The Sudbury Cyclones walked off the pitch with the three points they desired Saturday night at the Cambrian College field.
Not, that wasn’t the only positive takeaway from their 3-2 win over North Mississauga SC – but in a contest where their opponents played a man down for more than eighty minutes, safe to say there was not necessarily bucketloads of praise being handed out by Sudbury coaching staff at the end of the game.
Inserted in the second half, Cyclones’ rookie Gianni Bordieri set-up the final two goals of the game for the home side, sailing a perfect cross to the head of Timi Aliu to put Sudbury up 2-1 (55th minute) and then playing a ball back to the feet of Jaiden Santo, who drilled home what would stand as the game-winning goal in minute seventy-five.
A product of Scarborough Town FC who has now completed his first year with the Nipissing Lakers, Bordieri knows how easy it is to relax when that red card is administered so early in the game (Julian Srock – 9th minute).
“It’s easy for players to get too comfortable and start being sloppy, just because they have so much extra time,” said the 18 year-old who was at his most dangerous while working on the outside right wing. “The other team is more tired, but in the end, any team in this league can still punish you, even a man down.”
In a contest that pitted the top of the table Cyclones (7-1-4 – entering the game) against a mid-range North Mississauga crew (4-5-3), the locals wasted little time establishing their attack, with Nana Wiafe denied on a chance in tight (4th minute) before the red card was assessed for a tackle just outside the box.
By the 22nd minute, Sudbury was on the board as Aliu parlayed a pass from Santo into the opening strike of the contest, with coach Giuseppe Politi’s lads seemingly ready to take control of the match. That mindset lasted all of four minutes when a waist-high cross from Cristiano Candelaresi barely escaped the outstretched hands of Cyclones’ keeper Connor Vande Weghe, allowing Myro Zastavnyy to easily redirect home the equalizer.
Sudbury pressed again in the dying minutes of the half, but not enough to justify leaving the starting eleven intact as Politi inserted Josh Vivero, Chanley Francois and Gianni Bordieri into the contest for the final forty-five.
“Coming out with fresh legs, especially with them having to travel all the way to Sudbury and being a man down, was important,” said Bordieri. “I like to get the ball to my feet and be isolated to create a chance. Constant pressure and explosiveness, beating my man and getting to the spots where I can cross it, that would be important.”
Working together to create the second goal, Bordieri and Aliu provided a spark for their team, the Cyclones threatening to pile on to their lead via a great individual effort from Santo (denied in close) and two more chances for Aliu, one drilled off the cross-bar, the other off the head of an opponent.
With but fifteen minutes to play after Santo netted the insurance tally, Sudbury substituted freely – only to be forced to endure a “far more tense than it needed to be” final ten minutes after Ashu Atom pounced on some chaos in the Cyclones box to make the score 3-2 in the 83rd minute.
Clearly, this wasn’t their prettiest effort – but the Cyclones achieved the result that they needed and can now refocus on a rare mid-week home encounter on Wednesday, knowing full well where the source of most of their success this summer lies.
“I think it’s just being hungry,” said Bordieri. “We know our game and we know that we are dogs out there. Winning the balls in the middle, getting our hands dirty and executing the chances that we do get, that’s how we’ve been able to get the results that we’ve gotten.”
After playing host to York United Academy on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m., the Cyclones will tackle three straight road games – vs Windsor City FC (July 13th), Unionville Milliken SC (July 20th) and Pickering FC (July 23rd) – their season set to wrap up come August 20th in Guelph.
