Shooter's striker Matthew Palleschi jumping to win a header against an Attak defender, in one of many tough tackles yesterday afternoon.

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This past Sunday the Vaughan Italia Shooters hosted the Trois-Rivieres Attak at their St. Joan of Arc High School stadium. This match-up was sure to be exciting and please fans, as the Attak eliminated the Shooters from both the Open Canada Cup tournament and the CSL play-offs last year, which weighed heavily on the Vaughan players minds prior to kick-off. This was the Shooters second game of the season, and second straight at home where they drew 2-2 with the Serbian White Eagles. The fast paced start of the game and tough tackles indicated that these two teams were very familiar with each other, and that last year’s rivalry was still evident. The first half-hour of the game was fairly even, with both teams enjoying their fair possession of the ball and putting together some nice combination plays; although pleasing to the eye, few chances were created by either side. At the 36^th minute mark of the first half, the momentum swung in favour of the Attak, as the Shooters centre-back, number 5 Gerard Ladiyou, received his second yellow card and was sent off following a foul on a Attak Striker number 12 Nicolas Lesage Moussavou. Shooters head coach Carmine Isacco took quick action and was forced to substitute last week’s goal scorer, number 11 Luca Forno, and replacehim with defender Luca Zucal. With both teams demonstrating their skill and passing ability in the first 35 minutes of the game, the Shooters were forced to sit back and defend for the remainder of the first half, and were content going into the locker room with a 0-0 score line at the half-time interval.

 

With a full force backline after the first-half substitutions, and time to settle down and receive new instructions from their coach, the Shooters started the second-half with a flurry. Just over one minute into the second-half of play, the Shooters found themselves with a chance to go one-up, when the referee pointed to the penalty spot and awarded the Shooters a penalty kick following a foul on Shooters striker, number 23 Matthew Palleschi. Frank Bruno, number 10 and Shooters centre mid-fielder took the spot-kick. Bruno’s well placed shot was turned away by the out-stretched arm of the Attak keeper Andrew Olivieri, although with the rebound cleared only 10 yards away from goal by an Attak defender, Italia defender number 21 Branko Majstorovic smartly followed the rebound and shot the ball into the back of the net through a maze of Attak defenders.

 

Following the goal, the Shooters defended intelligently and tried to take their opportunities to score on the counter-attack. Although playing well for a team one man down man and creating some chances of their own, the fact that the red card happened early in the game seemed to show at times, as the Vaughan team gave away some chances to the Attak. Nevertheless, the Shooters keeper Pablo Alvarado and the Shooter defence were up to the task when called upon, and turned away any chances the Attak could muster.

 

After three minutes of injury time the final whistle blew and the Shooters picked up their first win of the season, and an important win being a man short against a talented Trois-Rivieres team. The Shooter’s can now build on this win and take this momentum into their next game on Friday May 30^th  at 8pm, away to the Toronto FC Academy at Lamport Stadium in Toronto. The TFC academy team has already surprised many teams this year, beating the defending champion Toronto Croatia in the opening game of the year. The Shooter’s next home game will be Sunday June 1^st at 4pm when they will host London City.