youth soccer. Cheerleaders of the game were from Monarch Park Collegiate.
1st Half: (Lynx defend north end in 1st half, weather cool summer evening 16C 61F).
9 min...Kickers GOAL...Angeulov near edge of box steps aside right of freekick wall and curls shot to right corner beyond diving goalie. McKay gets the assist for nudging the ball to the right.
12 min...Kickers Cannon kicks away ball after Lynx player's quick freekick springs DeRosario.
13 min...Kickers goalie catches Lynx DeRosario's short cross.
16 min...Lynx Kouzmanis gets away short freekick cross, goalie palms it to Tilley (?) who heads ball over net.
18 min...Lynx Golen injures Kickers Echeverry with sliding tackle.
19 min...Kickers Echeverry tips through ball to Adu-Gyamfi whose chip is saved by diving goalie.
21 min...Kickers YELLOW card...Lekics for plowing into Golen. (obviously a payback).
22 min...Kickers GOAL...Ukrop on follow up shot after Lynx goalie had made great foot save. (unassisted).
25 min...Kickers Angeulov injured away from play.
26 min...Kickers Adu-Gyamfi injured near sidelines.
later...Lynx YELLOW card...Holmes for headbutting Ukrop on edge of box. Ukrop is injured in this encounter. Lynx Spadafina runs out and blocks freekick by taking shot in the face.
32 min...Kickers goalie punches out Lynx DeRosario shot in middle of Lynx rally.
37 min...Lynx Tilley pushes shot wide.
38 min...Lynx Tilley finishes give and go with burst through middle and shot into right side netting wrong side of post.
39 min...Kickers goalie rushes out and on sliding tackle stops Lynx Tilley from chipping ball over him. Defender finally clears ball.
42 min...Kickers sub...Lone replaces Adu-Gyamfi.
Halftime:...For the Halftime "Kick To Win" contest, noone wins the $10000 by kicking the ball through the hole from the 35 yard spot but of the three different kickers, young Jamie Spendlov gets one through the $100 hole and on his 2nd shot into the net for a free pizza. David Ianatosco got one through the $10,000 hole but on his 2nd shot so it was worth only $500. That was well announced in advance so the last game public relations fiasco didn't happen.
2nd Half:
Halftime Lynx sub...Gong replaces Caporrella.
47 min...Lynx goalie makes big foot save on Kickers Davis break through shot.
55 min...Kickers Lone burst through and pass to player who sets up Garcia who blasts 15 yard shot over bar.
56 min...Kickers McKay slides into Lynx Gong injuring him.
59 min...Kickers Ukrop gets shot over net while Lynx player hanging on to him.
62 min...Lynx sub...Carter replaces Kouzmanis.
63 min...Lynx goalie stops point blank shot from Kickers Davis. Lynx player injured near centre circle.
65 min...Lynx DeRosario pushes shot on right side, defender surrenders corner.
68 min...Kickers sub...Cozier replaces Echeverry.
69 min...Ball went into Lynx net on scramble but called back by referee.
70 min...Lynx Tilley heads over net along line.
75 min...Lynx DeRosario gets 25 yard shot well wide left.
78 min...Kickers sub...Borgard replaces Davis.
81 min...Lynx Tilley gets perfect header to right post but Kickers goalie jumps sideways to get it.
82 min...Kickers sub...Sheen replaces Lone.
85 min...Lynx goalie challenge causes Kickers Cozier to shoot wide on short right side.
86 min...Kickers goalie rushes out to block shot.
87 min...Lynx header from 3 yards is wide.
88 min...Lynx sub...Lombardo replaces Stalteri.
89 min...Kickers YELLOW card...to unknown player in group of three for timewasting when they can't decide who'll take a corner kick.
Final Score:.........Toronto Lynx..........0 (0)..........Richmond Kickers........2 (2)........
This was the first Lynx home defeat. They have lost their last three games.
Attendance was announced as 1776. It is the team's only Saturday home game of the year. The game was delayed for 30 minutes so a live tv broadcast could be made. Rogers Cable 10 broadcasts a Lynx home game every Saturday night from 8 to 10pm but it is always on a time delay basis. I had got to the game too early by leaving the SkyDome where a friend of mine had taken me to see the BlueJays--Yankees game. Yankees were winning 3-0 when I left (ended 8-0). Didn't get to cheer for a Lynx goal neither. '1776' was very appropriate attendance too as there were a lot of folks cheering for the Richmond team because a lot of Americans were up for the Robbie tournament including at least one from Virginia (Richmond is in their state).
The high school cheerleaders kept the crowd entertained and so did the Lynx mascot by shaking paws and throwing soccer balls to the crowd although that was a distraction as 100's of kids would rush through the empty rows to keep even with the guy in the catsuit.
Rocket Robin
robing@clo.com
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