Thunder strike early at home

By Daniel Nugent-Bowman

nuge0020@algonquincollege.com

The Algonquin men’s soccer team benefitted from a questionable call early in their home opening match against the Durham Lords, allowing them to cruise to a 2-0 win.

In the 28th minute, Thunder striker Michael Tjarera was pulled down in the box by Lords defender, Bennjamin Vander Eyken, resulting in a yellow card and a penalty kick.

“I was just a bit upset about the penalty call in the first half,” said Lords coach Stan Bombino. “I thought that the guy kind of faked it and sucked the referee (into making the call), but that’s part of the game.”

Durham defender Trevor Delpippo was livid with the call during the game, but more composed afterwards.

“I thought the first penalty was a bit weak and probably shouldn’t have been called a penalty, but otherwise it was a good game,” he said.

Algonquin midfielder Tyller Farrell-Rose then converted the kick for the opening goal.

“I tried to look off the keeper before I hit it and I just scored in the opposite corner that I looked,” he said.

The goal sparked the Thunder, who controlled the action for most of the match. Despite the win, coach Mike Caruso wasn’t completely satisfied with what he saw from his players.

“We got the W, but at the end of the day, there are still a lot of things to work on,” he said. “There was a lot of nervous energy. We actually came out well. We dominated the first half I thought. Our goalie didn’t even touch a ball in the first half. In the end, it comes down to end product and the end product wasn’t there.”

Even though Algonquin were very critical of their own play, the Lords were willing to appraise highly.

“We were pretty much defending for pretty much 90 minutes,” said Delpippo. “I think anyone in the crowd could have seen that today. They’ve always been known for attacking and they’ve got a really talented squad.”

The game got very chippy at times with many confrontations between the two sides. It was the gamesmanship that took the Thunder a little out of their element.

“We try not to focus on that stuff too much and just try to play our game,” said Farrell-Rose. “We got a little too involved with the rivalry aspect and didn’t focus enough. That’s what we only won 2-0.”

Another reason why the Thunder only won 2-0 was the play of Durham keeper Andrew MacLeod.

“I think Andrew MacLeod is the man of the match,” said Bombino. “In the first half, on a set play, Loui (Legakis) took an excellent shot and he made a great save. Then in the second half, Algonquin had us under a lot of pressure and he came up large.”

Along with MacLeod’s presence in net, Durham employed a defensive system where only one man was used up front and the only offensive strategy was to counterattack. This slowed the tempo of the match and limited the Thunder’s chances.

“Obviously we’d like to play better, but in the end, getting three points is what we wanted to do,” said Legakis, who scored the second Algonquin goal. “The ball’s not always going to go in. We were just happy to get two goals and get out of here.