August 16, 2023 League1 Ontario...Scrosoppi FC vs Hamilton United game report (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Wednesday August 16, 2023 League1 Ontario Men's Premier Division game between Scrosoppi FC
and Hamilton United Elite played at Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughan at 9:00pm.

Scrosoppi FC (all black uniforms, white numbers)

.........................1 Andreas Vaikla
2 Carlo Difeo...4 Joshua Parades...6 Victor Gallo (cpt)...3 Luka Frankovich
.........21 Alexander Zis...19 Sebastian Lopez...18 Khody Ellis
..........7 Omari Cotterell...8 Tomasz Skublak...10 Nikolas Blaskovic

Subs:...22 Stanislaw Skublak (gk)...9 Mauro Lulli...11 Velodyyer Kharyton...12 Luke Rankin
...15 Sebastiano Candelaresi...17 Matlas Cortes...20 Cristiano Candelaresi...23 Santiago Ubate
...36 Danny Medeiros
team officials:...team head coach John Yacou...assistant coach Luis Domingos...manager Shayne Griffin
...therapist Michael Wong Suspended players: Baryal Khan and Manveer Gill

Hamilton United Elite (all orange uniforms, white numbers and trim)

...................1 Ethan Cagalj
........6 Mashhood Rehman (cpt)...5 Riel Carol...2 Muaz Saleh...18 Marc Iantomasi
15 Anand Sergeant...8 Ideal Shefqeti...24 Gideon Waja...20 Mujtaba Ameen
..............7 Elton Nyumah...11 Jamu Iluya

Subs:...4 Stefan Jokanovic...12 Tyler Curtis...17 Moussa Limane...19 Zachary Maharaj
...22 Luca Danesi...25 Maro Ferrusi
team officials:...team head coach Karman Derayeh...assistant coach Andrew Derayeh...assistant trainer Zach Nageoo

Game officials:...referee Bradley Doubrough...referee's assistants Liam Tremblay and Najeeb Almasri
...fourth official Mahboob Gulestani...(chartreuse socks and shirts, black shorts)

First Half:...game starts 9:01pm...Scrosoppi defends north end.
50 sec...Ham Nyumah low 18 yard shot from left is smothered by goalie diving right at 6 yards.
3 min...Scr Zis freekick from left end line on edge of box is low and rechochets off players and goalie catches over fallen Scr Skublak.
5 min...Ham YELLOW card...Carol earns it for grab on Scr Skublak.
6 min...Scr Zis bends low 20 yard freekick from left is around players and wide right of post.
7 min...Scr Frankovich catches up to Ham Nyumah on rush to poke ball away.
10 min...Scr Cotterell cross from 25 yards on right has Scr Skublak heads well wide right from 10 yards in middle.
13 min...Scr Skublak quickly rolls 15 yarder on receiving pass and Scr Blaskovic at 7 yards on left shoots into outside webbing of net.
14 min...Scr Carlo Difeo is pushed over my HUE Mujtaba Ameen on right side of box at 10 yard line. Referee Brad Doubrough calls
for a Penalty kick.
15 min...Scrosoppi Alexander Zis GOAL...Zis fires Penalty kick into low right side of net with goalie Ethan Cagalj diving left.
18 min...Scrosoppi Nikolas Blaskovic GOAL...Scr Tomasz Skublak runs in from 40 yards on right and cuts in around
defender to send roller into middle and Blaskovic one-touches 8 yarder between goalie and another defender into middle of net.
20 min...Scr YELLOW card...Gallo earns it for body tackle knocking over Ham Iluya at Scr 25 yard line.
22 min...Ham Waja chips 28 yard freekick from left wide right and unplayed by either team.
26 min...Scr player takes quick cornerkick on right upfield and Scr player crosses from 28 yards has defender in middle of box
clear out left side of box for throw-in.
27 min...Ham sub...Danesi replaces injured Ameen. (It turns out Ameen broke his toe).
31 min...Ham Carol blasts 33 yarder from right well over players and over net.
32 min...Scr Zis run down right and low cross has defenders and Scr Blaskovic knock down ball but shot blocked.
34 min...Ham Iantomasi run from 45 yards and cuts in at 15 yards and shoots wide right.
34 min...Scr Skublak cuts in cross after run to right end line has defender in middle of box clear.
36 min...Scr Ellis chip from 40 yard line on left finds Scr Skublak for 12 yard low shot up middle that goalie sprawls to save
in center at 1 yard line.
38 min...Ham Nuymah 25 yard shot from left is well wide right past Ham player running to end line.
40 min...Scr Zis pass to Scr Skublak at 10 yards is flagged offside.
40 min...Ham Iluya low cross from 25 yards on far left is through players and Ham Danesi has 6 yard shot from right
into outside webbing of net.
43 min...Scrosoppi Tomasz Skublak GOAL...Scr Alexander Zis 25 yard freekick from left has Skublak fly forward
to tip header down middle from 7 yards into left side of net as goalie was playing the bend of ball on freekick.
45 min...Scr Zis chips from 55 yard line finding Scr Skublak but he is bumped by defender off ball.
46 min...Ham YELLOW card...Head coach Karman Derayeh earns it for arguing call.
47 min...Scr Skublak and Ham player kick at midair ball at Ham 40 yards on left in front of Ham bench in front of Ham bench.
Skublak is injured and needs trainer.
49 min...half ends 9:50pm.

Halftime subs:...Scr starters sit on the players bench as their subs warm up. All the Ham players stay out.

Second Half:...starts 10:05pm.
Halftime sub:...Ham Curtis replaces Sergeant.
46 min...Scr Lopez cross from 25 yards on right midair clearance by defender on left side of box.
47 min...Ham Iluya passes to Ham Maharaj in box has defender give up cornerkick.
48 min...Ham Iluya heads ball over net from 8 yards up middle receiving cornerkick from right.
49 min...Scr Skublak finishes play in 6 yard box with goalie making sliding save putting ball out.
Scr Parades is injured early in the last play at the Ham 50 yard line on hit by Ham Nyumah.
51 min...Ham Iantomasi dribbles down left and cuts along 18 yard line to middle and cross to open Ham Danesi on right
who one-touches 8 yard midair shot over bar.
52 min...Ham sub...Maharaj replaces Nyumah.
55 min...Scr Zis cornerkick from left is cleared.
57 min...Scrosoppi Tomasz Skublak GOAL...Scr Nikolas Blaskovic chips ball from 50 yards that finds Skublak between
defenders and he dribbles on slight right towards goalie and eluding him chips 4 yarder from right into open net.
59 min...Scr Skublak is scissor tackled him on play that turned out to be called offside.
60 min...Ham sub...Limane replaces Iluya.
..........Scr sub...Lulli replaces Skublak.
64 min...Scr sub...Medeiros replaces Blaskovic.
..........Scr sub...Sebastiano Candelaresi replaces Ellis.
..........Ham sub...Jokanovic replaces Shefqeti.
67 min...Scr Difeo passes forward up right to Scr Lulli who cuts to towards goal and wins cornerkick.
68 min...Scr Difeo cornerkick from right has ball cleared in box.
70 min...Scr Zis from 75 yards sends pass up right to open Scr Cotterell and Ham Curtis gets back to stop him.
71 min...Scr Difeo high cornerkick from right. Scr Cotterell one-touches 15 yard shot from left that bounces wide right of net.
72 min...Ham Rehman short pass to Ham Limane who blasts 10 yarder that goalie slides to save.
72 min...Scr sub...Ubate replaces Lopez.
73 min...Scr Medeiros 30 yard shot up middle is over net.
75 min...Scr Cotterell on run down right chips to middle for Scr Lulli in open on runs and 15 yard shot is stopped point blank
at 12 yards by sprawling goalie.
77 min...Scr Medeiros heads away Ham cornerkick from right.
78 min...Scr Medeiros gets pass across box from Scr Lulli and 10 yard shot is stopped point blank by goalie.
79 min...Ham Danesi is centered pass and shoots 16 yarder over net.
81 min...Scr sub...Kharyton replaces Parades.
..........Scr sub...Cortes replaces Gallo.
..........Scr sub...Cristiano Candelaresi replaces Cotterell.
84 min...Ham Waja freekick on right edge of box at 12 yars line has defenders clear to wide left of box and recross has goalie
swat to right and freekick for Scr is called on bump into goalie.
88 min...Ham Maharaj low 28 yarder from left has goalie smother on near post.
89 min...Scrosoppi Danny Medeiros GOAL...Scr Santiago Ubate chips short cross from right that has Mediros run up
to connect on 6 yard header down middle into left side of net.
90 min...game ends 10:50pm. with no time added.
Fireworks are set off outside the fences.

Final Score:....Scrosoppi FC.......5........Hamilton United Elite........0......

Attendance eventually climbed to about 100 by halftime. Once again a midweek game scheduled for 9:00pm because their home stadium this season in Milton (40km away) is undergoing renovations will restrict the number of fans able to get here. One advantage is over the years the L1O finals are always held at this stadium because of access and stands capacity so they are used to it after 9 home games (flook in the schedule they had 11 road games this season—odd number of teams last season).

This game was broken open early by those two goals before the 20 minute mark. Hamilton head coach Karman Derayeh complained about the referee's calls being all one-way and eventually was given a Yellow card for arguing a call in first half stoppage time. That was partly true with two freekicks given to Scrosoppi near the edge of the box before the Penalty kick call but SFC was unstoppable at the start of the game.

Referee Brad Doubrough gave out only three Yellow cards (one to each team's players) and the game settled down and Hamilton came more into the game after the 20 minute mark.

Andreas Vaikla earned the shutout for Scrosoppi without having much to do. His defence of Carlo Difeo, Joshua Parades, captain Victor Gallo, and Luka Frankovich were like a wall around him with them clearing almost everything pumped into the box. Only seventeen goals allowed in nineteen games is the best in the league this season.

When Hamilton did get some shots from a reasonable distance later in the game, their shots and headers were mostly off target.

I was wondering when Scrosoppi would start to make their subs to protect their starters from injury and, with them, drawing Yellow cards which has been a problem. Baryal Khan and Manveer Gill were both listed as suspended for this game.

Hamilton's Mujtaba Ameen was the first to leave at 27 minutes. When he was helped back to the dressing room later he answered the time keeper's bench “Broken toe”. I wonder where can you get that treated at this time of night? It looked like Hamilton brought only six subs—no backup goalie that I could see. In these times of increasing subs, Scrosoppi brought nine and eventually made their maximum subs of seven, a full bench is usually the norm.

First sub for Scrosoppi was Tomasz Skublak (league's leading goalscorer increasing it tonight to 23 goals in 15 games played) who came out at 60 minutes right after being scissor tackled by the last HUE player back and all for naught because the play had been flagged offside. It wasn't first time tonight that Skublak had been injured. Suspensions and injuries are a reason that he's only played 15 games.

Last goal scored was by a 2004 assisted by a 2003, both brought on as subs. Also Cristiano Candelaresi and Sebasitiano Candelaresi were brought in for SFC at different times both listed as 2004's. Oh oh, twin brothers? I just watched two sets of twin sisters play against each other in the L1O Women's Final two Saturday's ago.

Big stakes for this game but for different reasons. Scrosoppi could clinch first place tonight with a win and home field advantage with a quarterfinal bye. Hamilton can't make the six team playoff for 2023 but were playing for survival for their Premier Division future as only the top twelve of the twenty-one teams will stay at this level and the bottom teams will play in a newly forming 'Champions Division' (tier two). Hamilton hold the twelfth position and couldn't clinch tonight and come to Vaughan Grove (just 300 yards away) to play Woodbridge Strikers on Sunday night. Woodbridge hold thirteenth spot and will pass them with a win. The league announced this game as their YouTube game of the week.

As soon as the game ended (no added time for the second half) fireworks were set off on the east and south (ie endzone) of the field. Looked like they were left over from those family kits you buy for Victoria Day and Canada Day. Still a great element of surprise. No worries about setting the weeds nor trees on fire as we've had so much rain recently. The team posed in the end zone after the game for a group photo. Reminders from some of the players 'Remember the job isn't done' (meaning the playoffs) but the teams does deserve to celebrate. They have one more game to finish their regular season and that's against Masters FA in Scarborough on Saturday night.

Rocket Robin
robin.glover.1958@gmail.com
twitter @RocketRobin01

Scrosoppi FC starters