YFC 0 – 2 Aryana FC

YFC closed out 2008 with a loss in VMSL’s 2nd Division against a resurgent Aryana side who were a far cry from the disinterested, sub-par team that lost 8-0 to Yaletown in the previous fixture. Aryana came out strong, with dogged intent on avenging their crushing loss to YFC and they did so in just about everyway. Their back four stood strong, their midfield were tricky, quick and passed the ball well, usually in one or two touches. Their forward play was dynamic and came from all angles, especially through a couple very good players.

In the last meet-up between the two sides Aryana had trouble fielding a team, not so this time around as they had 12-13 players out and quite a few of them never before seen by YFC. Six starting players for Aryana were not there for the last meeting and all of them were quality and in the end Yaletown were simply out-played by (on the night) a better team.

The game was not without some bad luck though as Darryl Sheepwash hit the post with a speculative effort and the Aryana keeper saved well a few times and Adam Jennings missed narrowly on two occasions. Things could have been different had one of those efforts snuck in, but that is the story of YFC’s season so far… a long trail of “what ifs”.

Aryana took their foot off the pedal in the last 10 minutes of the game and Yaletown had the opportunity to try to salvage something, this being the only real time that Aryana weren’t in control of the game. It didn’t matter though and in the end they fully deserved to win.

Happy Holidays to everybody and Happy New Year, Yaletown will be back in action a few days after 2009 kicks off where a hopefully not-so-hung-over YFC takes on UBC Metro on January 3rd (wonderful choice by the league to schedule a game that weekend by the way!).