Canucks4Ever
Well-Known Member
Decided someone from the other side of the world should get a look at these Valley boys and, once I navigated my way into the labyrinth that is Aldergrove Athletic Park, it was a very entertaining game.
Aldergrove looked the better from the off, with their direct play really causing problems for the Island group. Brett was a handful upfront and it was nice to see him still playing and being effective. He did a stint in the city playing for Langara and, I believe, Rino's Div. 1. Still sporting a pair of knee braces, but he was definitely just as much of a pain in the ass as the player I remember him being a few years ago. Back to the game, where Aldergrove failed to turn their early dominance into anything tangible and Vic West were finding their feet. A few dangerous counters and set pieces had the visitors looking threatening and they should have opened the scoring when a well placed shot struck the crossbar. It was pretty even at this point, with both teams trading less than prime scoring chances and then Hildebrand found the back of the net. It was a bit of an innocuous scramble in the Vic penalty area and Connor just seemed to want it more, forcing one past the keeper, though it didn't exactly rip the netting out. Not that Aldergrove could be bothered, they were in the ascendancy, much to the delight of a boisterous and partisan home crowd.
Second half continued in the same vein until the home side doubled their advantage with another scrappy one. The ball was pinging around in the box until it was poked through for Hildebrand who was never making a mistake from that range. Big appeals for offside from the Victoria players, but the linesman was unmoved. To the visitor's credit though they fought back into it with a cracking finish, far post to make things interesting. Then, in my opinion, the play of the game. Vic had their tails up and got around the back of Aldergrove down the right wing. The ball was cut back to a wide open attacker, dead centre, just inside the box. He made good contact but was denied by an all world save from the Aldergrove keeper. I think his name was Nuno? At least I think that's what the crowd was cheering. He'd been good all game, very safe hands, but this was next level, though I'm sure the striker will feel he should have done better.
Aldergrove would make it safe with just under a quarter of an hour to play. The ball came across the box to a substitute who had come in on the wing and he hammered it home. He hit it with pace and good technique, but the Vic goalkeeper hardly covered himself in glory getting beat at his near post. Now that the match was ostensibly finished Ruben, who had been having a relatively quiet game in the middle save for one entertaining "blood on the sock" incident, decided to give the FVSL and VISL boys a taste of what they miss out on during the regular season. Vic was called for a foul and there was a discussion that resulted in a yellow card for some unsolicited Victoria input. The kick was swung in where Brett and the Vic West defender were tangled up and went down in a heap. Ruben pointed to the spot, despite limited, if any, appeal from Aldergrove, and you can imagine how the visitors from the Island reacted. Three yellows and a red I believe I counted. Connor slotted the spot shot to round out his hat trick and send Aldergrove into the Semis.
The FVSL boys will finally get to test the old FVSL/VMSL theory against Westside next weekend. I'm trying to cobble together enough for a match report about the Westside v Metro Ford game as I understand there were several talking points. Having seen Westside play on multiple occasions this season I can tell you that these two teams play very different styles, so it should hopefully make for an interesting and entertaining Semi-Final.
Aldergrove looked the better from the off, with their direct play really causing problems for the Island group. Brett was a handful upfront and it was nice to see him still playing and being effective. He did a stint in the city playing for Langara and, I believe, Rino's Div. 1. Still sporting a pair of knee braces, but he was definitely just as much of a pain in the ass as the player I remember him being a few years ago. Back to the game, where Aldergrove failed to turn their early dominance into anything tangible and Vic West were finding their feet. A few dangerous counters and set pieces had the visitors looking threatening and they should have opened the scoring when a well placed shot struck the crossbar. It was pretty even at this point, with both teams trading less than prime scoring chances and then Hildebrand found the back of the net. It was a bit of an innocuous scramble in the Vic penalty area and Connor just seemed to want it more, forcing one past the keeper, though it didn't exactly rip the netting out. Not that Aldergrove could be bothered, they were in the ascendancy, much to the delight of a boisterous and partisan home crowd.
Second half continued in the same vein until the home side doubled their advantage with another scrappy one. The ball was pinging around in the box until it was poked through for Hildebrand who was never making a mistake from that range. Big appeals for offside from the Victoria players, but the linesman was unmoved. To the visitor's credit though they fought back into it with a cracking finish, far post to make things interesting. Then, in my opinion, the play of the game. Vic had their tails up and got around the back of Aldergrove down the right wing. The ball was cut back to a wide open attacker, dead centre, just inside the box. He made good contact but was denied by an all world save from the Aldergrove keeper. I think his name was Nuno? At least I think that's what the crowd was cheering. He'd been good all game, very safe hands, but this was next level, though I'm sure the striker will feel he should have done better.
Aldergrove would make it safe with just under a quarter of an hour to play. The ball came across the box to a substitute who had come in on the wing and he hammered it home. He hit it with pace and good technique, but the Vic goalkeeper hardly covered himself in glory getting beat at his near post. Now that the match was ostensibly finished Ruben, who had been having a relatively quiet game in the middle save for one entertaining "blood on the sock" incident, decided to give the FVSL and VISL boys a taste of what they miss out on during the regular season. Vic was called for a foul and there was a discussion that resulted in a yellow card for some unsolicited Victoria input. The kick was swung in where Brett and the Vic West defender were tangled up and went down in a heap. Ruben pointed to the spot, despite limited, if any, appeal from Aldergrove, and you can imagine how the visitors from the Island reacted. Three yellows and a red I believe I counted. Connor slotted the spot shot to round out his hat trick and send Aldergrove into the Semis.
The FVSL boys will finally get to test the old FVSL/VMSL theory against Westside next weekend. I'm trying to cobble together enough for a match report about the Westside v Metro Ford game as I understand there were several talking points. Having seen Westside play on multiple occasions this season I can tell you that these two teams play very different styles, so it should hopefully make for an interesting and entertaining Semi-Final.
best of luck to the rest I did call Aldergrove as the dark horse.
