Royals record first league clean sheet in third win over Internationals
August 2, 2007
Ottawa Royals recorded their third league win on the trot last night, beating the Internationals by a comfortable margin and at the same time notching up their first clean sheet in the league. Ryan Devereaux scored twice, James MacMillan headed his traditional goal and Richard Boyle scored a late long-range rocket to defeat the home side 4-0.
With legendary defender Marc Labrom making his final appearance for the Royals before transferring to Pretoria with work, the Royals were keen to get their third win of the season over the Internationals with which to send him off. Numerous injuries and absences had taken its toll on the line up, with Frank Zegers, Tyler Wallace, Frank Dicaria, Sanjeev Parmar, Roberto Gutierrez, Jorge Gutierrez, Alic Edgar, Matt D’Angelo and Greg Donnard all unavailable. On the plus side, Marc Anthony Viscosi was almost recovered from his hamstring injury and had declared himself fit, as had Dan Deganutti, who sustained knee knack against St. Anthony’s on Sunday.
The Royals started with its now favoured 3-5-2 formation with Antoine Lagarec in goal, a back three of Marc Labrom, James MacMillan and Alan Farant, Jon Brooks on the right of midfield and Richard Boyle on the left, Ewan Lyttle playing in front of the defence, Dom Rochon and Steve Kowlessar in the middle, and a front two of Sylvain Clouthier and Ryan Devereaux.
The Royals started the game at breakneck speed, dominating the play and barely allowing the home team out of its own half. After a couple of close calls, Ryan Devereaux finally opened the scoring on 4 minutes.
Brooks stripped Ianni on the right of the field and crossed it in deep to Boyle at the far side of the penalty area. Brooks controlled and passed the ball into the box to meet Devereaux’s incisive run. Devereaux took it first time on his instep and placed it past Dobbie’s despairing dive into the corner of the net.
The Royals kept composure and continued to play the ball around – yet gave the impression of being in second gear for much of the next 10 minutes. In defence, Lagarec marshalled his troops well, and Farant – who was making his first full start and his first appearance as a defender – looked confident and composed.
The visitors then moved into top gear again and for 5 minutes simply fizzed the ball around the field, using the width well. Half chances fell to Devereaux and Clouthier, but it wasn’t until Boyle picked up the ball on the right and set off on a mazy run towards the box that the possession started to pay dividends. Beating man after man, Boyle slalomed like an Olympic water-skier before laying a ball off to Clouthier and moving for the return pass. Somehow Ianni managed to get a toe to it before Boyle and deflected it out for a corner.
But the danger was not cleared. Brooks moved over to take the corner and whipped in a teasing cross to the box. MacMillan rose above the defence and powered his header past Dobbie into the net.
It seemed that there may be a repeat of the 7-0 rout from the Ontario Cup in early June, but full credit to the Internationals, they refused to be awed and kept fighting for every ball. Indeed, straight after the second goal, they seemed to enjoy a good spell of possession and wee on top for a while. However, with Lyttle staying solid in front of the defence, Lagarec was seldom tested.
The Royals once again relaxed and as a result the play became scrappy. Despite the huge channels that were opening up on the flanks, the passes seldom reached Brooks or Boyle and the visitors were penned in a little. On 35 minutes though, Rochon played an excellent ball behind MacDonald and Ianni to release Brooks. Brooks outpaced the defenders but hurried his shot, which flew high and wide.
On 40 minutes, Clouthier pulled up short holding his hamstring. It does not appear to be as serious as initially thought, but could still keep the talismanic striker out of the next fixture at Gloucester. Koutras came on to replace him and took up his position alongside Devereaux.
On the stroke of halftime, Steve Kowlessar struck a good free kick that Dobbie did well to get behind, denying Devereaux a second goal by smothering the rebound on the second attempt.
At half time, Michael Adams replaced Richard Boyle with Jeff Dennis and emphasised the need to use the channels and close down the spaces in midfield. The Royals came out for the second half and looked to implement the tactics. The Internationals became more physical in their approach, picking up 4 yellow cards in the second half (all for fouls) with Iyad Dakka in particular lucky to remain on the field.
The game became very scrappy and on 60 minutes, Alan Morgan replaced the hero of the hour Marc Labrom, who chose his final appearance as a Royal to suffer his annual back spasm. Ewan Lyttle moved to defence. Five minutes later, Adams switched it around again, taking off captain Dom Rochon and risking Marc Antony Viscosi in defence. Lyttle moved back to his defensive midfield position.
It seemed as if the Royals were paying for their exertions of Sunday, with the Internationals starting to play decent balls in behind the defence. On 73 minutes, James MacMillan put in some outstanding defensive work, chasing back Andujar and blocking the initial shot, before sticking out a toe to knock the ball away form the onrushing and supporting Santo.
On 75 minutes, Ewan Lyttle, who had had a fine game but was tiring rapidly, was replaced by Boyle and sixty seconds later Thierry Ntwari replaced the hardworking Dimitri Koutras.
Boyle exerted a good influence on the final stages of the game, holding up play well and linking with the excellent Ryan Devereaux and the speedy Ntwari. On 87 minutes, the growing influence that the Royals had had paid dividends when Devereaux finished off a superb piece of football involving Boyle and Ntwari. Released behind the defence, Devereaux sped into the area and then slipped the ball under the diving body of Dobbie.
As the clock wound down, Boyle applied the coup de grace as the teams moved into injury time. Receiving the ball 10 yards outside the area, he turned and moved the ball outside the defender before striking a viciously swerving and dipping shot over Dobbie and into the roof of the net.
The 4-0 score perhaps flattered the Royals, but overall the visitors were the stronger of the two sides and deserved their win.
The three points consolidates the Royals in second position behind St. Anthony’s. Next up is Gloucester Hornets at Maple Leaf on August 9th. The Royals hope the ongoing injury crisis will clear somewhat by then, but know already that they will be without Ryan Devereaux and James MacMillan, with Clouthier doubtful.
Man of the Match: 3 points – Antoine Lagarec, 2 points – Marc Labrom, 1 point – James MacMillan
Statistics
Internationals
1-Sean Dobbie; 2-Mike Domanski, 4-Chris Marins, 79-Jeff Cowan, 6-Milan Dakka, 7-Greg Andujar, 8-Sol Ashrafi, 9-Eugenio Burnier, 10-Iyad Dakka, 11-Gilson Calei, 12-Marco Ianni. 13-Chris Nolan, 14-Peter Mapendere, 15-Steve Walker, 17-Tom MacDonald, 19-Paolo Alves, 20-Joris Graziotin, 21-Jose Sanchez, 22-Claudio Santo, 18-Mike Hoffler
Yellow Cards: Mike Domanski, Greg Andujar, Iyad Dakka, Chris Nolan
Ottawa Royals
1-Antoine Lagarec; 3-James MacMillan, 6-Marc Labrom (5-Alan Morgan, 60 mins), 12-Alan Farant; 14-Jonathan Brooks, 9-Richard Boyle (13-Jeff Dennis, 46 mins), 15-Steve Kowlessar, 2-Ewan Lyttle (9-Richard Boyle, 75 mins), 11-Dom Rochon (20-Marc Anthony Viscosi, 65); 19-Ryan Devereaux 7-Sylvain Clouthier (21-Dimitri Koutras, 40 mins, 4-Thierry Ntwari, 76 mins)
Substitute not used: 8-Dan Deganutti,
Yellow Cards: None
Goals: Ryan Devereaux (4, 87 mins); James MacMillan (20 mins), Richard Boyle (90 mins)
Season Tally:
Goals: D’Angelo, Devereaux 11; Boyle 8; Kowlessar 5; J. Gutierrez 4; Clouthier, Koutras, MacMillan, 3, Ntwari 2; Brooks, 1
Assists: Brooks, 9; Boyle, Deganutti, 5; Koutras, Rochon 4; Kowlessar, 3; D’Angelo, Devereaux, Donnard, J. Gutierrez, 2; Clouthier, Dennis, Lyttle, Ntwari 1
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