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Strong Second Half From Toronto FC Academy Topples North Toronto

By League1 Ontario staff, 07/25/16, 5:30PM EDT

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It was a clash between two of the league's form sides on matchweek twelve as North Toronto Nitros hosted Toronto FC Academy at the University of Toronto Varsity Field. 

"We were going for the win," said North Toronto assistant coach, Ilya Orlov. "We knew what their style of play was and we knew how they were going to play. In the first half we did well, tactically, but in the second half they outplayed us and completely deserved the two goals in the second half. We simply were not good enough in the second half." 

The Nitros started with purpose, and Abdallah Elchanti (42') capitalized first at the end of the half, though North Toronto could have had several more goals through their dominance of the first-half play. The lack of goals would come to haunt them.

"We were familiar with their style of play, and we knew they would be hard in the tackle," said Toronto FC Academy head coach, Stuart Neely. "We were expecting everything that came at us today, but what we did not expect was our first half performance. It was a very weak performance and frankly the keeper made two or three quality saves to keep us in it." 

"We came out much better in the second half."

Toronto FC Academy's Dante Campbell (53') would signal the change in momentum with his equalizer just after the break, capitalizing on some defensive errors to slide home the opener past GK Mark Rogal.

"We noticed at half-time that they were tiring, as were we, but they more so than us so we felt that was an opportunity to get some fast-break attacks, move the ball quickly and attack their back-line," explained Neely. 

"We started hitting some key passes at key moments and getting opportunities. We left ourselves exposed a few times mid-way through the second half, but I think we did well in the end."

It was the Junior Reds again just before the full-time whistle, as Andranik Kagramanyan (90') put away the match winner. 

"It just goes to show the difference between a team in the professional environment and one in elite amateur, in a physical sense," said Orlov. "They were quicker and their football actions were better as the game went on."