October 23, 2021 League1 Ontario Men's Premier--Sigma FC vs Guelph United game report (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Saturday October 23, 2021 League1 Ontario game between Guelph United and Sigma FC
played at Iceland in Mississauga at 1:00pm.

Sigma FC (blue socks and shirts, black shorts, white numbers)

.................1 Christopher Kalongo
12 Daniel Stampatori...16 Kenny Lioutas...5 Kyle Walton (cpt)...15 Aaron D'Souza
.........6 Owen Whitton...23 Noah Mehta...19 Mansoor Afazaly
.........7 Marcus Caldeira...9 Jason Squeo...11 Sebastian Castello

Subs:...31 Jack Croistini (gk)...2 Samuel Valentine...4 Jacob Cordon Cruz...8 John Delgado
...18 Shane Ricketts...20 Abdul Mannan Edusei...21 Joshua Miller
team officials:...team head coach John Zervos...assistant coach David Ibgreja...therapist Liam McPherson

Guelph United (black socks, shorts, and numbers, amber shirt)

.................1 Svyatoslav Artmenko
.......5 Justin Springer...13 Luke Rankin...3 Steven Pavan
15 Dion Stergiotis...4 Amardo Oakley...2 Quinn Lonardi...14 Lucas Doros...18 Denilson Clamp
...........8 Tomasz Skublak...10 Jace Kotsopoulos (cpt)

Subs:...7 Julien Emond...9 Jimmy Yancy...11 Spencer Regan...12 Brandon Wellington
6 Andrew Toale...16 Zulkikar Karimi...17 Vahan Sargsyan...19 De Vante Walker...20 Marek Walczak
team officials:...team head coaches Keith Mason and Justin Springer...assistant coach Don Ferguson
manager Mickael Rougette...head physio Brett Lyon
Suspended player: Dylan Rennie

Game officials:...referee Timothy Wong...referee's assistants Jason Olinski and Justin Deschiffart
...fourth official not listed...(neon pink shirts, black shorts and socks)

First Half:...game starts 1:01pm...Sigma defends northeast end on this cold and cloudy afternoon.
2 min...GU players cornerkick from left has Sigma Stampatori on near post duck and head ball away for throw-in.
3 min...Sigma goalie dives forward to smother rolled cross at 7 yard line.
5 min...GU Clamp rolls centering pass along 6 yard line and defender clears.
6 min...Sigma Squeo just a step behind centering cross from left from 30 yards and goalie stops.
7 min...Guelph Jace Kotsopoulos GOAL...GU Dion Stergiotis dribbles into box to 12 yards in middle and rolls pass
for Kotsopoulos who has a tap-in from 7 yards on the left.
9 min...Sigma Noah Mehta GOAL...Sigma Mansoor Afzaly intercepts centering pass along GU 50 yard line and passes
forward up middle to Mehta at 35 yard line. Mehta dribbles forwards then blasts 22 yarder down middle over goalie
Svyatoslav Artmenko into top right corner of net.
10 min...GU Skublak chips bouncer over charging goalie from 20 yards down middle and ball bounces wide right of net.
13 min...GU Oakley low cornerkick from left has Sigma D'Souza clear. GU Stergiotis chips 25 yarder high over net.
14 min...Sigma Caldeira rolls ball over right end line when trying to beat defender on long run down field.
17 min...GU Oakley cross from 22 yards near right end line is caught by goalie.
18 min...GU Skublak blast from 25 yards in middle deflects off defender at 10 yards and rolls to goalie.
19 min...Guelph Tomasz Skublak dekes goalie Christopher Kalongo on right and Sigma captain Kyle Walton pulls him down
at 7 yards. Referee Timothy Wong awards GU a Penalty kick.
...........Sigma YELLOW card...Walton earns it for his part in last play.
20 min...Guelph Jace Kotsopoulos GOAL...Kotsopoulos blasts Penalty kick to right side of goal just inside post about
halfway up out of reach of flying goalie.
22 min...GU Skublak rolls pass to GU player but it's already over the right end line.
28 min...Sigma Caldeira beats defender on run down right and low cross wins cornerkick conceded by another defender.
29 min...Sigma Castello cornerkick from right has leaping defender in crowd of players head ball away.
30 min...Sigma Walton stops rolled pass and chips 20 yarder between crowd of players just high of top right corner of GU net.
31 min...GU Clamp 25 yard shot from left is caught by goalie on first bounce on near post.
34 min...Sigma Caldeira is called for pushing away defender on run to right end line.
35 min...GU player's cross from right is over players in box.
36 min...Sigma D'Souza can't squeeze between two defenders keeping him from ball at GU 20 yard line on left.
38 min...GU Springer makes key slide to break up pass to open Sigma player at 8 yards in middle.
41 min...GU sub...Emond replaces Pavan.
42 min...GU Skublak dribbles up field and taps pass to GU Lonardi who shoots 22 yarder that deflects off defender and tips up
for goalie to catch under bar.
43 min...First Sigma then GU plays are called offside.
44 min...GU goalie is out to 25 yards to clear through ball pass to Sigma Caldeira.
45 min...Sigma player's 30 yard freekick from far right is knocked down and cleared from box.
46 min...Sigma YELLOW card...D'Souza earns it for delaying GU freekick near center line.
47 min...half ends 1:48pm.

Halftime: Players from both teams stay at their bench while subs warm up on the field. Players do not have access to the change
roooms of the hockey arena. To use the washroom before the game, I had to show my ID and vaccine papers.

Second Half:...starts 2:03pm.
halftime sub:...GU Wellington replaces Clamp.
45 min...GU Emond runs down right to near endline and 15 yard shot is caught by flying goalie to left side of net.
49 min...FU Kotsopoulos is injured at Sigma 50 yard line with face injury.
51 min...Sigma Squeo spins and 20 yard low chip from left is caught by sprawling goalie.
52 min...Sigma sub...Miller replaces Whitton.
53 min...Guelph Tomasz Skublak GOAL...Skublak receives pass at 33 yards and rushes towards goal
with Sigma Kyle Walton checking him but he gets away tough angle 12 yard shot from the right low
to left corner of net past diving goalie.
56 min...Sigma sub...Cruz replaces Stampatori.
58 min...Sigma Mehta blasts low partial clearaqnce from 25 yards that goalie dives left to smother on left corner of net.
60 min...GU Oakley 22 yard cross from right end line is caught by flying goalie.
60 min...GU Kotsopoulos wins cornerkick on deflection off defender after GI Skkublak fed him pass to left.
61 min...GU Stergiotis cornerkick from left has closest Sigma player on near post clear. GU Emond low 25 yard shot
through crowd of players is wide left of net.
62 min...GU Oakley chips cross from 25 yards has GU Skublak called offside when he heads ball back for GU Kotsopoulos
to shoot in from 10 yards.
66 min...GU Skublak rolls pass from 30 yards upfield but GU player rolls ball to goalie as other GU players were offside.
67 min...Sigma sub...Edusei replaces Caldeira.
68 min...Sigma Lioutas is back to chip away ball from charging GU Kotsopoulos in Sigma box.
68 min...GU Emond cornerkick from left is just over head of leaping GU Wellington and out right side of box.
71 min...Sigma Castello pass to Sigma Edusei to Sigma Mehta for partially blocked shot but the run wins a cornerkick on the right.
73 min...GU Lonardi is tapped a pass and his low 25 yarder through a crowd of players deflects and rolls to goalie.
73 min...Sigma Castello cornerkick from right has GU Wellington head ball away on near side. Sigma Lioutas 25 yarder
up middle deflects wide left for cornerkick.
73 min...Sigma Castello cornerkick from left has three Sigma players jump and ball is header well over net from 6 yards.
74 min...GU Skublak blasts 25 yarder between players in middle and ball is caught by flying goalie.
76 min...GU Stergiotis on 2 on 1 up left blasts 20 yard shot that's saved by sprawling goalie on near side.
78 min...Sigma Afzaly 33 yard freekick from left is headed away in crowd of players and headed back into box which is then
also headed away.
80 min...GU Springer has to rescue poor goalie clearance preventing Sigma Miller getting to it by clearing it for throw-in.
82 min...GU Rankin two key headed clearances to prevent Sigma dangerous plays.
83 min...GU sub...Karimi replaces Lonardi.
84 min...GU goalie catches high cross into box while bumped by Sigma Squeo. GU Springer wraps his arms around goalie
pushing him away as it looks like goalie was going to slug Squeo.
............Sigma YELLOW card...Squeo earns it for bumping into goalie on last play.
85 min...GU Skublak rolls centering cross along 6 yard line and Sigma player clears.
89 min...GU sub...Regan replaces Skublak.
90 min...GU Kotsopoulos intercepts pass, rounds defender and quick 12 yard shot is caught by goalie on top left corner of net.
92 min...Sigma Castello chips 30 yarder towards goal and defender charges across from right in front of goalie and heads ball away.
92 min...game ends 2:50pm.

Final Score:...Sigma FC......1.......Guelph United.......3.......

Attendance was about 70 on this mild, by October standards, mostly cloudy afternoon.

After the game Guelph co-head coach Keith Mason complemented referee Timothy Wong on his officiating.
Something like “it's the best refereed game we've played in this year”. Only three Yellow cards
(all to Sigma) in a pretty clean game.

I was surprised to see the other co-head coach Justin Springer anchoring the defence. He was
playing a similar role for York 9 FC in CPL in 2019 and he is still only age 28 so why not?
He had a key play in this game at 84 minutes when he prevented his goalie Svyatoslav Artmenko
from possibly slugging Sigma Jason Squeo who'd bumped him when he was jumping for a high cross.
Squeo was shown a Yellow. Good to see the long term picture of not having your star goalie serving
a suspension at playoff time! Springer answered me that it today was his second game this season.

Guelph finish their inaugural regular season as champions of the Western Conference with a record
of 10 wins, 2 losses, 0 ties for 30 points with 42 goals scored and 15 against. It turned out
they did need to 'win' this game today to hold off Blue Devils FC who would play and win Sunday
to stay one point behind. That would be why Guelph would start all their big guns even though
they risked injury.

Playing the big guns meant that Jace Kotsopoulos would score his league leading 14th and 15th goal
today and Tomasz Skublak his 10th. The other Guelph player in the league's Top 5 is Alexander Zis
with 8 but he hasn't played since September 24th so is either injured or has moved
on to another league.

Vaughan Azzurri would win later that night to win the Eastern Conference with 31 points (and still
one game to play) and were awarded the Championship trophy—I suspect because the league only has
that one piece of silverware besides the Playoff trophy.

Sigma finish their season with a record of 4 wins, 5 losses, and 3 ties for 15 points. They had 12
of their 18 players on today's roster born between 2002 and 2004. In previous 'normal' seasons
they often rip out of the gates in April with a 9-0-0 start then fizzle when their college age kids
go back to school near the end of August. This season they were younger right from Game 1.

This game was held at 'Iceland', a recreational complex across the street, Matheson Avenue,
at the same traffic light. I was told this was a make up game for a time earlier in the season.
Now the fields at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre were not available. I saw that last week they
were ready to install the seasonal dome over Field 1 leaving Field 2 available but I was told that
was booked. Paramount like Iceland is more known for it's hockey arena complex but Iceland also
has a second field with new modern field turf and big enough aluminum stands to handle a L1O crowd.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
twitter @RocketRobin01

Sigma FC players before the game.