skip navigation

Oakville Moves Into Mid-Table After 2-0 Win Over Pro Stars

By League1 Ontario staff, 06/13/16, 12:00AM EDT

Share

Oakville Blue Devils put a difficult week behind them and beat Pro Stars FC 2-0 after goals from regulars Felipe Vilela (9') and Eric Crawford (44').

Goalkeeper Karman Saini kept a clean sheet en route to the victory.

"I was a bit disappointed with the second half actually, I thought we should have gone on and scored more," said Oakville head coach, Duncan Wilde. 

"No disrespect to the Pro Stars boys, but I thought we should have been five in front by half-time. We missed a bunch of chances, but that has been our season. We have been creating lots of opportunities, but just not finishing. The energy we played with and shape was good today."


Felipe Vilela (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

Pro Stars struggled with the conditions of the day, which included very strong winds that made it difficult to judge the flight of the ball or play out of the back under pressure. 

"I think first half the wind had a huge effect on the game," said Pro Stars head coach, Omar Jbaihi. 

"We know how Oakville want to play, and they are very direct. We asked our centrebacks to get more depth to stop the long ball coming, which we did, but even though we had more depth the wind carried the ball farther than the defenders were expecting. That had a big effect on the first goal for sure, and on the second one as well."

Ultimately, we needed to account for the wind better, and if the conditions weren't what they were it would have been different. I think there was a scrum on the second goal, and they knocked it in." 


Eric Crawford (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

Oakville brought through some new personnel on the day, and adjusted well to get some much needed points. 

"We had some internal discipline problems today so had to change the team around a bit, which led to some confusion, but we finished on a high with three points and feel good about how we went about it," said Wilde. 

"Difficult for both teams today, for the second week in the row it was really windy and difficult to keep the ball on the ground. I think we had 70% possession, and numerous chances, so it's been a better day today than it has been all week."


Karman Saini (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

Jbaihi was disappointed in the result, but practical about where his team is at in terms of their development. 

"We're working here to try and change the culture of the club," he said. "The club is very focused on development and at this level we want to balance development with results."

"We are aware of the results, but it more important to us right now to teach the team to play the right way. It's a fragile situation, players don't want to be beaten and neither do coaches. Once we go down a goal or two, heads drop. We're working on it."

Pro Stars get back to business on June 19 (7 p.m.) at Terry Fox Stadium, Brampton against Vaughan Azzurri. 

Oakville travels to L'Amoreaux, Scarborough on June 18 (9 p.m.) to take on Master's FA Saints.