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Match Recap: Durham United FA 1 - 1 Masters FA Saints

By League1 Ontario staff, 06/10/17, 5:45PM EDT

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Durham United FA and Masters FA Saints settled on share of the points after a testy 1-1 draw on Friday night action in League1 Ontario Matchweek Seven.

Both sets of coaches commented on the physical nature of the contest, and the need for player discipline in the face of growing tension and emotions.

"I don't think I was successful at all at keeping them cool today," said Durham head coach, Sanford Carabin. "I think we got nine yellows and a red."

"Today there was just too much recklessness. We talked about it at half-time, and I think maybe a combination of excitement and over-aggression got the better of a lot of players and after the first few yellows it just kept going from there." 

"To their credit, Masters is a quick team, so sometimes when you are late in a tackle it looks much worse than it is but it is because the player is much faster than your player and he's tried to tackle him in real time and the opponent is just too quick," he added.

"I thought the players were able to handle the physicality and counteract some of it as well," said Masters head coach, Rick Titus. 

"There was a lot of back and forth and that is going to happen in a game like that. There was a lot of passion there, and it was going to happen over and over again because every player is fantastic, every tackle is contested, and that's going to happen in a contest like that one." 


Stefan Lamanna (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

Stefan Lamanna (11') opened the scoring for the Durham, the home side playing at Pickering Soccer Centre, before Jose De Sousa (39') cropped up for Masters just before the half with a timely strike. 

Durham defender Vincenzo Sasso (73' dismissal) was sent off after his second caution to drop the east-division fourth place side to ten men, and set the stage for a more restrained final fifteen minutes where both sides looked dangerous. 

"I actually think we played a little bit better," said Carabin. "I think we controlled the tempo a bit better. We created chances obviously and they created chances in transition on us as well, but I thought we actually possessed the ball better with ten men, which I hope is something all the players see too and it can be a positive that they take out of this game."

"Sometimes [gaining a man advantage] can be dangerous," said Titus. 

"You will find that one or two players will take their foot off the pedal, and the other team, because they are wounded they come back, and they come back, and they come back. They start to take advantage, momentum starts to sway."

"As a coach you have to make sure the players are focused, step up high, get back into it and press high, but they players managed it very well today. We were still very dangerous."  


(Photo: Martin Bazyl)

With the draw, Masters show some growing form after extending their unbeaten record to three in four matches, while Durham continues to build upon a good start to the season by holding fourth position on 11 points - within striking distance of the top of the table. 

Durham will next play North Mississauga Panthers on June 16 at Hershey Centre, Mississauga.

Masters will next play North Toronto Nitros on June 13 at Ontario Soccer Centre in a replay of their first round L1 Cup fixture.