The OSA News Bulletin

Ontario Boys warm-up in Lugano, TI, Svizzera

BASEL, Switzerland — For their first game, the U-16 Boys travelled 2.5 hours across Switzerland from Lugano to Basel. This included a trip through the San Gotthard Tunnel – at over 16 km long, one of the longest road tunnels in the world. They were up against FC Basel – the second-ranked U-16 team in Switzerland and current leaders in their division. Included on their team are three National Team players.

Game time was 4:00 p.m., the weather was mostly sunny with some high cloud and the temperature was 17 C, falling to 13 C by the end of the game. The fields over here are just opening so the boys got to play on a grass field for the first time in probably six months.

Starting eleven in a 4-3-3 format:

• Goal-keeper: Quillan Roberts
• Defence: Parker Seymour, Quante Abbot-Hill-Smith, Kai Morton, Adam Polakiewicz
• Mid-field: Benjamin Futoriansky, Bryce Alderson, Keven Aleman
• Forwards: Piotr Obyrtacz, Jalen Brome, Nicholas Garcia

Ontario quickly realized that FC Basel were, indeed, a good team. Basel pressed forward from the kick-off and in the 3rd minute were awarded a free-kick about 35 yards out down the right side. The free kick was floated into the penalty area and a Basel forward beat the Ontario keeper to the ball and headed it into the net for a 1-0 lead.

FC Basel continued to pressure the Ontario defence and, from a series of free-kicks, threatened to score again but came up empty. One of the National Team players on the FC Basel team then had a break-away but was thwarted by Quillan Roberts keeping net between the Ontario uprights.

However, in the 18th minute, the same FC Basel player broke down the right wing, cut in towards the net along the goal line and pushed a pass across the face of the goal to give one of his team-mates an easy tap-in and FC Basel a 2-0 lead.

Basel increased their lead to 3-0 in the 25th minute after being awarded a penalty for a hand-ball in the area.

After this, the Ontario boys had their best spell of the game.

In the 34th minute, a long through-ball was nicely collected on the right wing by Piotr Obyrtacz who cut in towards goal and struck a hard shot that went just over the bar.

A couple of minutes later, more nice work on the right wing by Obyrtacz before passing inside to Keven Aleman whose left footer went just past the post.

Despite best efforts, the Ontario Boys were unable to get onto the scorecard and the half ended with FC Basel ahead by 3-0.

Wholesale substitutions were made by Ontario for the second half.

• Goalkeeper: Xander Huggins
• Defence: Mekonen Lovemore-White, Bryce Alderson, Raffaele Nesci, Shane Satar
• Mid-field: Alex Halis, Joseph Penello, Ryan James
• Forwards: Chris Mannella, Jalen Brome, Omari Morris
  (Wesley Cain subbed in for Jalen Brome in the 55th minute)

The second half was more even with play going end-to-end but generating few good scoring opportunities.

In the 70th minute, Wesley Cain pressured the Basel keeper on a pass-back and gained possession of the ball.

However, he was quickly challenged by two Basel defenders before he could release a shot.

Cain had another opportunity in the 85th minute as he broke down the left wing, but his shot was well saved by the Basel keeper.

In between these two chances, FC Basel had a couple of opportunities of their own. The first saw the shot go past the post. The second was fired into the side netting.

There was no scoring for either side in the second half so the game finished 3-0 in favour of FC Basel.

Final Score: Team Ontario 0 – 3 FC Basel

Thursday sees the team head to Milan, Italy, for a game.

Report and photo by Bill Spiers / OSA Rep

Roster:

For pre-tour comments, see March 5th OSATv TouchLine interviews with coach Patrick Tobo, forward Omari Morris and goal-keeper Xander Huggins.

Filed under: Club and Team News, Competitions & Special Events, District News, Member News, OSATv TouchLine, Player Development, Team Ontario, The OSA News   Related Posts:  Ontario U-14 Boys win 1-0 over Quebec | Ontario U16 Girls Drop Final Game v Argentina U20s | Ontario U-16 Boys lose 1-0 to BC | A scoreless tie for Ontario U-16 Boys against Saskatchewan | Ontario U-14 Boys win 2-0 over Manitoba |