“Three is the magic number”

Last week I told you to expect the expected but maybe, just maybe, I spoke too soon because we have a few games on our hands here. Here’s a quick recap of the 1st legs.

The only game that could be done and dusted is the game between this seasons two surprise packages Alliance and N.Miss. Alliance came out away from this away leg with a 3-1 victory. United stormed into a three-goal lead in an hour. Nicholas Osorio scoring the first and then setting up the next two for teammate Kevin Da Silva. N.Miss pulled one back with a ‘glol’ about 25 mins from time where Nicola Russo’s cross was ‘cleared’ by Kenny Lioutas but his header hit the head of Sebastian Lach who was challenging for the ball and it ended up back on net evading Denys Rylskyi and giving N.Miss a slight chance in the tie.

This, of course, means that N.Miss would need to inflict on Alliance something that hasn’t happened all season to Ilya Orlov’s side and that is to beat them by two goals. The Panthers were one of the sides to score more than one goal against Alliance during the season, although on that day Alliance scored three, so it is possible if they can keep it tight at the back. That said, Alliance could be without several the players if Orlov’s recent tweet is anything to go by as they will be heading back to Uni. It will be interesting to see what this team that has stayed pretty consistent, player turn over wise, all-season look like in the second leg and onwards. I know form the commentary during the London game that a few of the Western boys are allowed to continue with the playoffs as long as the university team comes first, I wonder if coach Orlov could make similar concessions to his players as he is the coach of both UofT and Alliance?

A few missing but what a regular season & what a performance they put on yesterday in the 1st playoff game. Same group of players have played in every game this season..a real team. Majority now off to start the university season this weekend. I love these guys! @ALLIANCE_UTDFC pic.twitter.com/sl4KOVSkTV — Ilya Orlov (@ilyao88) August 26, 2019

Prediction: Alliance will see the tie through, depending on how many players they lose, they should win the return leg. Even if they don’t win the game, I think they will win the tie.

In the less expected results, on Saturday afternoon Oakville drew 0-0 away at Woodbridge on Saturday, with not too many clear-cut chances for either team. Both teams will think they can have this with a score draw meaning Woodbridge advance, but Oakville doesn’t concede many and will expect to get the win at home in the second leg.

Prediction: I expect them to win as well. I can’t see anything other than an Oakville win. Might just be 1 goal in it but Oakville can grind those results out.

Earlier in the day, Sigma welcomed Masters to the Paramount Fine Foods Centre pitch #1, and it went pretty much how I thought it would. Masters have been on a good run of form in the second half of the season losing just the once to Vaughan whereas Sigma lost three games, especially coming off the big loss to N.Miss last week and missing key players.

But they still have a reasonably strong starting XI, especially with their front three, but Masters have some quality players of their own, and It was the star, Francis Ameyaw who created the first goal for his team. He latched onto a pass from MIsse Durand and played the ball across the goal, the defender couldn’t clear the ball and Samer Hamade put it in at the back post.

Sigma pulled level with 20 mins left through Manuel Morgado who just about managed to poke home a cross from Manvir Brar. But Adam Czerkawski scored directly from a freekick with 5 minutes to go to give Masters the advantage going into their home tie.

Prediction: This one is still tight, Sigma won 2-1 at Masters in the regular season and that same result would take this tie to extra time. But I think Masters will get at least a draw at home and progress.

The final game of the round saw Vaughan travel all the way to the German Canadian Club in London and couldn’t get the result they wanted but are still definitely in the tie going into their home leg. As previously mentioned, London were able to hold onto a few of their University players, but Vaughan are without at least three London came away with, some may say, a surprising result winning 2-1 with all three goals coming in the first 26 minutes. Ethan Gopaul got the home side off to a great start in the 17th minute after being played in by Connor Wilson for a one on one that he dispatched with aplomb.

Maksym Kowal showed why he’s one of the top strikers in the league 6 minutes later when Raheem Rose intercepted a pass in the centre circle and drove forward playing Kowal in on the left. Kowal struck a strong shot into the bottom right corner of the goal giving Anthony Sokalski no chance.

They didn’t stay level for long as just 3 minutes later, Tomas Alvarez ran onto a long ball from Randy Ribeiro and managed to squeeze himself between two defenders before just passing the ball past Matt George.

Prediction: Vaughan should still come out on top, but it’s going to be closer than I thought. The result is in the balance and the most likely to go either way imo.

So I said to expect the expected, then we got a couple of unexpected results which threw everything up in the air. Maybe this season does have a couple of surprises to throw at us yet, I guess we’ll find out this weekend if anyone can pull off an upset but I still think the top three will make it through.

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Dan Baldwin Dan joins us to finally get involved in doing something about the sport he loves. Born in England he has played and followed the game his whole life. After moving to Toronto in 2014, he immediately began to learn about the local soccer scene and is passionate about the development of the sport in the country. However, he can still found cheering on his beloved West Ham each weekend morning at the Dog and Bear pub.

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