October 24, 2021 League1 Ontario Men's Premier--Blue Devils FC vs FC London game report (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Sunday October 24, 2021 League1 Ontario game between Blue Devils FC vs FC London
played at St Thomas Aquinas Turf in Oakville at 2:00pm.

Blue Devils FC (navy socks, shorts, and shirts, white numbers, blue shoulders)

...................1 Lucas Birnstingle
18 Carlo Difeo...5 Shaq Lowe...6 Victor Gallo (cpt)...11 Adam Czerkawski...2 Zac Drake
....12 Cyrus Rollocks...9 David Velastegui...17 Brandon Duarte...7 Matt Santos
....................25 Leaford Allen

Subs:...26 Ethan Cagalj (gk)...8 Emmanuel Issac...10 Faris Ammari...13 Frank Previte
...16 Khody Ellis...19 Evan James...20 Hiteshi Joshi...22 Mario McLellan...23 Milos Grahovac
team officials:...team head coach Duncan Wilde...asssitant coaches Billy Steele and Glenn McNamara
...manager Kim Ashton...therapist Mark Heathcote

FC London (red socks and shorts, white shirts, black numbers)

.....................1 Eleias Himaras
2 Marko Maletic...14 Bradley Heath...8 Michael Bitel...15 Randy Ribeiro (cpt)
.........7 Ethan Gopaul...6 Tomas Ribeiro...23 Daniel Oshana
.........11 Tomas Alvarez...9 Connor Wilson...17 Chad Gopaul

Subs:...3 Aleksa Rajic...5 Sean Fawsitt...12 Sam Barowcliffe...13 Christian Cavakos
...16 Zachary Witt...18 Brent Anderson...21 Jeremy Arnold
team officials: team head coach Michael Marcoccia...assistant coach Luigi Sobaro...therapist Michael Robinson

Game officials:...referee Brian Butler...referee's assistants Mahboob Gulestani and David Giannotti
...fourth official Hassane Riffai...(neon green shirts, black shorts and socks)

First Half:...game starts 2:03pm...Blue Devils defends east end on this midle and sunny afternoon.
2 min...BD Difeo 40 yard freekick from right has defender on edge of box head ball away. BD player
rolls 25 yarder from left wide right of net.
4 min...Blue Devils Cyrus Rollocks GOAL...BD Matt Santos rushes on left and high cross from 25 yards
has BD Leaford Allen pop up ball with foot at 12 yards on left. Rollocks heads in 6 yarder into short right
side of net past goalie Eleias Himaras.
8 min...FCL Bitel blasts 35 yarder down middle well wide left.
10 min...BD Lowe chest down cross and 7 yard shot deflects for cornerkick.
10 min...BBD Czerkawski has short cornerkick from left crossed to him but over his head on right side.
12 min...BD Rollocks wins cornerkick on cross along right end line.
12 min...BD Velastegui cornerkick from right has defender head away in crowd of players.
13 min...BD Velastegui cornerkick from right has BD Lowe in crowd of players head 5 yarder wide left.
14 min...FCL defenders make two sliding tackles preventing BD Duarte then BD Allen from getting away shot in box.
16 min...BD Difeo rolls through ball pass on right straight to goalie.
17 min...BD Velastegui 35 yard freekick from right is headed away on edge of box.
21 min...FCL Chad Gopaul flying header just misses connecting on cross from 18 yards from right.
21 min...FCL goalie is out of box to right to beat BD Rollocks to long through ball pass.
22 min...BD Velastegui 45 yard freekick from left has FCL Maletic pop out header. BD Duarte one-touch whiffs
on 15 yard shot sending it well high and left of net.
28 min...BD YELLOW card...Velastegui earns it for sliding tackle on FCL Maletic.
29 min...FCL Randy Ribeiro blasts 25 yard roller from middle just wide right of post.
30 min...BD Allen muscles aside defender and low 12 yard shot is saved by sprawling goalie.
33 min...BD YELLOW card...Drake earns it for tackle at FCL 50 yard line.
37 min...FCL Oshana cross from 20 yards on left end line has BD Drake head away in 6 yard box and wins freekick
when pushed over.
42 min...BD Rollocks bumps with defender on left to get away shot from 15 yards on left end line but it's into outside
webbing of net.
43 min...FCL YELLOW card...Maletic earns it for bumping BD Rollocks rushing on left at FCL 30 yard line.
44 min...BD Santos cornerkick from left has FCL Chad Gopaul flick header away on short left side.
45 min...BD Rollocks gets ball off deflection on defender at 15 yards and 7 yard shot is over sliding goalie but retreating
FCL Maletic clears at 2 yards.
46 min...half ends 2:49pm.

Halftime: Players stayed at their benches. There's no access to the school buidling anyway. The Blue Devils "2005 Boys
Ontario Cup winners" team is presented to the fans while the DJ plays "We Are The Champions".

Second Half:...starts 3:00pm.
46 min...BD Duarte rolls cross from right to middle and BD Santos blasts shot well high and wide left when sliding FCL Maletic
rushes his shot.
50 min...FCL Alvarez 12 yards shot in crowd on left deflects wide right.
51 min...FCL Randy Ribeiro cornerkick from right is cleared on near side starting fast break. BD Allen and BD Rollocks end up
winning a cornerkick on the right.
51 min...BD player's cornerkick on right has defender head ball out of box.
53 min...FCL Randy Ribeiro 38 yard freekick up middle has goalie jump to catch at 4 yards in crowd of players.
54 min...FCL Wilson is just a step behind cross from left with two other FCL players also behind last defender.
55 min...BD sub...Ellis replaces Rollocks.
56 min...BD Duarte gets behind FCL Maletic for 30 yard run up left cutting to middle and 10 yard shot is saved by sprawling
goalie on near post.
58 min...BD Velastegui 30 yard freekick from left has FCL Maletic head away in crowd of players in box.
59 min...BD goalie catches low pass at 6 yards beating charging FCL Alvarez to ball.
61 min...FCL sub...Vyfschaft replaces Bitel. Vyfschaft has to be called back as he ran out still wearing his pinney!
62 min...BD Santos 40 yard cross has goalie drift right to catch.
63 min...BD Drake is injured by tackle at BD 30 yard line.
65 min...BD Duarte is tapped pass and 25 yard shot from tipped into outside webbing of net.
66 min...Blue Devils Adam Czerkawski GOAL...BD David Velastegui sends in cornerkick from right over crowd
of players to Czerkawski on left post who heads in 6 yarder into short side of net.
67 min...BD Santos 30 yard shot is rolled wide left of net.
69 min...BD Santos cornerkick from left is whistled down in box and as BD Allen and goalie are knocked down.
71 min...FCL Randy Ribeiro 40 yard freekick down middle has BD Ellis head away. The ball then is headed around in box
but cleared.
72 min...BD Allen breaks behind last man from 40 yards on right and 20 yard shot is rolled wide left of post.
74 min...BD Duarte and FCL Randy Ribiero are both injured on rush into FCL box. Ribiero has a nose bleed.
75 min...FCL sub...Barowcliffe replaces Alvarez.
76 min...BD Velastegui cornerkick from right is knocked around then FCL players get away on fast break that's finally
stopped at BD 25 yard line.
78 min...BD goalie catches 50 yard chip in front of charging players.
80 min...FCL sub...Anderson replaces Chad Gopaul.
81 min...BD Santos cornerkick from left is partially cleared. BD Velastegui blasts 25 yarder just over bar.
82 min...BD Santos 30 yard blast from left rolls to goalie on short side.
83 min...FCL Oshana centers ball from right and FCL Ethan Gopaul shoots 25 yarder down middle wide right of net.
84 min...BD players make three clearance of FCL shot attempts.
85 min...FCL YELLOW card...Vyfschaft earns it for smashing into BD Czerkawski.
86 min...BD sub...James replaces Santos.
..........BD sub...Issac replaces Allen.
87 min...FCL YELLOW card...Heath earns it while waiting for BD freekick but jostling BD player in box.
87 min...BD player's freekick along right end line has goalie palm ball across box.
90 min...BD sub...Previte replaces Velastegui.
90 min...BD Issac cornerkick from left has goalie catch on headed tip.
91 min...BD Difeo low cross from 25 yards near endline is caught by goalie.
93 min...BD Ellis taps through ball pass to BD James but goalie picks up ball at 12 yard line.
94 min...BD player takes short cornerkick from left to waste time.
96 min...game ends 3:51pm.

Final Score:....Blue Devils......2...........FC London.........0........

Attendance had climbed to about 200 by halftime on this rather mild afternoon for this time of year
and a cloudy day with the sun out at certain times. A bunch of travelling fans were here today
to support London.

I wasn't expecting the game to start out the way it did with London rarely getting out of their own
end for the first 25 minutes on the game. After that the game opened up a bit to be end to end rushes
with Blue Devils forwards Cyrus Rollocks and Leaford Allen ready to play for long balls upfield
leaving most of the other players back to help with the defending.

I counted the first shot that Blue Devils goalie Lucas Birnstingl (rather than a defender) actually
had to stop was on a freekick at 53 minutes.

Blue Devils couldn't get an insurance goal until 66 minutes where they could relax. (London had to
'win' this game to pass Blue Devils in the standings). The competiveness was almost ended at the
end of the first half when Cyrus Rollocks on a 1 v 2 rush got the ball to deflect off a defender
at 15 yards and put him in alone and he tapped a 7 yard shot past the sliding goalie but another
retreating defender, Marko Maletic, cut across from the left and cleared the ball away from 2 yards.

Brian Butler gave out five Yellow cards that I saw with London earning three with both coaches
sniping that he favoured the other team.

The long term future for Blue Devils L1O Men's team looks bright as at halftime their 2005 Boys
team was introduced as winning the Ontario Cup last month. It may seem like a long way off but
some L1O teams are squeezing 2003 and 2004 born players into their Premier Men's Division roster.
(see Sigma FC's lineup yesterday).

I also got to compare notes with how much we enjoyed the Canada vs Panama game with Blue Devils
goaltending coach Glenn McNamara who I saw with one of his sons at the game at BMO Field in Toronto
the Wednesday before...Yep Alphonso Davies goal—best moment of the night. Also Blue Devils
communications manager Pierce Lang who does some work for the CSA and slipped me the national team
rosters when I knocked on the BMO Field press box window before all three national team games.

This game was to settle second place in the West—the last playoff spot to be decided in the league.
Blue Devils had a two point lead over London with this the last game of the abbreviated regular
season. A tie would have been good enough for the Blue Devils. Second place in the West crosses
over to play Vaughan Azzurri away in a one game semi-final next weekend.

With the league splitting between East and West for this year and no games between them, I asked
Blue Devils head coach Duncan Wilde if he'd seen Vaughan's new facility at North Maple Regional Park.
He said he'd been there at an evaluation camp. I thought goal scorer Adam Czerkawski had seen
it because he played for Masters for the first part of this season then we realized no the Masters
at Vaughan game had been rained out and will be played this Tuesday that I have sort of said I'd
be there so I could brag that I'd seen all four qualifying teams within a week of the playoffs
starting. Still Adam said it would be great if the two teams played—Yeah “Ex-captain to play
against his old team in the final”. Headline writes itself although both Masters and Blue Devils
are second seeds.

Blue Devils improve to a record of 9 wins, 1 loss, 2 ties for 29 points. The only other time I'd
been to St Thomas Aquinas in Oakville was back on August 29th when they lost 5-0 to new team
Guelph United and it was the first time I took Guelph seriously. Guelph I saw yesterday beat Sigma
to improve to 10 wins, 2 losses, 0 ties for 30 points and the 'Best in the West' title for maybe the
league's first and only time on splitting into two conferences...however three teams are either new
or rejoining the league for 2022 and by geography that's just in the East alone.
Note: Blue Devils got revenge on Guelph just last Sunday by winning 1-0 on the road.

London's record falls to 8 wins, 4 losses, 0 ties for 24 points. Any other year anything around
a 50-50 record gets you into the quarterfinals but a two week playoff before the snow falls means
there are only four teams playing next week.

Semi-Finals next week will be held at the 'first place teams' fields next weekend and the winner
of those will play the final at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughan on Sunday November 7th.
It looks like the L1O Women's final will be the same day. Only problem is that day OneSoccer will
be broadcasting a 1pm and 3:30pm CPL doubleheader (but not Southern Ontario teams Forge and York
who play each other the day before). Therefore I don't expect the network will cover the L1O games.
2019 had OneSoccer broadcast the game on Friday September 29th but the weather wasn't bad at night
at that time of year. November 14th will mark the three year anniversary of the CPL purchasing L1O.
Broadcasting any L1O games has not been a priority but at least the men's and women's finals made
the airwaves in prior years. Hey not even counting the dozens of L1O players in the CPL,
the Canadian national team has six players who've played L1O ball.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
twitter @RocketRobin01

Blue Devils FC starters