Guelph United returns home for tie with Hamilton United
GUELPH – It’s a point, an important point, but Guelph United left the Centennial Bowl field Tuesday night feeling that it could’ve been so much more in their first League1 Ontario Men’s Soccer home game in more than a month.
A pair of goals in the final seven minutes, with the sturgeon supermoon rising, lifted Guelph United into a 2-2 tie with Hamilton United in their first home game since June 27.
Guelph United 2 Hamilton United 2
“It’s definitely a difficult result,” Guelph United coach Justin Springer said. “It certainly makes it a lot harder moving forward and it certainly puts us in a different position and not certainly the way we wanted to close out this one. Yes, we’ll take the point for sure but we’re certainly a little bit disappointed with the result.”
The United visitors took the early lead with a goal by Ideal Shefqeti on a penalty kick in first-half stoppage time.
Hamilton added to its lead midway through the second half when Jamu Iluya broke free for a stern shot from the left side on the team’s first good opportunity of the second half.
The United hosts had controlled play in the second half, keeping the Hamilton squad held into its own zone, but couldn’t manage to get a goal until Jared Agyemang, Guelph’s top scorer who entered the match at halftime, cut the gap in half with seven minutes to go in regulation time with his ninth goal of the season.
Agyemang scooped the ball out of the Hamilton net and ran it back to centre so the locals could quickly continue their attack. It paid off three minutes later when Gray Yates booted in the equalizer with his second goal of the season.
The stalemate is also the first blemish on Guelph United’s record at Centennial Bowl. They’d won each of their previous five games there after getting a win and a tie in two home games at the Gryphon Soccer Complex in April before the Bowl was open for the season.
“That certainly also makes the result a little bit more difficult to swallow,” Springer said. “I thought we’d been fantastic at home this year so far. We come out strong, anticipate well, connect well and combine really well here. I think the guys have adapted really well to the pitch and the playing surface that we have here so it was definitely a little disappointing just to see the way that we did come out just not be the way it was intended to be.”
The deadlock leaves Guelph United winless in its last three games with a loss and two ties in that span. They’re tied for fifth with Alliance United of Toronto and Scarborough in the 21-team league’s standings, both teams having 9-3-5 records. Top six qualify for the playoffs and both are a point up on Electric City (9-4-4) of Peterborough with three games to go in their regular seasons.
The locals will look to be a little more assertive in their final three games, especially with two of those games on their home field.
“That’s something that myself and the staff are really going to have to sit down and talk about, for sure. As we close out the season here, that just flat out can’t happen. It can’t take us 55 minutes to get a spark into a game. It just made it really difficult on ourselves.”
A total of 13 teams are still in the running to qualify for the playoffs with only first-place Scrosoppi FC (14-2-0) of Milton assured of participating in the postseason.
They’re followed by Vaughan Azzurri (11-2-3), Blue Devils FC (11-3-3) of Oakville and the Simcoe County Rovers (11-4-1).
Behind Electric City are North Toronto Nitros and Burlington SC (both at 9-5-3), Sigma FC (8-6-3) of Toronto, Woodbridge Strikers (6-6-5), Hamilton United (6-6-4) and FC London (5-6-5). Out of the playoff reckoning are Darby FC (5-8-4) of Whitby, Windsor City FC (6-9-1), ProStars FC (5-8-4) of Brampton, St. Catharines Roma (4-10-2), North Mississauga SC (3-9-4), Master’s FA (1-13-2) of Scarborough, Unionville Milliken SC (1-15-1) and BVB IA Waterloo (1-16-0).
Guelph United are to play Electric City in Peterborough Saturday at 2 p.m. before finishing their regular season with home games against Woodbridge Strikers Aug. 13 at 5:30 p.m. and ProStars Aug. 20 at 5:30 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Guelph United returns home for tie with Hamilton United
GUELPH – It’s a point, an important point, but Guelph United left the Centennial Bowl field Tuesday night feeling that it could’ve been so much more in their first League1 Ontario Men’s Soccer home game in more than a month.
A pair of goals in the final seven minutes, with the sturgeon supermoon rising, lifted Guelph United into a 2-2 tie with Hamilton United in their first home game since June 27.
Guelph United 2
Hamilton United 2
“It’s definitely a difficult result,” Guelph United coach Justin Springer said. “It certainly makes it a lot harder moving forward and it certainly puts us in a different position and not certainly the way we wanted to close out this one. Yes, we’ll take the point for sure but we’re certainly a little bit disappointed with the result.”
The United visitors took the early lead with a goal by Ideal Shefqeti on a penalty kick in first-half stoppage time.
Hamilton added to its lead midway through the second half when Jamu Iluya broke free for a stern shot from the left side on the team’s first good opportunity of the second half.
The United hosts had controlled play in the second half, keeping the Hamilton squad held into its own zone, but couldn’t manage to get a goal until Jared Agyemang, Guelph’s top scorer who entered the match at halftime, cut the gap in half with seven minutes to go in regulation time with his ninth goal of the season.
Agyemang scooped the ball out of the Hamilton net and ran it back to centre so the locals could quickly continue their attack. It paid off three minutes later when Gray Yates booted in the equalizer with his second goal of the season.
The stalemate is also the first blemish on Guelph United’s record at Centennial Bowl. They’d won each of their previous five games there after getting a win and a tie in two home games at the Gryphon Soccer Complex in April before the Bowl was open for the season.
“That certainly also makes the result a little bit more difficult to swallow,” Springer said. “I thought we’d been fantastic at home this year so far. We come out strong, anticipate well, connect well and combine really well here. I think the guys have adapted really well to the pitch and the playing surface that we have here so it was definitely a little disappointing just to see the way that we did come out just not be the way it was intended to be.”
The deadlock leaves Guelph United winless in its last three games with a loss and two ties in that span. They’re tied for fifth with Alliance United of Toronto and Scarborough in the 21-team league’s standings, both teams having 9-3-5 records. Top six qualify for the playoffs and both are a point up on Electric City (9-4-4) of Peterborough with three games to go in their regular seasons.
The locals will look to be a little more assertive in their final three games, especially with two of those games on their home field.
“That’s something that myself and the staff are really going to have to sit down and talk about, for sure. As we close out the season here, that just flat out can’t happen. It can’t take us 55 minutes to get a spark into a game. It just made it really difficult on ourselves.”
A total of 13 teams are still in the running to qualify for the playoffs with only first-place Scrosoppi FC (14-2-0) of Milton assured of participating in the postseason.
They’re followed by Vaughan Azzurri (11-2-3), Blue Devils FC (11-3-3) of Oakville and the Simcoe County Rovers (11-4-1).
Behind Electric City are North Toronto Nitros and Burlington SC (both at 9-5-3), Sigma FC (8-6-3) of Toronto, Woodbridge Strikers (6-6-5), Hamilton United (6-6-4) and FC London (5-6-5). Out of the playoff reckoning are Darby FC (5-8-4) of Whitby, Windsor City FC (6-9-1), ProStars FC (5-8-4) of Brampton, St. Catharines Roma (4-10-2), North Mississauga SC (3-9-4), Master’s FA (1-13-2) of Scarborough, Unionville Milliken SC (1-15-1) and BVB IA Waterloo (1-16-0).
Guelph United are to play Electric City in Peterborough Saturday at 2 p.m. before finishing their regular season with home games against Woodbridge Strikers Aug. 13 at 5:30 p.m. and ProStars Aug. 20 at 5:30 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal