Bitter result for LFC
The Lethbridge FC men earned a 2-2 draw against the Edmonton Drillers on Saturday afternoon at Servus Sports Centre field, but it was a disappointing result on a bitter day. Drillers came into the game on a six-game winning streak but were badly outplayed by LFC in the critical parts of the field. Despite that, Edmonton found its form when required and tied the game in the 75th minute when Ryan Matowe deftly deflected a well orchestrated corner kick past LFC keeper Colin Pattison.
“It’s the story of our season,” said LFC coach Sean Carey after the game. “We can’t score. I thought we were clearly the better team out there today but if you can’t get the ball in the net, you aren’t going to get three points and that was the case today.”
Lethbridge is 3-3-7 after the game while Drillers are 7-2-5. Lethbridge’s 12 points put them in sixth place in the AMSL, with Calgary Dinosaurs and Edmonton Croatia behind them with five points. They trail fifth-place by eight points. Drillers are in third, three points behind Calgary Callies.
Lethbridge turned Drillers’ 18-yard box into a play park for most of the second half. Trailing 10 after Matowe’s breakaway goal early in the game, LFC nevertheless dominated possession — especially in the final third of the field. On a dismally chilly and windy day, forward players Kendall Wiens, Nico Pasquotti and Corey Frecka all enjoyed plenty of time playing with the ball near goal, but all but two chances went for naught.
“I thought we really controlled the game,” said LFC defender Justin Lariviere. “We had a lot of chances. Their goalie made some great saves, we missed the net, hit a couple of crossbars.”
“What more can you ask for? It’s tough to hit the net but today we had lots of good chances.”
After Matowe scored 30 minutes into the game, LFC woke up. a long Cormac Southam shot hit the crossbar and within a minute of that, LFC saw two more chances within 15 yards of goal deflected or missed wide.
Edmonton’s back line hadn’t conceded a goal in three games — their last strike against was July 25 when they beat Lethbridge 4-1 in Edmonton. THat ended in the 43rd minute when Andrew Malcolm coolly laid a ball across to Frecka, who scored.
“We should have been up 3-1 at the half but again, we’re not finishing our chances,” said Carey.
LFC opened the second half with a dominant run of play. While they built sandcastles in the Drillers penalty box, Edmonton managed just a handful of touches in the Lethbridge 18-yard box. Frecka hit the crossbar on a free kick minutes into the half, beginning a number of chances as Edmonton’s infighting distracted them into turnovers and sloppy play.
Barely 15 minutes into the second half, Justin Lariviere shielded a bumbled clearing attempt off a corner kick, turned and fired past Drillers goalkeeper Joshua Letendre, who was man-of-the-match despite two goals from teammate Matowe and a pair conceded.
Lariviere said the goal was a result of a lot of work up front in the minutes preceding his strike, the fifth goal of the season for him.
“It’s nice to have some big bodies up there who are willing to attack the net on those corners,” he said.
That isn’t all. Lariviere said the team has worked on hitting the seams from midfield and defence. Looking for speedy strikers like Frecka and Pasquotti and sending them on long, diagonal runs was working well to put pressure on Edmonton's defence.
“With Frecka making those runs and then Malcs (Andrew Malcolm) making those crisscrossing runs with him, when you’ve got that speed, it’s a lot of pressure.
“As a defender, I hate those runs.”
Lethbridge went ahead on Lariviere’s goal and spent the next 25 minutes looking unbeatable. Drillers managed one dangerous opportunity but little else until they ran a decoy play on a corner kick. A low pass to Matowe caught LFC’s defence by surprise and he put a professional one-touch deflection on the ball which redirected perfectly past Pattison.
“We had an open header missed, a header from three yards away, we had so many chances that we needed to take advantage of and when you don’t, when you let these teams hang around, especially a team in-form like Drillers, they can come back with one touch,” said Carey.
“And that’s what they did.”