THE SOUTH STAND REPORT : Toronto V Montreal... or The Grandaddy of Them All (part 1 of 2)

The Voyageurs Cup. It is the stuff of boyhood dreams and legends.  107 clubs competed in this year's competition,  and now we're down to two.

Who can forget King of Donair Halifax being upset by the minnows of Dartmouth Harbour.   Or the Quebec City derby in the 3rd round between Ouest Quebec and FC Quebec.  The come-from-behind salvaging of FC Edmonton over New Westminister Eagles.  Heady stuff.

Until that fairytale comes true, our 5 club cup will suffice quite nicely.

Montreal qualified by some Toledo-esque bullshit that if it were hockey, a federal inquest would have been ordered.  Poor Edmonton and Colin Miller.  Toronto did the likely and knocked out the Vancouver U-17s in penalties.  They don't all have to be pretty to count. 

Onto the match:

20' - GOAL - corner floated into the gliding noggin of Doneil Henry, who buries it under thr bar
ROBINS 1, FROMAGE 0

29' - Morgan is really running the right back position showing off his speed and tenacity.  Really giving Mapp a bit of a headache so far.

31' - Toronto may have gotten away with one as a low rocket hit Caldwell in the arm on the edge of the box to no call.

33' - YELLOW - Rey for two handing someone in he chest 

41' - DeRo floats a ball across the face of goal and just misses a lunging Gilberto

Half Time Mood : underwhelmed but, hey, winning! 

57' - DeRo has a ball squared to him and fires hitting the top left crossbar.  Nearly legendary. 

69' - Wow.  Ok, DeRo tries to chip the keeper and hits the crossbar.  So close.  The ball finds Gilberto whose bicycle kick lands safely in the hands of the keeper #TakeAShot

73' - GOAL - Mapp given way too much space to run into the top of the box and has a go, burying it past a standing Bendik.
ROBINS 1, FROMAGE 1

76' - SUB - Hall comes off for Bekker

79' - SUB - Rey makes way for Morrow

87' - Lovitz floats a ball into the box that finds Gilberto but goes well wide.   No need to take a shot.

3 mins of extra time

90+2' - last chance throw in gets popped into the box and DeRo just misses back heading the ball over the Montreal keeper but it ends up in his hands.

FULL TIME : TORONTO 1, MONTREAL 1

Man of the Match : Doneil Henry, not for the goal but for his hustle.  Morgan made a strong case for himself tonight as well.

Goat of the Game : Hagglund just because he had a few panicky lapses.  Wasn't overtly terrible just noticeably playing not as well as we've become used to.

Ref Rating : 3 out of 5.  Equally crap but blew more calls for Toronto.

Kit Spotting : Calgary Flames circa 1989.   I know it's not footy but no one is delivering here.

I Am Not The Gaffer But... : I can only imagine how one demotivates a side at halftime, only to come out so flat for the first 10 mins each game

In a nutshell,  Toronto were uninspired but Montreal were poor.  I don't know if Toronto deserved a draw necessarily,  but I strongly doubt Montreal deserved a goal at all.

Apologies are owed to DeRo as he had a great game and played the entire 90 minutes.  We had a pool going as to when he'd gas out and the table went as follows:
@RedWineRoz 7 minutes
@DuncanDFletcher 14
@ignirtoq 37
@theyorkies1812 45
@IamSairax 53
@kzknowles 63
Yeah, we all lost gloriously. He made some clever passes, made himself a threat and got into position often.  He's not the DeRo of 2011 but he still has something to offer.

If you could earn fantasy points for effort,  Gilberto would lead the league... I'm convinced the tourists who buy the scalper tickets are trying to out trend the baseball crowd by sitting around and having conversations.  You can do what you want with your ticket as you will, just don't look at me like I'm the idiot when I do start singing... Marketing at its finest - "Da-da da DA duh, I'm Dan Lovitz" (no, thank YOU McD's)... I feel for Morgan as Bloom owns that right back spot, but he played hard and focused.  This is how fighting for your place can be a helluva motivator... if Amway is going to be the only sponsor of the Match,  then it's only fair that you can only get Amway at the matches.  Amway peanuts with an ice cold Amway Light is really just to comical to not try once... Raise your hand if you expected Moore to come off the bench and poach a goal?  I didn't know he was hurt either.

Player Ratings : Bendik 6, Hagglund 5.5, Caldwell 6, Henry 7, Morgan 7, Rey 6.5 [Morrow N/A], Orr, Hall 6 [Bekker N/A], Lovitz 6.5, De Rosario 7, Gilberto 6.5.

@ignirtoq fully expects to be back on podcast duty next week as real life is taking over. This would be much more amusing if duty was spelled "doodie". Heheheh... doodie.