skip navigation

Match Recap: Durham United FA 0 - 2 Vaughan Azzurri

By League1 Ontario staff, 05/28/17, 12:00PM EDT

Share

Cassandre Van Bakel (51') and Claudia Piazza (54') struck for Vaughan Azzurri in a 2-0 defeat of Durham United FA on Friday night.

The win preserves Vaughan's unbeaten streak and sent the Azzurri to the top of the women's standings with 10 points from three matches.  

"To be honest, I think the points we lost we didn't deserve to lose as well, and I think our success is due to a combination of things," said Vaughan head coach, Carmine Isacco. 

"This is a good league and so we're not even looking past the next game so we understand that we still have a lot of work to do. I think we did really well against a good team today but I think it's just that we have a good roster, a really good cohesive group that can interchange positions, and the girls have stepped into their roles easily."

"Credit to them so far but it's early doors in the season."


Cassandra Van Bakel (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

It was a very close match against Durham until just after half-time at the Pickering Soccer Centre, when Van Bakel and Piazza tallied twice in three minutes to give the visitors an unreachable lead. 

"Truthfully, today was a good game until their player Cassandra [Van Bakel] came on," said Durham head coach, Chris Eveleigh. 

"She changed the game, she absolutely changed it."

"I watched her on Wednesday against Darby and she was fantastic in that game. Today you could tell that she is a lot older than the girls that were on the field, so you could tell that for the forty or fifty minutes before she came on it was like a university game - a lot of '96, '97 and '98s playing - and then she came on and everything she did we couldn't compete against."

"Even when they went two nil up, she knew how to keep the ball. Today she literally changed the game and was the difference." 


(Photo: Martin Bazyl)

In propelling the team to victory, Vaughan's Isacco addressed the team's defensive shape, and opportunities in transition, in his half-time talk.

"I thought if we kept our defensive shape along our back four, and got a little more pressure on their long distribution, as well as winning the first and second balls forward would give us opportunities in transition," he explained.

"I think Cassandra [Van Bakel], who has probably played three games in the week, came on in the second half with about forty left and was fantastic," he added. 

"She changed the tempo of the game for us, in transition especially. They played with good character. We played Wednesday and Friday, which is not easy, and it was good character today. I was proud of them." 

Durham United FA will next play Darby FC on Friday June 2 at Kinsmen Park, Pickering.

Vaughan Azzurri will next play Unionville Milliken SC on Friday June 2 at Bill Crothers Turf, Aurora.