MATCH REPORT

Weekly Roundup - February 7th & 8th

By Marion F Dent
Press Associates

	Player of the Week Steve Reed Men's Masters MWSL Premier Surrey United 4-0 Richmond Selects Febuary 8, Cloverdale Click here for multi-photo slideshow VMSL Premier Surrey United 2-1 Serbia White Eagles Febuary 7, Cloverdale Click here for multi-photo slideshow VMSL Division One CAT Surrey United 4-0 Croatia Febuary 7, Cloverdale Click here for multi-photo slideshow

The weekend saw most of our teams in cup play which saw both our Men’s premier and men’s masters forced to go to overtime to win their games by scoring the golden goal.

The men’s premier team kicked off the weekend off at Cloverdale against division one opponents and frankly served up a poor performance against a team they should have beaten handily. With the game, lacking action and any scoring at the half United tried desperately throughout the second half to breakdown the Packed Serbian defence. United finally broke the deadlock in the seventieth minute when Craig Dalrymple’s shot rebounded off the cross-bar to Shawn Blakeway who unselfishly crossed for Cory Janzen to score from close-range. United never looked in trouble until the last minute of the game when Serbia scored on a close range header to send the game into extra-time. United dominated the opening five minutes of play and finally sealed the deal in the sixth minute of overtime when substitute Mike Evans fired home a Dave Hleucka pass to steer United into the next round of the Imperial Cup.

The men’s division one team played immediately afterwards in a league match against Croatia “B” and secured a comfortable 4-0 victory with a pair of goals in each half. United opened the scoring in the fifteenth minute with a superbly struck quick free-kick from twenty five yards out that Sean Crocker bent into the far corner of the net past an unsuspecting keeper who was still trying to get his defenders to set up a wall. Five minutes later, Sean Kelly broke through with only the keeper to beat but uncharacteristically fluffed the chance. However, Sean made amends ten minutes later and following some midfield link play with Ben Pisch he hammered a left foot shot from twenty yards that took a hint of a deflection on its way into the net. In the second half Maarten who last week hammered home a twenty five yard shot past a stunned Metro-Ford keeper did it again this week. However, this week’s effort eclipsed the one from last week and will probably go down as the finest individual strike Cloverdale Athletic park has ever seen when Maarten struck a thirty yard bomb that hit the bar, post, back stanchion and then rattled around the inside of the net like a ballbearing in a pinball machine. The fourth goal paled by comparison to the individual magnificence of the earlier strike but was once again a superbly executed quickly taken free-kick that saw Lee Grant play the ball wide of the wall to Junaid Rasheed whose first time cross to the far post found Sean Kelly unmarked and he clipped the ball into the unguarded portion of the net to round out the scoring.

The men’s masters who boast a perfect league record entertained local rivals Surrey Sundowners in a Masters Challenge Cup match at Cloverdale Athletic on Sunday. The game produced plenty of action and plenty of excitement. United missed a couple of glorious scoring chances early on before Sundowners took control of the game. The visitors signaled their intentions when a well struck shot rattled the United cross-bar and rebounded to safety. Then five minutes before the break Sundownwers took a deserved lead when a deep cross caught the United defence outnumbered and the Sundownwer’s right winger pounced to steer in a ten yard shot. In the second half United took the game to the visitors who seemed content to try and hang onto their lead by defending in numbers. Their tactics almost paid off and especially when United missed a penalty shot with ten minutes remaining it looked as though we were going to witness a big upset. However United’s big time experience paid off handsomely in the last minute of the game when Doug Muirhead’s deep free-kick to the far post was headed back across the face of the goal by Steve Reed and United striker George Paille forced the ball over the line from a yard out. The goal took the wind out of the Sundowner sails and United cruised into the next round when early on in the overtime frame Steve Reed redirected a shot past the keeper to clinch the victory.

In Women’s action it was also cup week-end but our ladies teams had mixed fortunes.

The ladies premier team put together a very solid effort to beat fellow Premier “A” side Richmond Selects by a margin of 4-0 thanks to a pair of goals in each half. At the fifteen minute mark Diana Artuso opened the scoring when she collected a Geri Donnelly pass at the top of the box, turned sharply and then hit a fierce shot into the bottom right corner of the net. Ten minutes later Bianca Wilkinson had the simple task of steering home the second goal after Sara Maglio had done the set-up work. In the second half Toby McDonald scored a fine individual goal beating two players as she dribbled through the Richmond defence before calmly driving a shot into the bottom left corner of the net. Sara Maglio rounded out the United scoring firing a Megan Blaker cross into the top corner.

In Division One Ladies Cup action United fell 2-1 to the Richmond Stingrays conceding an eighty seventh minute goal with the game seemingly destined for overtime. Richmond had opened the scoring at the 27 minute mark when the United defence allowed the opposing striker to cut through the middle and beat keeper Kim Bull with a low shot. United rebounded immediately and thought they had equalized when Kaitlen Clarke went racing through but watched in dismay as her shot beat the keeper but rolled agonizingly wide of the upright.

However, three minutes before the interval with United enjoying a sustained period of pressure Clarke converted a perfect cross from Karly Dupas by hammering the ball into the net. The second half began as the first half ended with United controlling the play and surging forward relentlessly albeit without any success. Then with United tiring Richmond came back strongly to grab the last ditch game winner and forcing United into a must win situation next week.

Steve Reed with the overtime winner for the Masters team 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.