Opener

[boom]

The first match of our SSL Minors season with the new Rova players was just about to begin. We'd be playing against Montreal United in front of our own fans, so while it wasn't quite time for my annual trip to see Cait in Quebec City it was still great to be playing soccer again for the season. When the whistle blew to kick off the game, we controlled play early, and almost got on the board early when a penalty was initially called. It seemed like a soft call, and the penalty was called back on VAR, but getting into the case where we almost drew a penalty was still a positive sign. 

In the thirtieth minute new rookie Matt Turk got us on the board with a rocket off a nice feed from Tank Denstro, and Rova took that 1-0 lead into halftime. Montreal pushed harder in the second half of the match to try and get that equalizer, and either the referee had an itchy trigger finger or VAR wasn't on our side because we had two more penalties overturned in the second half. Late in the match, Montreal had their best chance of the game when they got a point-blank chance, but our new goalie Rean Schwarzer came up big by making the clutch save. The final minutes ticked off the clock, no more major chances occurred, and we'd pulled off a 1-0 victory in our first match of the season. Next week would be a road match against the defending champion from last season AS Paris, which would be a challenge but one we could rise to.

[lemonoppy]

Congrats on the W 3/5