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Match Recap: FC London 8 - 0 Toronto Skillz

By League1 Ontario staff, 07/01/17, 7:00PM EDT

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Four goals for the 2016 League1 Ontario Golden Boot winner Elvir Gigolaj (14', 76', 80', 89') marked a watershed moment for FC London as they hammered Toronto Skillz 8-0 on their home patch at German Canadian Club, London. 

A brace from Sandro Rajkovic (50', 70') and singles from Connor Wilson (15') and Braeden Gee (90') capped a perfect day for London, with a clean sheet by Anthony Sokalaski as the cherry on the cake.


FC London (Photo: SGL247MEDIA/FC LONDON)

"Overall I'm feeling sorry for the opponent," said FC London assistant coach Eduard Schmidt. 

"They played many very good games and we analyzed them a lot. It is a compliment to them as well that we adjusted our game a bit. Usually we want to keep the ball all the time but their high pressing is quite good and there are other ways of course to exploit this."

"We had some players today that played a perfect game," he added. "We talked about scoring a lot of goals and with a group of players like we have you can have a performance like this." 

"That's really what we needed because in recent games we have missed chances with our finishing and we have had many draws in a row. Today we wanted to score as many goals as possible and that is why we adjusted our general strategy a bit. If you watch us you will see that we don't typically hit as many long balls as we did today, but usually the opponents are physically stronger than us, but today it was the other way around."


Toronto Skillz (Photo: SGL247MEDIA/FC LONDON)

With his four goal haul, Gigolaj moved into a five way tie for second place in the 2017 Men's Golden Boot race with seven goals on the season.

"This was a very good game in terms of statistics, of course I put in four goals today, but I would say I played better last week against Woodbridge," he said. 

"I think we held the ball a lot better then and were more confident, but when three or four goals go in against a team it is normal that morale on that team falls and you will get a few more really good chances."


(Photo: SGL247MEDIA/FC LONDON)

Toronto Skillz head coach Leslie "Tiger" Fitzpatrick thought his side started out well, but after conceding some goals at inopportune moments their momentum could not be sustained.

"I think we came in discussing the importance of having the right mentality, not letting adversity to get us down," he said.

"This was a tough team to play against last year. Even though results at the end didn't go their way, I always said this is one of the best teams in the league in terms of the way they play the ball, their combination play and they are very organized and disciplined. They have some experience on the field and you can tell the difference in levels between their experience and our youth." 

"We tried to start positive and then I think once we gave up the penalty we fell apart for about five to ten minutes and that set us back," Fitzpatrick continued. 

"Coming back from that we tried to adjust in the second half and get back into the right mentality but then an early goal, another penalty, and then shoulders drop. It became a matter of how quickly the clock could wind down for us." 

FC London will next play OSU Force on July 8 at MNP Stadium (Carleton University), Ottawa.

Toronto Skillz will next play Oakville Blue Devils on July 9 at L'Amoreaux.