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Late Set Piece By Strikers' Sosa Seals Win Over TSkillz

By League1 Ontario staff, 05/02/16, 1:00AM EDT

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Toronto Skillz put on a fantastic opening home match gala in their League1 Ontario debut at Birchmount Stadium versus Woodbridge, but despite gaining a 1-0 early advantage they could not hold out against a late Strikers assault. 

"You can't fault the guys on the day for the first game, not knowing the level of competition in the league," said Toronto Skillz head coach, Leslie "Tiger" Fitzpatrick.

"I think we showed we belonged in the league, and we showed very well for seventy-five minutes before the legs gave out on us a little bit. Mentally we dropped a little too, and missed a couple experienced players that couldn't play today and would have helped settle things and take the steam out of the game."


Photo: Alex Daddese

Woodbridge's Kyle Watson (72') made a brilliant overlapping run into the box late in the match and latched on to a strike that beat the Skillz GK Khedar Caesar-Thompson on the ground.

Gabriel Sosa (90 + 1') finished the comeback for Strikers after his perfectly struck extra time free kick bent inside the top corner of the net to Caesar-Thompson's left hand side. 

"Second half we talked about coming out and playing the way we can, and we knew eventually it would come," said Woodbridge assistant coach, Damien Scott. 

"It came a bit late, but it came."

However, the final score will flatter to deceive any supporters that were not there to witness the contest.


Gabriel Sosa (Photo: Alex Daddese)

The speed, youth, tactical organization and sheer quality of the Toronto Skillz team was the story of the day, as they opened the scoring through a clever Ryan Reid (23') chip and held their lead until late in the match much to the delight of the 400 fans in attendance.

"We had some missed chances and when you don't put the game away you leave yourself susceptible to late chances against you at the end," said Fitzpatrick. 

"Woodbridge has a strong defensive record every year and they are great on set pieces and it came to bit us a little bit at the end."


Photo: Alex Daddese

Goalscorer Ryan Reid was particularly impressive on the day with an abundance of creative movement and vision. Through much of the match, Woodbridge's experienced defenders (Strikers had the best defensive record in League1 2015) could do little but try and contain Reid. 

"I mentioned Ryan in the pre-season technical profile and I think he is one of the players that will light up the league," said Fitzpatrick. 

"He is a great athlete, great range box-to-box, dominant in the air and his strike was fantastic. He pulls out one of those every few games and he is really a good influence to have in the middle of the field." 

"I think if he continues to play that steady he has a great chance of getting scouted and moving on to the next level." 


Photo: Alex Daddese