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Match Recap: Vaughan Azzurri 2 - 0 Woodbridge Strikers

By League1 Ontario staff, 06/12/17, 9:45AM EDT

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Woodbridge Strikers men suffered their first loss of the season on Matchweek Seven after dropping a 2-0 result to derby rivals Vaughan Azzurri in a match full of personal battles and talking points, as well as two dismissals.

"All in all I think this was a good game for the league," said Vaughan head coach, Carmine Isacco. 

"The rivalry, the quality of players, it's important for the league. I think this raises the bar and there are a lot of teams that have invested to get better now because of rivalries like this, so it is important for the league." 

Vaughan were good value for the result and Isacco praised the team in post-match.

"Primarily our consistency in movement, in ball movement," he said. "We didn't have egos, we were very selfless today, and that was important, because if we play as a group it is going to be very tough to beat us." 


Joseph Di Chiarra (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

Joseph Di Chiara (56') and Jarek Whiteman (68') scored in the second half for the Azzurri, while a clean sheet by Colm Vance ensured they hosts would keep all three points.

"I thought we played a good first half," said Woodbridge team official Marco Reda. 

"We were missing a little quality and decision-making in the final third, which was one thing we told the players at half-time. We had a few chances where we broke them down to five versus three or four versus four in the final third and we just couldn't connect on the final pass or even on the shots."

"We made it a bit too easy on their goalkeeper. If you get a goal in the first half it will lift your team for the second half so if we could've made a bit better decisions and brought more quality to the final third we could have got a goal." 


Jarek Whiteman (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

"But it's always an emotional game," he added. 

"Vaughan - they respect us, we respect them but at the end of the day we want to beat each other, right. It's a local derby type thing. This is good for the league."

"This is going to happen in football matches, where there is some heat and some bad fouls and silly red cards, this is the game right. Our boys should have handled themselves better because once they got a red card we could have got back in the match, but that's just the way it is sometimes." 

Vaughan Azzurri will next play FC London on June 17 at the German Canadian Club, London. 

Woodbridge Strikers will next play Windsor TFC on June 16 at University of Windsor Stadium, Windsor.