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Match Recap: Woodbridge Strikers 1 - 1 FC London

By League1 Ontario staff, 06/26/17, 10:45PM EDT

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Elvir Gigolaj (24') put FC London out ahead of Woodbridge Strikers on Matchweek Nine, but Strikers' midfielder Dylan Carriero (54') levelled terms in the second half and the match finished all square at 1-1 - leaving Woodbridge three points clear at the top of the east division table.

"We created quite a few chances to score, this game really should have been over but our forwards just could not score," said Woodbridge head coach Peter Pinizzotto. 

"And that is how it goes, you have to finish your chances to win games. We had one on one with the keeper about three or four times. If you can't score, you're not going to win." 


Elvir Gigolaj (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

The two teams had already met earlier in the week, clashing in a mid-week Cup fixture in London that Woodbridge won 3-0.  

"We were lucky that we already played them this past week on Wednesday so we had a video that we could analyse for a few days," said FC London team official Eduard Schmidt. 

"We were able to see specifically how they react to our playing style. Today we wanted to show that we are better than that and we had some strategy to take care of their best players as they have a lot of individual quality, especially in the middle."

"We tried to stay more compact in the middle and change the lineup a bit for this reason, and also because their wide players like to dribble inside and by blocking the middle they had to cross, which is easier for us to defend against them." 


(Photo: Martin Bazyl)

Woodbridge's Pinizzotto also made some tactical changes after the Cup match with a view towards exploiting weaknesses in the London style. 

"They like to move the ball around so we wanted to press them a little bit higher, which we did," he said. 

"They did well with what I asked them to do and we won many balls, but again - too many misses."

"If we played them again, there is nothing to improve," he added. "If we play the way we did today with all the chances created and a good high press, we would be fine."

"We just needed to finish our opportunities. That's really it. We played well enough to win the game today. We gave up a couple points."


(Photo: Martin Bazyl)

Woodbridge Strikers will next play Sanjaxx Lions on July 2 at Vaughan Grove, Woodbridge.

FC London will next play Toronto Skillz on June 30 at German Canadian Club, London.