West Van Royals 0 - 0 Gastown F.C
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 | 1 Comment
"Played on a rectangular field of grass or green artificial turf, with a goal in the middle of each of the short ends. The object of the game is to score by driving the ball into the opposing goal."
This definition of the game was up for debate last weekend when Gastown F.C. made the journey up the Stanley Park Causeway to the north shore for a tricky tie against mid-table battlers West Van Royals. Taking to the trapezoid with only 10 men to begin with for the second straight week, Gastown looked like they might have a hard time repeating their result from a week prior. Although they eventually made 11, they finished the way they started in a game rife with mistakes from which the visitors were lucky to escape with a point.
Gastown lined up in an extremely unfamiliar 4-3-1 formation with Nic Mottin missing the opening whistle as he tied his shoe-laces. The team did welcome back club captain Owen Parrott who was missing the last three games on a scouting mission in Japan. Takafumi Ogasahara took his familiar place at the heart of the G.F.C. defence 10 minutes in, just in time to clear West Van's 2nd corner of the game after they'd already created a couple of half-chances and forced Whelan into action early.
The unorganized start — on a crooked, hand-drawn minnow of a pitch — played right into the hands of West Van who got off to a good start on their home turf with their burly frontman linking up well with West Van's dynamic Australian midfield contingency. The fast pace seemed to unsettle Whelan who had to use his hands before he did his feet causing his early kicking to be extremely erratic and he found touch, or the opponents white shirts more often than not.
The first real chance of the day fell to West Van on the left who capitalised on a mix-up between defenders Karu and Amin before squaring the ball to an unmarked midfielder striding into the box to hit a first time shot towards the top corner. Whelan was well positioned in his net though and he made the save look easy not even leaving his feet.
As the half wore on, and Gastown got a full team on the field they began to get some more men behind the ball as they looked for an opening. Midfielder Ashton Braun's electric pace was seeing some merits down the left as he linked up with Tsukaji and Parrott a handful of times. The latter was freed into the channel by a cutting Braun pass (ziing) at one point and danger loomed when the returning maestro beat a man and switched play for Ruprah, but the nationality-medley's touch frustratingly let him down and he was dispossessed.
Frustration was a common theme of the day for Gastown wish was apparent when Nic Mottin and Ramy Benguena forgot they were both wearing burgundy shirts and decided to shout at rather than pass to one another for a few minutes. Both were having a hard time making any kind of impact on the game as West Van saw most of the ball to the chagrin of Michael Hannah who's stamina had a hard time keeping up with the demands of being a ball winning midfielder on a team being passed around easily as West Van dominated possession. Their attacks were predictable though as everything went through their strong target man and Karu and Ogasahara were able to cope and the half ended scoreless.
As time went on, both Gastown became a little bit over anxious with the score at 0-0. Without the comfort that comes with a lead, instead of keeping the ball and passing it short between themselves, the opted to knock hopeful long balls into the path of one four forward players lurking on the line. Nine times out of ten though, they were offside not to mention ignoring their defensive duties. This opened the door West Van who coped best with the lack of an opener.
The home side remained calm and knocked the ball around confidently, keeping possession while they waited for an opener. A few times they carved their visitors to pieces breaking forward with five men against three only to be thwarted by their own home pitch whose strange angles and weird lines played tricks on the referees eyes a handful of times bringing their attacks to a halt as well.
Later on they roke down the left, and squared the ball to their skillful big man who turned well around Ogasahara, jinked one way, sent Karu another and was in alone on Whelan 8 yards out. Gastown looked sure to go down 0-1 had the frontman slotted home from 6 yards out. He opted to dribble around a third instead though and Whelan did brilliantly to dive low to punch the ball off his boot and clear the danger.
A lack of chances, defensive lapses and a breakdown in organization had the Gastown front six frustrated and got to their heads. The stop-start game started getting testy and people were running their mouths more than they were with their feet. Extracurriculars meant the referee had to have a word with a handful of players, most notably Silvio Ruprah who picked up a booking. The match continued to hang in the balance waiting for either team to tip the scales
Gastown had a good chance shortly after the yellow flashed when Parrott took a pass in the centre of the park, spun quickly into space and spotted a galavanting Amin tearing up the right flank into space. The diagonal curling pace found him well all on his own just outside the area (thanks to the 60 meter pitch length) but his timing was wrong and he was judged to have been offside, his stinging effort after the whistle cannoned off of the crossbar anyhow which also earned him a yellow card.
Mottin then finally beat the trap on 60 minutes, sprung by a chip from Benguena he ran in on goal, and adjusted his body well to hit a dipping half volley from just outside the area. The Royals keeper looked to have reacted late but did well to dive to his left and push the shot around the post for a corner allowing his teammates to collectively exhale.
The pendulum then swung to the West Van side when a clever move saw the ball go out wide on the right where Braun, now at left back, looked to deal with the problem. He was made to pay for flat feet though as their winger nutmegged him and fired in a low cross which was stroked past Whelan and in first time. The goal was called back though as it too was deemed to be offside. It was a marginal call but G.F.C. wouldn't complain and it remained deadlocked.
Escaping by the skin of their teeth, Gastown responded somewhat positively and saw some decent time on the ball up field through Parrott and Tsukaji as they pressed forward for a winner. Their positive spell was ended when tempers flared up again and Ruprah was sent off for the second time in five matches after picking up his second yellow card for an aggressive challenge on a 50/50 ball.
West Van looked to exploit the man advantage and one particularly swift attack found the Royals upfield with numbers and only three burgundy shirts in front of them. The ball moved into the left side of the area for a shot which was deflected across the goal to the right where it fell to another Royal whose shot was cleared off of the line by a backtracking Parrott. His clearance only found it's way to the edge of the area though where it was hit first time by a West Vancouverite. Third time was indeed the charm as the fizzing low drive took a glance off a shin and was destined for the bottom corner. Somehow though, Whelan recovered from his first 'save' which had taken him out of position on the other side of the goal to dive low to get his trodden fingertips onto the ball at full stretch and steer the ball around the post and out to a collective sigh of exclamation.
Still shocked and confused at how they hadn't taken the lead, West Van's ensuing corner was cleared easily and then moved up the pitch for Mottin to break through on goal all alone again. This time though he was clipped by the last West Van defender just outside the area. The challenge meant a straight red card for the Royals and one last chance for G.F.C. The subsequent free kick was sent mildly at the keeper and capped off the game leaving both sides ruing missed chances and Gastown breathing a sigh of relief as they thanked their heroic goalkeeper.
Iron Man of the Match: Jack Whelan.
Gastown F.C. Form Guide: D-L-L-W-W-D
Reader Comments (1)
Great blog, a very fair assessment of the game! Apart from the description of out red card, "clipped" was being very generous to our centre half, absolutely cynical challenge!! Anyway, well played Gastown!!
PS Just watched AIjal tigers get beat 1-0 by stathcona... league isnt over yet!