Christina Strynatka
Contributor
When the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship is on the line, you can expect competing teams to go straight for their opponent’s jugular.
Both teams earned a rightful spot at the top of their division – University of Toronto with 33 points and York with 38 – but Sunday’s game became the biggest upset for the Lions as they tasted defeat by one goal in the final shoot-out.
York’s men’s soccer team had many opportunities to come up with results in the final game with shots by the OUA’s top goal scorer, Adrian Pena, and rookie Alon Badat. Pena, who was awarded a penalty kick in the second-half, had the best opportunity to take home the win, but was fazed by Varsity Blue’s goaltender John Smits at the last moment.
The heavy offensive attacks continued from both ends into the two overtime halves of 15 minutes, but failed to determine a winner.
The aggression in the game rose to new heights in the two overtimes as York player Pena took out his frustration on a player already on the ground, and was subsequently assigned a yellow card. The York Lions recorded three yellow cards in total in the game, with the Varsity Blues matching their total.
With an undecided victor, the gold medal was going to be handed to the side that fared better in penalty kicks.
Yannis Gianniotis was first up for the Varsity Blues and scored easily into the net, past goaltender Sotiri Varlokostas. The York Lions had their penalty scorers also at the line as Alon Badat ripped a low ball into the left side of the net, making the score tied one-all. The goals followed for both teams as the momentum built on who would score that final winning penalty kick. Pena, for the second time in the game, faced Smits directly, but when the time came to score, he was outwitted once again.
In the end, it all came down to one player, Carlos Nogueira, a quiet force so far this year. His try for a feint past Smits was unsuccessful, handing over the 2010 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) title to the Varsity Blues.
The team has come a long way to get to the finals after beating the Ryerson Rams in the semi-finals on Nov. 6. It was a very physical game against the Rams, and the Lions literally finished with a bloodied nose after a player elbowed Nogueira’s face.
The game was very much in the hands of the Rams for the first half and the second, but it was not until a penalty was awarded to Selvin Lammie that York was able to get away with tying the score. That goal helped earn the Lions their place in the finals as Gerard Ladiyou sunk the second goal past Ryerson for a final score of 2-1.
“I’m still emotionally attached,” said Ryerson coach Ivan Joseph after the game. “I’m trying to let this one go, but the referees played too big a role in this game. There’s no other way to say it. York played well [but] I believe we outplayed them. I don’t think York deserved to win this game.”
The Lions felt the pain of losing in much the same way Ryerson did as the team had no one to blame, but themselves for badly executed penalty shots.
“It is mentally very tough,” said Smits. “But if you’ve been around the game long enough and you’ve experienced PKs [penalty kicks] at every level, then you’re going to end up being the most calm in that situation. It was exactly where I was in a nice place.”
The loss came down to two factors: York let the pressure get to them, and Smits came up huge. Pena, obviously distraught after the game, was in no mood for words.
“Not tonight,” he said, striding off to the locker room. That seemed to be the general consensus for how the whole team felt as they were left to look at silver instead of gold.
Though York has not achieved their OUA championship goal, the team still finds itself a place in the nationals this week; however, the strain and disappointment of this game may still play a big role in how they play the next time around.
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