In my very last soccer column of the summer, I enjoyed the opportunity last weekend to catch up with a team that I had not yet seen play this year.
The GSSC (Greater Sudbury Soccer Club) Impact knew that they would be in tough, returning to Central Soccer League action in 2022. And while the likes of the front-running DCFC Academy and FC Emery posted convincing wins against the locals, the remainder of the eight team loop has offered a fair bit of parity.
On Saturday, the Impact, now at 3-8-1, welcomed CTSA Jarvis (5-7-2) to town, having dropped a 2-1 decision on the road to their GTA foes back in early July. With a couple of players absent, presumably due to rep hockey tryouts at this time of year, coach Dino Moretta utilized his entire bench freely, needing contributions across the board to pull out a 1-1 draw.
The Sudbury side threatened early, with Donald Munyua in search of a better angle in tight and waiting just a tad too long before trying to make the perfect strike. The back and forth pattern was established early as CTSA had an apparent opening goal called back due to an offside goal, a favour the homeside returned later in the second half.
About 30 minutes in, talented Impact midfielder Mishal Olanrewaju drifted a shot towards the corner that the Jarvis keeper stretched a foot out to turn aside – though he could only hold his opponents off for so long. With just minutes remaining in the first half, Russell Ranger struck a near perfect through ball, allowing speedy Dylan Nelson to run on and make a quick deke against the fast-charging goalie, side-stepping his way into a wide open net and a 1-0 GSSC lead.
Early in the second half, it was Anushan Kidnapilai, author of no less than nine goals this summer and easily the most consistent threat for the CTSA formation who would pull his team even, sliding a ball beneath Impact netminder Alessandro Moretta.
With about fifteen minutes to play, Olanrewaju converted on a goal that was deemed offside, giving way to a final few minutes which arguably featured the most wide open and exciting soccer of the day, with the teams trading chances at a furious pace. A well placed corner from Maksim Beljo was drilled wide by Dax Yurich, with Mauro Cusinato banging one of the posts for the Impact as well.
Between those two opportunities, keeper Moretta had to be vigilant, pulling in a threatening late cross to avoid losing the single point they would garner. Still, one had the sense after the game that the Sudbury lads felt this was a three-point game that they may have let get away.
“We played pretty good, but I feel that we didn’t take it seriously enough,” said Munyua, a native of Kenya and one of only six players on his team to find the back of the net this summer, scoring a pair of goals in June and July. “We had a lot of chances to score but we didn’t.”
Still, the 14 year old grade nine student at St Benedict CSS acknowledged that he can certainly see the progress from the time that he connected with the core of this squad some three years ago.
“We pass better and we talk a lot more than we did when we started,” said Munyua. “Now that we know each other, we can communicate better."
After being beaten 5-1 by Scarborough Academy a few weeks back, the U14 Impact lads came through with a much better effort in the second half of their weekend homestand, blanked 1-0 by the visitors with a 7-2-1 record.
The Sudbury side will close out CSL action on the road this weekend with contrasting encounters, facing winless Armour Heights (0-9-1) on Saturday but up against Emery (10-1-0) the very next day.
******************************************************************************As the group of GSSC teams looks to establish solid footing, competitively speaking, post-pandemic, there are certainly signs of encouragement. Both the Impact U13 boys and the Impact U13 girls appeared primed for a significant jump in levels of play in 2023.
Not only did the teams dominate the Huronia District Soccer League to the tune of a combined record of 28-0-0, the Sudbury tandem posted a whopping aggregate goals for/goals against stat line of 146-11. Needless to say, while winning is fun, it’s clear that both squads require a far greater push if the local rep soccer program is to continue to develop talent ready to play and contribute at the post-secondary level.
Speaking of which, there are definitely a handful of players on the GSSC Impact U17 girls squad who continue to pursue their dreams of playing beyond high-school. After making the cut in the first half of the summer in the new Soccer Ontario IModel stream, the locals have posted a 3-2-0 mark in their IM Central Region encounters.
And where pretty much every other team has called it a season, this crew still have a total of eight more games slated between now and the end of October, including a home double-header this weekend, with the North York Strikers in town on Saturday (3:00 p.m. – Delki Dozzi) and the Barrie Spirit providing the opposition the next day at the same time, but over at James Jerome.
******************************************************************************Finally, the Greater Sudbury Soccer Club hosted their year-end banquet on Thursday evening, doling out both teams awards as well as the major club trophies. Following are the recipients of the hardware in that latter category:
Goalkeeper of the Year – Noah Palladino (Impact U13 boys)Sportsmanlike Player of the Year – Misaki Diavolitsis (Impact U15 girls)
Coach of the Year – Doug Rosener (Impact U15 girls)
Female Player of the Year – Kiana Levac (Impact U17 girls)
Male Player of the Year – Carter Grenier (Impact U17 boys)
