Posted by

Aaron Nielsen ,

November 16, 2015 Twitter

@ENBSports

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As I wrote in my preview on Thursday, the Men's CIS Soccer Tournament was played at York University with the final on Sunday. In typical Canadian soccer fashion it was a good tournament and people who made it out also had a good time, although some things added a bit of confusion. For example, why were the games were played at the old York football stadium as opposed to the new stadium built for last season’s Pan Am Games in Toronto? The answer from a York student we spoke with was there that there were issues with the contractor so games were held at a very basic stadium, with the biggest issue the game being played on American Football artificial turf opposed to grass, which didn't play a role in the final on a nice sunny day but created a bit a havoc in the games building up to the final that were played in the rain.



The second question that could be brought up was the seeding. Most would concede and even the official word was York and UBC were ranked as the 1st and 2nd best teams in the nation going into the tournament. Yet they played each other in the Semi-Finals oppose to the final. A tight affair partly caused by conditions of playing on a wet turf saw a very even match with UBC playing a strong defensive system to hold Michael Cox to limited opportunities. Both teams did whatever they could to stop the opponent forcing the ref to give out multiple yellow cards and send off a player for each for accumulating two yellows. York prevailed in the Penalties with UBC first penalty being saved while York went a perfect five for five with Dena Iezady scoring the winner. UBC would go on to win the 3rd/4th place match 2-0 over UQAM.



This meant the final was held between the host York and AUS Champions University of New Brunswick. UNB made the finals with exciting 3-2 wins against Victoria and UQAM with Robert Park scoring in extra time against the Quebec school to advance to the finals. While York made easy work of Cape Breton 4-1 with Cox getting a second half hat-trick after Iezady opened the scoring and as mentioned got by UBC in the semi-finals. York were missing Matt Arnone, who was sent off in the UBC game, while UNB were at full strength including the return of Jose Lopez, who missed the semi-finals due to concussion protocol.



Both teams were well supported with a traveling crowd from UNB who showed up early but by the time the game started there was a good number of York fans and students in the stadium. Not seeing UNB play prior, the first thing I noticed is how much smaller they were than the Lions and they were pushed off the ball early. They also played an unorthodox formation almost a 5-4-1 but had the two pseudo full-backs Marucs Lees and Oliver Jones play very high up and with the ball even ahead of the centre forward Robert Park. This left a lot of territory for the 3 defenders to cover and York took advantage of this especially on the right side with Jarek Whiteman and DeVante Walker controlling most of the play.



This led to a couple of opportunities including the first goal for Michael Cox as he took service from the right, controlled the ball and was able to shoot and score from inside the penalty box. York continued to dominate play in the first half setting up chances for Cox, Whiteman and Joey Cicchilo but could not get the final touch to increase their lead.



In the second half York took their foot off the gas and the fact both teams played three games in four days begin to show as both teams fought for possession in the midfield or booted the ball down the pitch in hopes of creating a break. In the 67th minute UNB connected with only their second shot on target via a Diego Padilha free kick, but it was an easy save for the York keeper Colm Vance. A break the other way saw UNB starting keeper Brandon Eagle hurt himself with what looked like a knee injury trying to clear a through ball to Cox and the substitute keeper Adam Grant was brought in. Although what seem to be the much stronger team, York were unable to wrap the game up. This gave UNB confidence and they controlled possession from the 80th minute onward trying to tie the game.



UNB wide players of Marcus Lees, Jose Lopez and Steven Miller sent crosses into the Lions box from this possession but no one was there to convert these opportunities and in the extra time York were able to get a couple of breaks. The first going to Cox who after feeling there was no opportunity to shoot, ran the ball in UNB's own corner to waste time and then another break saw Iezady control the ball just in the 18 yard box and almost pass the ball into the net to clinch victory for the Lions.



This was the Lions 5th championship in school history, fourth under Carmine Isacco since he took over the program and they are now CIS Men's Soccer back-to-back champions. Players Jonathan Lao, Ben Futoriansky, Vance, Arnone, Walker, Iezedy, Cicchillo win personal CIS titles two years in a row along with Jarek Whiteman who also won the 2015 PDL championsnip with K-W United. While Cox in his first year in the CIS also won tournament MVP.



The tournament mostly played out as I predicted in my tournament preview and the players who I identified as ones to watch, showed that, by scoring goals, setting up teammates and overall quality play. The fact I was able to predict this from only seeing a limited amount of CIS games this season, I feel is a good thing because it shows that there is a core group of quality Canadian based soccer players and if Canada was to go the direction of a its own league or adding additional USL or NASL teams, finding players and personel to be a part of this league or new teams shouldn't be too difficult.



Aaron Neilsen is a co-founder of Prospect XI (Prospect Eleven), a scouting network and online magazine dedicated to tracking/highlighting young players that refer to as "prospects" as well as their development pathways both within North America and worldwide. Follow PXI via www.prospectxi.com or on twitter @ProspectXI.