Queenston FC 1, Yemen Elite 0

Please forgiev me if I'm typing poorly this morning, I'm still having a hard tiem seeing straight.

Queenston came away victorious last night in front of maybe 100 or so people at Nichols School (Peek Field) in an intense battle with the extremely talented Yemen Elite side. This was our first piece of silverware for the club, and hoisting that cup is such an experience. Not easy to win 5 games in this tournament, no matter who you play.

Yemen Elite had 12 or 13 players on their bench playing last night, as it was somewhat difficult to tell since it appeared some people weren't in uniform and not playing, others in uniform and not playing, and so on. Queenston had 18 players last night, but 1 was still nursing an ankle injury suffered last Saturday so he played sparingly in the back (ended up being some nice minutes though).

The goal last night, aside from winning the game, was to wear these guys down. We know they've been having attendance issues, and despite an obvious advantage in athleticism, we figured our numbers would wear them down as time progressed. The first 5-10 minutes saw each team figuring out what'd work for their offensive strategies, with Yemen Elite owning more possession and attempting some balls over the top from the wings into a centrally located striker in Raftu. Nothing came of those tries, as Netter was calmly corralling each ball that continued to be over kicked. Queenston then delivered some chances as well in the final third, with some legitimately dangerous passes that just missed some feet in the box. Still, the game looked to be playing out the way Elite wanted it to, as they were moving the ball side to side with accuracy.

Queenston would find its breakthrough just about half way through the 1st half when George Todino got into a dangerous position inside the box, and he was wiped out by not 1 but 2 sliding tackles from both sides. Eric Barnes stepped up to the PK spot from his CB position, and despite the keeper guessing right, slightly adjusted his shot location and got it past their keeper. 1-0 Parliament.

The goal actually seemed to light a bigger fire under OUR team somehow, rather than absorbing pressure from Elite. We started possessing the ball and swinging some passes down Elite's back right portion of their defensive field. Elite's Alex Pollak did a great job of conducting his defensive unit in the back, so anything dangerous was ultimately being squashed. Except for one really nice run that LB Ross Suitor made with maybe 8 to go in the 1st half, as he found Justin Sims who faked 2-3 defenders all at the same time. It created enough room for him to put a nice chance on net, but stunningly he hit it wide. He makes that shot 95 times out of 100, but we were still encouraged by the fact that we could get future opportunities. The half would come about soon after, but not before Elite really turned up their level of play and got some decent chances of their own via some headers and one quasi James Ugorji breakaway.

We talked over our play at half time, saying despite their dominance in the midfield, we were still creating chances of our own out of that very same position. Elite dominates the midfield because they have some high quality players in that position. Our guys in the middle (Rung, Rodrigues, Braun & Horne) were all playing solid and had a heck of a task last night, but really made the most of it with intercepting passes and regaining possession when Elite would err at times. The idea was to stick to the current game plan for at the bare minimum of half the 2nd half, and then park the bus when needed. Really wanted that 2nd goal.

But, the never tiring Yemen Elite squad really cranked up their game play over the next 20 minutes or so. They DOMINATED us possession wise, but it was mainly some passing back and forth across their backline or midfield. They could not penetrate our defense, as once again, our 4 guys were playing like absolute animals. Timely tackles, smart positioning, correctly choosing when to boot the ball away or string a neat pass to the midfield...they did it all.

Queenston eventually settled into the new role of killing time and dropping back defensively even deeper on our own side of the pitch, and although it created even more of a disparity in ball dominance, we were frustrating their strikers and midfielders as the ideas were all falling by the wayside. Tick tock, tick tock, the clock continued to move closer and closer to ninety minutes.

Elite had a few promising chances in the mid to late second half, a few coming from the always dangerous Ugorji, but either his angle was taken away by Netter or yet another timely tackle from our outside backs would break up the opportunities. By the last 5-10 minutes or so, Yemen was finally gassed...they still would force the ball back into our side, but at that point, we were just playing kick ball; and our forwards were winning 50/50's giving themselves a glimmer of a chance on a 1v1 with Elite's goalie. Speaking of which, their goalie made a crucial mistake with about 5 minutes to go, when he waited too long to get his service ball back into our defensive half and George Todino timed it perfectly by having the ball rocket off his chin...which got him past the keeper (who was maybe 15 yards away from midfield at this point) and George surely had a walk in goal to make it 2-0...but inexplicably got called for a handball! A missed call, which might have been the only one on the night for the man in the middle last night...he was exceptional despite that one blemish. I'm assuming you can't risk NOT calling that in a tight 1-0 game if you think it was close enough to call a handball, because that's your game right there if it's not called.

Anyway, Queenston would survive a few more half scares, and the final whistle blew. Our team poured out onto the field in excitement...I personally didn't know where to run to, so I just ran to anyone who got in my way. A lot of really awkward high fives and jumping from one person but not the other, etc. But who cares! We are the 2014 Tehel Cup Champions, 89th edition. This cannot be taken away from us and it was earned. Twelve wins in one season is a club best as well. The last three Thursdays have provided test after test after test...FC Yemen was better than most people think they are, Celtic is Celtic, and then we needed to exercise some 2013 demons on Elite, who again are tremendously skilled. Faress & Company were all class in defeat, and it goes without saying how much respect we have for him and his team.

One more chance at another title this Sunday against Roos FC. Not the same kind of trophy here, but it would be nice to earn promotion, win the Cup and then defeat our archrivals in the league title as well.

Congratulations to Queenston FC. See you guys in Premier.