Ivor Dent Sports Park – The St. Albert Impact started the U15 National Cup with a big bang.
An explosive first half leveled Halifax County United SC in the opening match of the group B qualification phase at the 12-team tournament.
“This was special,” said Alejandro Leon-Rebonne, a steady Impact winger after Wednesday’s 7-0 show of force. “In most games we play really good and we dominated, but this one had more heart. This one meant something.”
Sparking the four-goal barrage in the opening 28 minutes was Dieu-Merci Michel’s fancy footwork in tight of the net to slot the ball into the short side in the fifth minute.
“It really opened up after that nice goal. We really dominated on the physical end and we were winning all the balls. We were getting them stuck in their end with no chance for them to play forward,” said goalkeeper Matteo Pagliuso. “Our back line was really solid too.”
Three minutes later, the impressive Ali Yildiz picked the top corner with a perfect free kick from just outside the box.
Yildiz also found the back of the net in the 24th minute as the Impact poured on the pressure and a few minutes later the man of the match converted a defensive turnover into another goal.
Yildiz’s fourth goal was on a penalty shot after Michel was chopped down in the penalty area 10 minutes into the second half to make it 5-0.
The Impact kept going as a pin-point cross by Leon-Rebonne was finished off by Michel before the power forward subbed off with 11 minutes to play.
Yildiz was replaced a few minutes earlier as head coach Kondeh Mansaray started emptying the bench.
Malik Sylvester closed out the rout with a bing-bang play in the goal area.
The lopsided margin of victory by the Alberta Soccer Assocation champions was better than expected.
“It was really important. We’re a team that normally starts slow in tournaments and this was the perfect result we needed to set the tournament off right,” Leon-Rebonne said. “Our coaches gave us a really inspiring speech and that gave us more heart and made us work harder.”
The Impact also proved they are genuine medal contenders.
“It just shows the amount of passion and the work we put in after winning provincials in a really tight game (1-0 final against Foothills FC 15 on Aug. 25). We've been training every single day working towards this goal and we're hoping we can finish at the top at the end of the tournament,” said Pagliuso, who touched the ball a handful of times on some borderline scoring chances by the Nova Scotia team.
“Defensively it was class. It was amazing. Communication by the back line went very well. We also had proper rotations and winning first and second balls were really important too,” Pagliuso said.
The last group B match was against PEI FC and Friday’s score was unavailable at press time.
Thursday’s score between PEI FC and Halifax County was 1-1.
It’s expected the Impact will line up against Feildians AA (Nfld.) St. John’s or Winnipeg Bonivital SC in today’s quarter-final at 3:30 p.m.
The winner advances to Sunday’s semifinal at 3:30 p.m. and Monday’s medal finals are 8:30 a.m. for bronze and 12:30 p.m. for gold and silver.
Visit canadasoccer.com for the link to the tournament website.
For the Impact to win the first medal by a St. Albert Soccer Association male team at nationals since the 1989 champion U18 Cougars, “You have to focus on every game, visualize what you want to do and succeed,” Pagliuso said.
The Impact’s overall record after day one at nationals was 20-1-2 and the lone loss was the 1-0 season opener May 8 against Inter in the Greater Edmonton Soccer League.
“It’s been a pretty good season. We started off a little bit slow with the one loss but it gave us more motivation to work harder. It kind of added the fuel to the fire,” Leon-Rebonne said.
The pressure for the Impact to perform on their home turf continued to ramp up after the tournament debut.
“You feel it. There’s more people here and you’re going to have lots of your fans watching you so everyone screams during every single play and every single nice move so it kind of adds to it, but you can’t let it get to yor head. You just play how you play,” said Pagliuso, 13, a Grade 8 Elmer S. Gish student.
Are the Impact the favourites to go the distance?
“I don't think that's something we can determine. I don’t think we can say we're the favourites or this team is the favourite. I think we’ll prove who the favourite is at the end,” said Leon-Rebonne, 15, a Grade 10 Archbishop MacDonald student.
