TORONTO – The Varsity Blues men's soccer team rounded out their 2010 CIS championship appearance with a 2-0 loss to the Saint Mary's Huskies in the bronze-medal match at the 2010 CIS men’s soccer championship at Varsity Centre, Sunday afternoon.
Jhonattan Cordoba scored two goals to lead the Saint Mary’s Huskies to victory over the host Varsity Blues.
With the win, the Huskies earn their sixth national medal and second bronze in program history, while Toronto settles for a fourth-place finish for the second consecutive year.
After a scoreless first half in which the Huskies outshot the Blues 5-1, the AUS champions opened the scoring when Cordoba of Halifax deflected a cross-field pass by Nils Webber past U of T goalkeeper and Mississauga, Ont., native John Smits.
The Varsity Blues had numerous chances in the final 10 minutes of the match, but were turned away by Huskies rookie goalkeeper Adam Miller of Halifax, who made five saves to record a well-earned shutout. Cordoba iced the contest in the 90th minute, smoothly sliding the ball past Smits on a breakaway.
"It's a drill we do in practice all the time, they kick the ball to the wing and then we run over and of course I couldn't miss the opportunity,” said Cordoba of the first goal. “This is a great feeling, we wanted to win this a long time ago, so it feels great.”
Although the Huskies garnered most of the opportunities in the first half, Toronto was awarded a free kick just before halftime. Woodbridge, Ont., native Ryan Sciacchitano slipped a pass across the pitch to Blues player of the game Darragh McGee, who swung the ball towards the goal from 30-yards out. The Donegal, Ireland native rattled his shot off the crossbar in the top left corner and out of play.
The contest took a dramatic turn in the 63rd minute after a red card was issued to Zach Bauld of Halifax, putting the Huskies down a player for the rest of the match. The field seemed to open up more after that, as both teams quickened their pace and made dangerous runs down both ends of the pitch.
The Blues had a good chance to tie the game in the 82nd minute after third-year midfielder Geoffrey Borgmann of Mississauga, Ont., slid a pass to Alexander Raphael, who was wide open and behind the defence. Raphael had Miller beaten with his shot but kicked it just wide of the post.
The Blues poured on the pressure, as Raphael had another open shot that was stopped by Miller. The first-year goalkeeper came up big moments later, stopping Toronto’s Federico Vaccaro twice on close shots that looked to be sure goals.
SCORING SUMMARY
SMU: 0-2:2
TOR: 0-0:0
First Half
None
Second Half
1. SMU Jhonattan Cordoba (1) 49th
2. SMU Jhonattan Cordoba (2) 90th
Goalkeepers:
SMU: Adam Miller (W, 0 GA, 5 saves, 90:00 mins)
TOR: John Smitts (L, 2 GA, 7 saves, 90:00 mins)
Shots: SMU 10, TOR 11
Shots on Net: SMU 9, TOR 5
Corners: SMU 2, TOR 6
Offsides: SMU 7, TOR 1
Fouls: SMU 10, TOR 6
Yellow Cards: SMU (Rory Kennedy, Michael Sun) TOR (Federico Vaccaro, Geoffery Borgmann)
Red Cards: SMU (Zach Bauld)
Players of the game:
SMU: Jhonattan Cordoba
TOR: Darragh McGee
SCHEDULE & RESULTS
For all the info on the championship: www.cis-sic.ca.
Thursday, Nov. 11
11:00 Quarterfinal 1: York 3, Laval 2 (4-2 PK)
13:30 Quarterfinal 2: Saint Mary’s 1, Alberta 0
16:00 Quarterfinal 3: UBC 3, Western 2 (4-2 PK)
18:30 Quarterfinal 4: Toronto 5, UQAM 0
Friday, Nov. 12
13:30 Consolation 1: Laval 4, Alberta 0
16:00 Consolation 2: Western 3, UQAM 2
Saturday, Nov. 13
11:00 Semifinal 1: York 1, Saint Mary’s 0
14:00 Semifinal 2: UBC 3, Toronto 0
16:30 Consolation final: Western 1, Laval 0
Sunday, Nov. 14
13:00 Saint Mary’s 2, Toronto 0
16:00 York vs UBC (SSN Canada webcast)
About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Fifty-one universities, 10,000 student-athletes and 550 coaches vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca.
-CIS-
For more information contact:
Mary Beth Challoner
Manager, Events & Marketing
University of Toronto
Off: (416) 946-5131
Cell: (416) 407-3538
mb.challoner@utoronto.ca
Jill Clark
Coordinator, Sports Information
University of Toronto
Off: (416) 978-4263
Cell: (416) 938-1629
jill.clark@utoronto.ca
Michel Bélanger
Manager, Communications & Media Relations
Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Ph: (613) 562-5670 ext. 25
Cell: (613) 447-6334
belanger@universitysport.ca
www.cis-sic.ca
