Competitive soccer teams are used to having to adjust on the fly, countering things they did not expect when the original game plan was laid out.

Roy Solarin and the GSSC (Greater Sudbury Soccer Club) Impact 17U Boys fully understand that dynamic.

Still, a last minute change which saw their encounter with Wexford moved from James Jerome Sports Complex indoors to the Lance Dome, a victim of the air quality alerts that Sudbury endured in late June due to raging in northern Quebec, did manage to throw the lads for a loop.

Trailing 4-1 in the second half, the Impact managed to rally and earn a 4-4 draw, keeping their early season unbeaten streak alive, this contest preceded by three victories to date. Liam Binks scored twice for the home side, with Atom Thususka and Roy Solarin finding the back of the net once each.

"We like to send through balls, we like to play it wide - but because the field isn't as long as what we are used to, we had to play more through the middle and change our style of play," explained Solarin, a Nigerian born forward who moved to northern Ontario almost five years ago.

"We knew we were the better team," added the senior at St Charles College. "For us, this draw feels like a loss because we know that we could have won this game."

The U17 Impact opened their season with victories over Canadian FC (3-2 - Atom Thususka, Liam Binks, Sam Oduwole), CTSA (2-1 - Liam Binks, Maximus Aziz) and North Toronto Nitros (4-1 - Nour Alzahran-2, Chad Tullio, Jonas Petroski).

For a local team that has grown together in recent years, the fact that they trail only YJ Olympiacos Kitchener (4-0-0) in the standings lends credence to their belief in the benefits of stability in the roster.

"Because we have been playing with each other for a while now, we know what this person is going to do, we expect this from this person, we know who is capable of what," said Solarin. "It makes for a great team chemistry where we can kind of predict each other's movement - which helps us on and off the field."

Mix that in with a seven team league that offers a reasonable amount of parity and you have the makings for a very enjoyable summer of soccer. "It's pretty competitive," said Solarin. "Teams are about the same level as us, maybe some are a bit higher."

"There are no teams that we can beat out of the water and they beat us out of the water. It's all about tactics and everything that involves soccer, in general. It's a great league for our age, competitive-wise."

The GSSC lads have a tough weekend ahead, welcoming Canadian FC (Sat., July 8th - 3:00 p.m. - James Jerome) and YJ Olympiacos Kitchener (Sun, July 9th - 4:30 p.m. - James Jerome) to Sudbury before closing out with four of their final six games on the road.