| We had a much better
set of results from our teams this past weekend ranging from a couple
of lop-sided wins at the Men’s and Ladies’ Under 21
level to an overtime win and a penalty shoot-out loss in other games
as all of our teams were engaged in cup play.
The men’s premier team opened the weekend for our adult teams
with a 1-0 home over-time victory against premier rivals AFC Leopards
in Imperial Cup action at Cloverdale Athletic Park. The victory,
however, was slighted by some distasteful scenes at the park that
had the visiting fans and substitutes running onto the field on
two separate occasions and ended with the assault of officials.
It was clearly not a good advertisement for the VMSL or the many
young players watching what should have been a showcase game.
Surrey United had a couple of good chances in the opening phase
of the game and in the fifteenth minute were awarded a penalty when
Niall Thompson was clearly fouled from behind in the penalty area.
The usually reliable Gareth Wilkshire fired his penalty kick just
wide of the post and the game remained scoreless at half-time. An
unsavoury incident early in the second half saw Surrey’s Thompson
rightly receive a red card for punching an opponent, which we do
not condone but which should not have triggered the response of
a pitch invasion by several of the opposing substitute players and
visiting fans.
When the game resumed AFC should have seized the advantage of the
extra man but within five minutes they were reduced to ten men themselves
when Chris Clark needlessly stomped on Surrey United player Rob
Wilson’s leg as he lay on the ground after a tackle. As the
game proceeded into overtime Surrey got the all important goal when
Shawn Blakeway rose to head a Todd Stauber free-kick directly into
the path of teenage substitute Justin Carvery who rifled the ball
into the corner of the net. Surrey’s defence was particularly
dominant throughout the match with centre-back Graeme Magowan having
an excellent game. On the couple of occasions that AFC did break
through United keeper Drew Smiley was on hand to make two great
saves and preserve both the shut-out and the victory.
The men’s Division one game was postponed due to the adverse
state of the opponent’s field in Vancouver.
The men’s Under 21 team faced Nomads in Under 21 cup action
and it proved to be a worthless encounter as the visitors turned
up with only eight players and were subsequently pounded 14-1 by
the home team in a game that served no worthwhile purpose for either
team.
The men’s Division two team also hit the cup and the goal
trail this week winning away at Champlain Heights by a margin of
6-0 to advance to second round action in Division Two cup play.
Surrey dominated the opening proceedings but had to wait until the
sixteenth minute to open the scoring when Chris Roots finished off
some nice set up play involving Dave Morris and Jordan Gibbs. When
midfield dynamo Dale Kahri added a second at the 25th minute mark
the eventual outcome was never beyond doubt. Jordan Gibbs and Nick
Gollogly rounded out the first half scoring. In the second half
Gibbs added another goal to cap a fine individual game and Matt
Orsono completed all the scoring with the sixth goal of the game
in the 65th minute.
The men’s Masters team followed up their mid-week 4-0 cup
win over Delta Metro with another four goal performance in the cup
on Sunday beating Aldergrove 4-2 at Parkside. United forged a two
goal lead by the interval on goals from Mike Marini and Kelly Bey.
Then early in the second half Bey added what proved to be the game
winner to give United a comfortable three goal lead. Aldergrove
battled back hard and reduced the deficit only to have United striker
Murray Howes restore the three goal margin shortly afterwards. Aldergrove
managed a late consolation goal to round out the scoring.
In ladies action our premier team had a bye and will complete the
round robin portion of their cup play next Sunday at Cloverdale
in the knowledge that they have already qualified for the next round.
Our Ladies also received some great news when Norvan surprisingly
beat the second placed Coquitlam City in league play by a 4-0 margin
which now means that United have mathematically clinched first place
in the overall premier standings. Congratulations go to coach Steve
Kindel and our players for a great year so far and in winning the
League championship for the second time they bring to the club the
first trophy of this season.
In ladies division one cup action our ladies bounced back from
last week’s disappointment and produced a hard fought game
that by all accounts they could have won. United opened the scoring
in the second half when leading scorer Ellen Malterer fired home
a Jen Allan pass in the 62nd minute but then surrendered the tying
goal ten minutes later to send the cup-tie to penalty kicks. Both
teams registered one point for the draw and Richmond won the extra
point for prevailing in the penalty shoot-out. All is not lost for
our ladies though because if they win their game next week in regulation
and Richmond lose to the top of the table Club Ireland our ladies
will go through in second place.
The U-21 ladies were anxious to get back on the pitch after coming
off a poor showing last weekend and took control right from the
outset. They opened the scoring at the 17 minute mark when Kyla
McMillan dispossessed an opponent in the midfield and set Ally Pross
racing clear before Pross delivered the perfect cross ball for a
charging Charday Vonic to race onto, cut inside the defender and
then hammer a low hard shot into the bottom corner of the net. The
second goal, that proved to be the eventual game-winning goal, came
after 35 minutes of play when Angelica Singh fired home a Pross
corner-kick.
|
However, just 5 minutes later the visitors managed to pull a goal
back on a quick counter-attack but United struck again before the
interval when Ally Pross scored from the penalty spot after being
brought down on a clear break-away opportunity. The 2nd half resulted
in 3 unanswered goals by the Surrey United ladies who completely
dominated the entire second half play. The first goal of the second
half coming off a great header by Lexi Iggulden from a well-placed
corner kick by Nicole Stewart. Then Stewart added the fifth goal
with a hard rising shot after some excellent passing play between
Iggulden and Singh. The final goal saw Vonic and Singh link up once
more to set-up Krystle Gauvin who finished the play by neatly placing
the ball into the corner of the EWYSA net to end the scoring and
register an impressive 6-1 win.
We selected Jordan Gibbs of the men’s division two team as
this week’s Player of The Week for his two goal and two assists
in his team’s 6-0 cup win. Each Weekly Winner will have their
name entered into a random draw for the monthly prize of for Dinner
for Two. |
