Guelph United Women, one point away from clinching Premier Division status for 2025
Yesterday’s double-header saw both of our teams face the Vaughan Azzurri, at the Centennial Bowl, in a festive atmosphere due to the Guelph Soccer Day event organized right next door by our partners in Guelph Soccer, and with plenty of kids coming over to watch our matches.
They were treated to a mixed bag of a day, with our men’s team disappointing in a 3-1 loss, followed by the women’s team drawing a closely contested match, 0-0, but moving only one point away from confirming their spot in the Premier Division next year.
Men’s team drops to second-last place after tough loss
First, it was our men’s team, with the difficult challenge of facing one of the title contenders in League1 Ontario. Vaughan Azzurri started the day in second place, knowing a win would move them into first, albeit with a couple of more games played than Scrosoppi FC. Meanwhile, GUFC dropped into 11th place after Sigma’s win the day before, with the threat of relegation looming over the remaining 9 games of the season.
The match, unfortunately, was as uneven as the standings would suggest, especially for the first 60 minutes. Vaughan played like the better team, controlled most of the game, was lethal on the counterattack, and solid on defense. Despite a couple of chances to score for our team, it was Vaughan who missed the most - and the best - of the opportunities. Jake Findlay was great in our goal, stopping shot after shot, despite conceding once in the first half, from Vaughan’s top goalscorer, Reshaun Walkes. There was even more bad news in the first half, as Gray Yates, coming back into the team after an injury absence, had to leave the field in the 40th minute due to another injury.
The second half started the same way, with our guests dominating, scoring twice more, and making Findlay save a few more shots. Only once the score was 0-3, did our team start to attack more convincingly, and, in the 74th minute, managed to pull one back, through Kyle Cordeiro. But it was too little too late, as Vaughan held on for the comfortable 3-1 win, a score which leaves Guelph in a relegation playoff spot (see the updated standings here).
Next week, we’re away in Burlington, for a match against a team in worse form than ours - Burlington SC lost 7 of the last 8 matches - including the last 5.
Guelph United Men - Vaughan Azzurri Men 1-3 (0-1)
Goals: Cordeiro (‘74) - Walkes (‘18, ‘53), Mohamed (‘57)
Guelph United: Findlay - Ferdinand, Green, Fernandez, Gander - Pusztahegyi, MacIntyre, Yates (‘40 Ostrun), Sears (‘58 Cabral), Cordeiro - Agyemang (‘67 Andreacchi).
Women’s team earns valuable point; now 1 point away from Premier Division survival
In the second game of the double-header, our women’s team also faced the Vaughan Azzurri, a team one point above in the standings, and also involved in the relegation fight. Coming on the heels of a win last weekend in Oakville, our team started the match well, solid on defense and threatening on offense, but ultimately, we were unable to create enough quality chances for the winning goal. It was a closely contested match, and a fair result, that brings us one point closer to confirming our Premier Division spot for next season.
We are now 5 points above the relegation line, and, with 2 games to go and a convincing goal difference avantage over 9th place North Mississauga SC, we’re one point away from survival (see the updated standings here). That point can come as soon as next weekend, when we’re away at the North Toronto Nitros.
Guelph United Women - Vaughan Azzurri Women 0-0
Guelph United: Carreiro - Ward, Starcevic, Crichton, Knafelc - Mihalopulos, Canning, Hipkin (‘89 Sealy) - Rizakos (‘90+5 Falkenstein), Marikano, Johnston (‘68 Hinchliffe).