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Match Recap: Vaughan Azzurri 2 - 0 Masters FA Saints

By League1 Ontario staff, 05/14/17, 1:15PM EDT

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A new look Masters FA Saints under the management of Rick Titus dropped a tight 2-0 away result to Vaughan Azzurri on Saturday May 13. 

"Masters are a good team and they have got a few new pieces," said Vaughan coach, Patrice Gheisar. 

"They gave us a good game and we were happy to be able to get a win and two really good goals. That's probably something we take away from that game today." 

Jarek Whiteman (18') found a breakthrough early on for the Azzurri, but it took until just after the hour mark for teammate Brandon Mills (63') to find some insurance. 

Vaughan's Andrew D'Souza kept a clean sheet to preserve points on the day.

"We started the game really slowly and adjusted and got the pace going," added Gheisar. "It's now a few games into the season and so we wanted to build and we definitely think it had some of the best effort, best periods of play and was our best game of the season so far." 

"We were good defensively. To keep a clean sheet was very good. If there was anything it was to score a few more goals. I think we hit three posts and so a few more goals would have helped, but we possessed the ball well and although we didn't finish the game as strong as we wanted, this was largely due to the downpour of rain that took away our momentum that we had at the start of the match." 


Brandon Mills, Vaughan Azzurri (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

Titus was disappointed in the result, but knows it will take some time to mould his team into shape.

"We need to work on our defensive shape, especially," he said. "That alone will take two or three weeks. Guys are new to each other too. We have an amalgamation of players that were with me last year and some of the guys from Masters here. We have to do some work on gelling and putting everything together." 

"It wasn't too bad today. It's getting better, but there weren't as many chances created as I would have liked. The challenge is to get the team into a good defensive shape and then build from the back out to the front. It's going to take some time." 


(Photo: Martin Bazyl)

"Vaughan's team have been together for a while, and many of them have played together for years," he continued. 

"To break them down, you need to break them on a counter-attack. They are very difficult to beat while set. They have some good pace in the back too, so you have to be smart - get some good combination play in the middle, get them out wide 1v1. They have good pieces, good players with skill and a little pace as well."

"You need to play them with a bit of experience and keep the ball, probe into areas where you feel you can get some advantage. If you can't get advantage it's about playing out the other side through your holding mid and try and be a little bit more methodical with them. There are areas that they can be beat and I think when we play them again the result will be a little bit different." 

Vaughan Azzurri next play North Toronto Nitros on Sunday May 21 at University of Toronto's Varsity Stadium, Toronto.

Masters FA Saints next play Aurora FC on Saturday May 21 at St. Maximillian Kolbe H.S., Aurora.