The weekend saw five of your seven teams in action with our men’s under 21 and ladies premier both receiving byes and playing exhibition games against provincial teams. The other five teams combined to produce some disappointing results which translated into 2 wins, 2 losses and a tie.

The men’s premier team opened the weekend up with an away game on Saturday against West Van Trollers which they tied 1-1 and dropped two more precious points in the divisional championship race. While the result extended the United unbeaten streak to five games United could have cashed in with a win which would have helped their cause tremendously because divisional leaders Sporting lost their game. United started brightly and had two great claims for penalties turned down after Clayton Dobbin and Cory Janzen had both been bundled over in the penalty area. Janzen came the closest to scoring in the first half when he got up well to head a Dobbin cross just over the cross-bar. West Van had their moments and finally cashed in after sixty minutes when a fine flowing move ended up when their striker side-footed home from twelve yards. United responded well and ten minutes later were level on terms when Janzen capped a fine individual performance heading home Shawn Blakeway’s flick. Both teams had chances to win the game in the remaining twenty minutes with perhaps Blakeway’s missed breakaway in injury time being the best opportunity.

The men’s division one team followed the premier game with a 4.00pm start on the West Vancouver Turf against Trollers and ended up with a very comfortable 4-0 victory. In truth, the margin of victory could and should have been much greater had it not been for some woeful finishing by United particularly in the first half where all they had to show for a dominant period was a single goal albeit a fine individual strike by Vince Stewart. The second half continued to be mostly one way traffic as United added further goals from Rob Wilson, Todd Stauber and another from Vinny Stewart with Mike Evans chipping in with a pair of assists.

In division two men’s action United served up their poorest performance of the season losing at home 3-1 to Bosna and the margin of victory could have been bigger but for the brilliance of United keeper Kevin Woronchuk who made four outstanding saves. United could have taken an early lead which might have altered the outcome of the game but tame finishing squandered two good chances.

Then in the fifteenth minute a quick counter-attack caught United outnumbered and Bosna hammered home the first goal. United worked hard to gain control of the ball but too often unnecessarily gave up possession with too much selfish individual play. Bosna increased their lead before the half with a goal that was virtually a carbon copy of their earlier effort. United did start the second half on a positive note and came back to reduce the deficit when substitute Avi Yakub scored from close range touching home a Gary Foster cross. However, Bosna regained their two goal advantage when they fired home a fine free-kick to take the wind out of the United sails and their championship drive.

On Sunday the men’s masters returned to league action and beat local rivals Peace Arch with a comfortable 3-0 win at Cloverdale Atheletic Park. United methodically dispatched the visitors with some assured play and scored two first half goals from Bill Muirhead and Murray Howes. The visitors tried hard but rarely troubled a very strong and determined United back line and then just after some sustained Peace Arch period of pressure United broke the visitors backs with a third goal when Steve MacNicholl’s in-swinging corner deceived the visiting keeper and dipped into the net.

The ladies division one team cup-run came to an unfortunate close in their cup tie when with the score knotted at one and the game seemingly destined for sudden death overtime the visiting Richmond Stingrays capitalized on United’s inability to clear their own area leaving the unmarked Richmond striker free to guide home the winner and send United packing. After being down by a goal at the half United came back strongly in the second half and deservedly tied up the game when Kaitlen Clarke collected an Ellen Malterer cross and slooted the ball into the net. The goal ignited a series of flurries and somehow the visitors withstood the pressure and then rebounded to snatch the late winner.

Cory Janzen who had an outstanding game for the premier team and netted their goal is this week’s player of the week. Each Weekly Winner will have their name entered into a random draw for the month for Dinner for Two.