Result of the Saturday March 26th, 2005 pre-season friendly between the A-League Toronto Lynx and the University of Toronto Blues played at Lamport Stadium in Toronto at 2:00pm.

Toronto Lynx (gray sweatshirts, black shorts and socks)

.......................Richard Goddard
8 Rumba Munthali...4 Joe Mattacchione...2 Andres Arango...21 Robin Hart
25 Derrick Tacchie...5 Shawn Faria...9 David DiPlacido...13 Jamie Dodds
.....................12 Dave Simpson...15 Kevin Nelson

These were the first half starters. Their gray sweatshirts have really small numbers on the chest and some players I could recognize but it took Dick Howard and after the game, head coach Hubert Busby Jr to fill in the blanks.

U of T wore all black (I was expecting blue) with white numbers. There season runs from the late summer to late fall.

Lamport Stadium has the old style Astroturf with only a 100 yard football field plus short end zones. Now I know where they keep the dragon boats in the offseason because there were super-large canoes in the north end zone. No ball went over the back fences the whole game. Passes had to be precise or the ball would roll out of bounds.

43 minutes...Toronto Lynx Kevin Nelson GOAL...Lynx Dave Simpson crosses ball in from right side of box, Nelson chests it down in crowd of players and his 8 yard shot is just under the bar into the top left corner.

For the 2nd Half, the Lynx started a second team after only a 10 minute intermission.

......................Cameron somebody
Mathew Palleschi, Hayden Fitzwilliams on wing, 2 Rick Titus in defence, Kevin Taylor in defence, Kwame Telemarque, Niles Decker, Serge Francola, some guy named Huffman and some other guys. Darren Baxter (returning from last year) was in the midfield.

The U of Toronto team multisubbed at 63 minutes, replacing half the team.

86 minutes...Toronto Lynx Hayden Fitzwilliams GOAL...'Huffman' running up middle finds Fitzwilliams is open on left and his 15 yard low shot is into right corner of net.

Final score:..........Toronto Lynx.........2.........University Of Toronto Blues............0.......

I gave the U of T only one good chance and that was in the game's final minute when #4 crossed into the box from 35 yards from the right and #19 nodded the ball wide right from 10 yards. Neither Lynx goalie had anything to do except clear a few pass backs.

Attendance was about 50 on this cold day (well it was warm 5oC and sunny) but pleasant. There was still snow piles in the end zone.

Busby wasn't pleased with the team operating in the final third of the field. They passed around at will and retained possession for most of the game in the U of T half but as Busby said the other team stacked the edge of their box with five players and the Lynx couldn't break through. The coach also said at their next training session, there will be new players coming in for tryouts.

I was surprised how many guys I'd seen before from CPSL days. Let me recap the players:

Lynx returnees:
Richard Goddard (goal) played a few games for the Lynx last year as a backup (an Ottawa Wizard years ago).
Rumba Munthali (defender) I thought he played well today.
Joe Mattacchione (defender/midfielder)
Andres Arango (defender)
Shawn Faria (midfielder)
David DiPlacido (midfielder)
Jamie Dodds (midfielder)
Rick Titus (defender) played a few games for the Lynx midseason. He played great today.
Darren Baxter (midfielder) Dick Howard said he played for Queen's Park Rangers but was injured for a few months in a game against the Chelsea reserves.

New players:
Robin Hart (defender) Edmonton Aviator in 2004 (an Ottawa Wizard before that)
Derrick Tacchie (midfielder) Edmonton Aviator in 2004
Kevin Nelson (forward) Hamilton Thunder in 2004 (an Ottawa Wizard before that)
David Simpson (forward) Hamilton Thunder in 2004
Cameron ???????? (goalie)
Mathew Palleschi (forward) York Shooters watched by his father and Shooters team owners Tony and Cindy DeThomasis. His father said he's been practising with the Lynx but will try out for the Montreal Impact next week. If he doesn't make the team, he'll be back with the Lynx.
Hayden Fitzwilliams (midfielder) Metro Lions
Kwame Telemarque (an Ottawa Wizard a few years ago)
Kevin Taylor (defender) was a walk on from the University of Michigan.
other players that I don't know: Niles Decker, Serge Francola, 'Huffman'.

players not there: Edgar Bartolomeu is still playing indoors as is former Lynx player Robbie Aristedemo who 'may' be coming back.
Josue Mayard and Ali Gerba are still attending school in Montreal.

So there's four former Ottawa Wizards players as well as head coach Hubert Busby who once was a Wizards goalie and a coach. He was with the 1998 Toronto Lynx team too.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca

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