MATCH REPORT

Weekly Roundup - February 14th & 15th

By Marion F Dent
Press Associates

Player of the Week Drew Smiley VMSL Premier Surrey Premier Women vs Team Canada U-19 Sara Maglio #8 chases down Canadian U-19 National Kate Bazos #4 during an exhibition game at Cloverdale Athletic Park Tuesday evening February 10th. Surrey defeated the young Canadians with a decisive 3-1 score. Young Surrey supporters take in the game enthusiastically along with approximately 300 other spectators who braved the 1 degree C temperature.

The weekend saw our seven teams combine for six wins and a tie with our Masters team unluckily getting the tie and in doing so lost their 100 % winning record.

The men’s premier team visited Burnaby Canadians premier in the Imperial cup and ended up advancing to the next round by winning the penalty shoot-out after both teams were knotted 1-1 after regulation and over-time. The game was a typically tight affair between the two teams and after a goal-less first half Burnaby took the lead at the sixtieth minute when their striker headed a curling free-kick into the net from close range. United rallied strongly and tied up the game fifteen minutes later thanks to a great solo effort by striker Dave Hleucka. He collected a pass wide on the left cut inside at speed to brush off two defenders and then unleashed a rising shot which flew into the top corner of the net from twenty yards out. The overtime settled nothing and both sides ended up at the inevitable penalty shoot-out. United keeper Drew Smiley was his usual brilliant self in such situations and denied the first three Burnaby shooters any goals with three wonderful saves whereas United scored on their three shots via Cory Janzen, Gareth Wilkshire and Mike Evans.

By some twist of fate the Men’s Under 21 team also played Burnaby Canadians in their cup competition and United also won on the road by a margin of 2-0. The game was a close affair and only remained scoreless throughout the first half thanks to United stand-in keeper Scott Caldwell from the U/18 metro squad who single handedly denied the home side on three occasions. United broke the deadlock in the sixtieth minute when left midfielder Chris Powell stripped the defender of the ball cut inside, outpaced the rest of the defence and then slipped the ball past the advancing keeper into the net. United gained in confidence and then started to play some better soccer spreading the ball around much better than they had done in the first half. They notched the insurance marker with fifteen minutes of the game remaining when the hard working Powell again stripped the defender but this time laid it into the path of Kyle Krois whose measured shot found the corner of the net and gave United the all important victory.

The men’s division one team with a 4.00pm start at Ambleside in West Vancouver on Valentine’s Day managed to field a side and especially with the premier team embroiled in a marathon in Burnaby many of the Under 21 team had to do double duty and play another game. Their early superiority was evident as they built up a 2-0 half–time lead thanks to goals by Jacob Lensky after a fine set-up by Matt Osborne and Lee Grant with Lensky this time the provider. In the second half, with no substitutes and with the earlier game starting to take it’s physical toll, the United lads battled magnificently to hang on for the win displaying the type of grit and character that has become synonymous with Surrey United over the past twenty years and it is great to see it being displayed by our younger players. However, while they accomplished the win they were unable to hold out for the shut-out for keeper Chris Lean as they conceded a late goal. United’s Matt Osborne attempted a back header that evaded his own keeper and in an attempt to clear the danger United’s midfielder Rohit Kooner hammered a powerful volley off the side of his foot and into his own net. So to recap the scoring play it was a cracker by Kooner with assists to Lean and Osborne. Unlucky boys, tired legs indeed, but seriously great effort from all the players. We are proud of your commitment to the club this past weekend. Thank You.

In men’s division two cup play United were drawn against another top contender in Western Union Sarajevo who emerged as the eventual winner scoring an early golden goal in overtime after the two teams were knotted after regulation. The visitors opened the scoring late in the first half but United battled back strongly to tie the game up in the eightieth minute when Travis Heinz slid in to force a Trevor Tagieff cross into the net from close range. Then came the dramatic overtime winner in the first minute of play as United were caught off guard.

The men’s masters who boasted a perfect league record prior to this game lost their record when they tied 2-2 on Friday night to the Langley All Blacks. United got off to a good start when Steve MacNicholl hammered home the opening goal after Kelly Bey had done the set-up work. Langley equalized late in the first half with a fine individual goal. United regained the lead early in the second half when Murray Howes fired home a penalty kick which was awarded after he had been brought down in the box. Langley pressed hard and scored a deserved equalizer to earn a share of the points.

In Women’s action it was once again cup week-end and we successfully registered two impressive victories.

The ladies premier team put together a very solid effort to comfortably beat Premier “B” side Coquitlam City United by a 5-0 margin at Cloverdale Athletic Park on Sunday. The visitors worked hard to deny United who were held to one goal in the first half which was scored by Sharon Lehnert after some good set-up play by Kate Qually and Sadie McLure. Lehnert who had a prominent game scored the insurance marker early in the second half when she collected the ball at the edge of the penalty area and with her back to goal, she turned quickly and hammered a left foot shot into the corner of the net. The goal broke the back of the Coquitlam resistance and United came surging forward in search of further goals. Kate Qually added United’s third with a superb glancing header off Sara Maglio’s perfect cross and then two minutes later Qually added her second sliding in at the far post to guide Lehnert’s cross into the net. With five minutes of the game remaining and both Lehnert and Qually in search of their hat-tricks it was Lehnert who burst through on the left and hammered a hard and low shot which had too much mustard on it for the keeper to hang onto and Qually following up had the easiest of tasks in tapping the ball into the unguarded net.

In Division One Ladies Cup action United produced their most outstanding result for a number of years when after being down 2-0 produced a fantastic come-back to beat Burnaby Rangers 3-2 with the game winner coming in injury time. United fell behind in the midway through the first half when a Burnaby forward snuck in unnoticed past the unsuspecting United defence to slide the ball home from 6 yards. They then increased their lead at the 35th minute when a
a wonderful give and go passing play left their striker with an easy tap in right at the penalty spot and United’s fate seemed doomed at the interval. However, they came out strongly from the restart to completely dominate the second half.
Non-stop attacking, hemmed the Burnaby side in their own end and United was finally rewarded after a long clearing ball by defender Katherine Fast was collected by Ellen Malterer deep in the opponents half. Malterer slipped the ball inside to Kaitlen Clarke whose low shot somehow found a way through the keepers legs. With Burnaby still rattled by the goal, United cashed in quickly adding a second two minutes later when Karen Young fed a diagonal pass that sent Malterer racing in alone and she made no mistake with the chance firing a rocket into the top corner of the net. Then with the game seemingly destined for a penalty shoot-out some intense pressure from United forced the Burnaby side back on their heels and when they tried to relieve the pressure by back passing to their keeper, Clarke used her tremendous quickness to dislodge the ball just
as the keeper bent down to pick it up and in the ensuing entanglement,
somehow managed to poke the ball into the unguarded net for the comeback win of the season. The win according to the tie break rules sends United through as the round robin division group winners and into the championship round of play.

Drew Smiley with an outstanding game and three penalty saves wins this week’s player of the week award. Each Weekly Winner will have their name entered into a random draw for the month for Dinner for Two.