Aurora United blanked by Toronto

July 6, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte

The men’s side of Aurora United FC picked up their third loss in a row Saturday against Toronto FC Academy at Sheppard’s Bush in Aurora.

A nil-nil score at halftime was blown away by the visiting team after the break, notching goals at the 55, 78, 84, and 90-minute marks to earn a commanding 4 – 0 win.

Aurora assistant coach Dave Di Placido said he thought his team tired as the match drew out.

“I thought the first half we were well organized and didn’t give them many chances,” he said. “Obviously they’re a good side, they have a lot of skill in the team, so we thought we’d close down play and make it difficult on them.”

“We did that in the first half, but second half we gave them much too much room to maneuver and with their skillful players they created chances and that was the game.”

The Aurora side had a number of chances of their own in the first half, with top goal scorer Simon Adjei leading the charge. The league’s tenth-highest scorer had a number of missed opportunities in the opening 45 minutes.

“In the end I think we deserved the points,” said Toronto head coach Stuart Neely. “The goals we scored were good goals, we worked them well.”

“We started off very slow, while we dominated a good chunk of the first half we just weren’t lethal in front of the goal. And Aurora were to their credit using their tall striker very well. He’s quite the target and they had a couple of opportunities mid-way through the first half on counters. Right on the stroke of half-time they had a strike that hit the crossbar. So we had to regroup at halftime, refocus, reenergize ourselves, and readdress our game plan, and I think we did that in the second half with four unanswered goals.”

The loss was the third clean sheet in a row against Aurora, who have not scored a goal since a 3 – 3 tie with Toronto Skillz FC on June 11.

They will look to get back on track with a matchup Saturday against Brampton’s ProStars FC, who sit seventh in the West division with a record of 1-7-2.

The AUFC women also return to the pitch Saturday after a three-week hiatus, visiting the 3-3-2 Kingston Clippers. Aurora occupies the seventh-place standing in the nine-team women’s side with a record of 1-4-3.

Both sides were eliminated from League 1 Cup contention last week.