The Varsity Blues men’s soccer team recorded two strong offensive showings Sept 27 and 28, first against the Trent Excalibur and the Royal Military College Paladins. With Trent being the only team this year to shut the Blues out, the 4-2 result on Saturday came as a welcome reassurance in the team’s finishing ability.
The Excalibur looked ready to score an early goal off of a miscue by the Toronto defense, but John Smits, the rookie keeper who took over for the injured Luciano Lombardi, came up with the early save. Two minutes later, Toronto attacked the right wing as first-year midfielder Geoffrey Borgmann crossed the ball to forward Seung Bok Lee, who got the height on the Trent goalkeeper, heading the ball in to give Toronto the 1-0 lead. Toronto conquered offensively for the rest of the half with a second goal at the 22 minute mark. The Borgmann-Bok Lee team hooked up again, when a cross by Borgmann bounced around the Trent box before a goal by Lee.
Toronto captain Dustin Chung praised Borgmann’s play. “Geoff’s our key man on the right-wing,” he said. “He put the work in today and we’re just glad that it was productive.”
A third goal was scored at 27 minutes off of a free kick redirected by third-year striker Nordo Gooden. The first-half ended with Trent taking advantage of a pass back to the goalkeeper, slowed down by weather conditions on the synthetic field. Trent striker Thaddeus Bolton capitalized on the error by intercepting the pass, maneuvering around Smits to score for his team.
Coach Capotosto singled out Toronto’s defensive play as an area to improve on in the weeks ahead. “We were taking things for granted on the field. We weren’t getting into position early and we were a little disoriented defensively.”
Second-half action saw striker Alexander Raphael score Toronto’s fourth goal on a penalty kick shortly before Bolton tapped the ball towards Toronto’s line at the other end of the field. While Smits looked to have successfully cleared the ball, the line-judge ruled that it had crossed the threshold. Trent recorded their second goal.
“We were a little disappointed that we tied [Trent] 0-0 about a week ago, so we went back to the drawing board in training sessions and we worked on the wing channels and getting crosses in. We did exactly that today,” said Chung.
In Sunday’s game against the RMC Paladins, the Blues continued this show of offensive finesse with a convincing 4-0 win over the bottom seed in the Eastern division. Niko Pesa, a first-year forward from Burlington, Ontario and striker Raphael each scored two goals.
Asked about the team’s performance this year, particularly on the offensive side, Raphael commented on the team’s chemistry. “The difference between this year and previous years […] is the way we work together. Last year, we had a skillful team, but we weren’t really able to connect. This year the team has gelled within the first couple of weeks which has just been amazing.”
With these two wins, the Blues move from eighth to sixth place in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport ranking for men’s soccer. Last Saturday, the Blues picked up another win with a 3-1 victory over the Nipissing Lakers. If the Blues can continue these dominating offensive performances, Toronto fans can look forward to a very interesting post-season.
