Last-play goal gives Guelph United their playoff berth
GUELPH – Guelph United couldn’t have left it any later in their regular season to finally clinch a playoff berth in the League1 Ontario Men’s Premier soccer league.
Colin Gander connected on a 25-yard free kick in the seventh minute of stoppage time on the final play of the game for a 3-2 victory over ProStars FC of Brampton Sunday at Centennial Bowl.
Guelph United 3 ProStars FC 2
Gander consulted a pair of teammates before striking the ball.
“I just lined up for it,” he said. “Milan (Beader) said to go for net. I talked to Gray (Yates) and I was like ‘Should I hit this?’ and he was like “Yeah.’ I just hit it and it went in. I don’t know, it all happened so fast.”
As United celebrated the goal, the whistle sounded to bring the game to an end.
If not for that goal, United would’ve finished out of the playoffs in seventh for the second consecutive season. Top six advance to the league’s playoffs.
“We left that way too late, but we still won and that’s all that matters,” Gander said.
“The result’s the result and we’ll take it,” United coach Justin Springer said.
United never trailed in the game against the lowly ProStars who entered the game on a 12-game winless streak including losses in their previous four games.
“Obviously, it’s hard not to go into it thinking this might be a walk in the park, but at the same time it’s important with a professional mentality to treat every game the same,” Gander said. “Top of the league, bottom of the league you go in and you play the way you play and you try to get a result. Obviously, it’s a bit hard to overlook, but at the end of the day I think we all came in here expecting this to be a difficult game and it was, clearly. But we got the win.”
“Of course we know the record. We knew what it was,” Springer said. “It’s seen every single week in the league and it’s seen in the table, this league is so highly competitive that anybody can beat anybody on any given day. Every single game is tough, it’s a fight, it’s difficult.”
ProStars had started the season with five wins in seven games including wins over playoff qualifiers Burlington SC and Milton’s Scrosoppi FC. They finished 18th in the 21-team league at 5-11-4. However, their performance last year was good enough to keep them in the 12-team Premier Division next year when the league starts promotion/relegation for the first time with a planned three-division setup. Results last year and this year were taken into consideration when it came to splitting the Division in two. Bottom teams go into a second division, the Championship Division, while expansion clubs are to be added to form League2, the third division. Top teams in one division at the end of the season will replace bottom teams in the division ahead of it.
Jared Agyemang opened the scoring for United Sunday on a penalty kick in the 23rd minute.
ProStars pulled even five minutes later on a goal by Mahmoud Mehdi.
Agyemang put the locals ahead a couple of minutes into the second half with a well-placed shot to the right side for his team-high 12th goal of the season. That left him eighth in the league scoring race won by former United striker Tomasz Skublak, now with Scrosoppi, who tallied 23 times.
ProStars came back to tie the score again, Dominic Parris pulling the visitors even in the 78th minute.
The win kept United undefeated at home as they had seven wins and three ties in their games at the Gryphon Soccer Complex (a win and a tie) and the Centennial Bowl.
It was also their third consecutive subpar effort at Centennial Bowl, all three played in August after all of their July games were played outside the Royal City.
Sunday’s victory left United (11-3-6) in a tie for fourth place with the Blue Devils of Oakville and Burlington SC, both at 12-5-3.
Scrosoppi finished atop the league at 17-3-0 while Simcoe County Rovers (15-4-1) Burlington gained its playoff berth with a 2-1 victory over Azzurri Sunday night. That result gave Electric City FC of Peterborough with the same feeling United had last year as they finished seventh at 11-5-4, two points out of the three-way tie.
“It’s like night and day between the seasons,” Springer said of the 2022 and 2023 campaigns. “Last year we were on the other end of what we’re feeling right now.”
L1O’s tiebreaking rules left United sixth. They won’t have much time to celebrate getting the playoff berth as they’re to play a quarter-final playoff match against Azzurri at Vaughan either Wednesday or Thursday.
“It’s a tight turnaround,” Springer said. “There’s certainly a lot of work to do and we’re heading into a crucial time.”
The team is to focus on most aspects of its game in the practices before the quarter-final.
“I think our decision making, it just needs to be more finely tuned,” Springer said. “We probably gave the ball away at times when we didn’t need to. Maybe if we just retained it a little bit, used the opposite side of the pitch, something differently might have developed. So I think a lot of decision-making work and a lot of situational work certainly has to be done as well. Again, just continuing to work on everything, to be honest — our defensive organization, our attacking organization and those transitional moments in between. Everything is going to need some fine tuning as we go into some do-or-die periods of the season right now. We’ve got to make sure that we get it right.
While United defeated Azzurri 1-0 at Centennial Bowl June 18 in their regular-season meeting, they don’t fear a road game. They were 4-3-3 on the road this season.
“We’re good away,” Gander said before knowing Azzurri would be United’s quarter-final opponents. “I think our away form is just as good as our home form, if not better. I think we’re confident going into that. I don’t think we have any worries at all, we’re a strong group and we believe in each other.”
Burlington and the Blue Devils are to battle in the other quarter-final, also either Wednesday or Thursday.
Scrosoppi and Simcoe County get byes in the quarter-finals and are to host semifinal matches either Saturday or Sunday.
The league final is to be held on the Labour Day weekend, likely Saturday, at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Woodbridge.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Last-play goal gives Guelph United their playoff berth
GUELPH – Guelph United couldn’t have left it any later in their regular season to finally clinch a playoff berth in the League1 Ontario Men’s Premier soccer league.
Colin Gander connected on a 25-yard free kick in the seventh minute of stoppage time on the final play of the game for a 3-2 victory over ProStars FC of Brampton Sunday at Centennial Bowl.
Guelph United 3
ProStars FC 2
Gander consulted a pair of teammates before striking the ball.
“I just lined up for it,” he said. “Milan (Beader) said to go for net. I talked to Gray (Yates) and I was like ‘Should I hit this?’ and he was like “Yeah.’ I just hit it and it went in. I don’t know, it all happened so fast.”
As United celebrated the goal, the whistle sounded to bring the game to an end.
If not for that goal, United would’ve finished out of the playoffs in seventh for the second consecutive season. Top six advance to the league’s playoffs.
“We left that way too late, but we still won and that’s all that matters,” Gander said.
“The result’s the result and we’ll take it,” United coach Justin Springer said.
United never trailed in the game against the lowly ProStars who entered the game on a 12-game winless streak including losses in their previous four games.
“Obviously, it’s hard not to go into it thinking this might be a walk in the park, but at the same time it’s important with a professional mentality to treat every game the same,” Gander said. “Top of the league, bottom of the league you go in and you play the way you play and you try to get a result. Obviously, it’s a bit hard to overlook, but at the end of the day I think we all came in here expecting this to be a difficult game and it was, clearly. But we got the win.”
“Of course we know the record. We knew what it was,” Springer said. “It’s seen every single week in the league and it’s seen in the table, this league is so highly competitive that anybody can beat anybody on any given day. Every single game is tough, it’s a fight, it’s difficult.”
ProStars had started the season with five wins in seven games including wins over playoff qualifiers Burlington SC and Milton’s Scrosoppi FC. They finished 18th in the 21-team league at 5-11-4. However, their performance last year was good enough to keep them in the 12-team Premier Division next year when the league starts promotion/relegation for the first time with a planned three-division setup. Results last year and this year were taken into consideration when it came to splitting the Division in two. Bottom teams go into a second division, the Championship Division, while expansion clubs are to be added to form League2, the third division. Top teams in one division at the end of the season will replace bottom teams in the division ahead of it.
Jared Agyemang opened the scoring for United Sunday on a penalty kick in the 23rd minute.
ProStars pulled even five minutes later on a goal by Mahmoud Mehdi.
Agyemang put the locals ahead a couple of minutes into the second half with a well-placed shot to the right side for his team-high 12th goal of the season. That left him eighth in the league scoring race won by former United striker Tomasz Skublak, now with Scrosoppi, who tallied 23 times.
ProStars came back to tie the score again, Dominic Parris pulling the visitors even in the 78th minute.
The win kept United undefeated at home as they had seven wins and three ties in their games at the Gryphon Soccer Complex (a win and a tie) and the Centennial Bowl.
It was also their third consecutive subpar effort at Centennial Bowl, all three played in August after all of their July games were played outside the Royal City.
Sunday’s victory left United (11-3-6) in a tie for fourth place with the Blue Devils of Oakville and Burlington SC, both at 12-5-3.
Scrosoppi finished atop the league at 17-3-0 while Simcoe County Rovers (15-4-1) Burlington gained its playoff berth with a 2-1 victory over Azzurri Sunday night. That result gave Electric City FC of Peterborough with the same feeling United had last year as they finished seventh at 11-5-4, two points out of the three-way tie.
“It’s like night and day between the seasons,” Springer said of the 2022 and 2023 campaigns. “Last year we were on the other end of what we’re feeling right now.”
L1O’s tiebreaking rules left United sixth. They won’t have much time to celebrate getting the playoff berth as they’re to play a quarter-final playoff match against Azzurri at Vaughan either Wednesday or Thursday.
“It’s a tight turnaround,” Springer said. “There’s certainly a lot of work to do and we’re heading into a crucial time.”
The team is to focus on most aspects of its game in the practices before the quarter-final.
“I think our decision making, it just needs to be more finely tuned,” Springer said. “We probably gave the ball away at times when we didn’t need to. Maybe if we just retained it a little bit, used the opposite side of the pitch, something differently might have developed. So I think a lot of decision-making work and a lot of situational work certainly has to be done as well. Again, just continuing to work on everything, to be honest — our defensive organization, our attacking organization and those transitional moments in between. Everything is going to need some fine tuning as we go into some do-or-die periods of the season right now. We’ve got to make sure that we get it right.
While United defeated Azzurri 1-0 at Centennial Bowl June 18 in their regular-season meeting, they don’t fear a road game. They were 4-3-3 on the road this season.
“We’re good away,” Gander said before knowing Azzurri would be United’s quarter-final opponents. “I think our away form is just as good as our home form, if not better. I think we’re confident going into that. I don’t think we have any worries at all, we’re a strong group and we believe in each other.”
Burlington and the Blue Devils are to battle in the other quarter-final, also either Wednesday or Thursday.
Scrosoppi and Simcoe County get byes in the quarter-finals and are to host semifinal matches either Saturday or Sunday.
The league final is to be held on the Labour Day weekend, likely Saturday, at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Woodbridge.
- Guelph Sports Journal