YFC 0 – 3 Burnaby Fury A

Scoreline says it all really, Burnaby showed up and Yaletown didn’t. To be fair to the boys the first 15 minutes were great, some good pressure down the right wing and great movement in midfield. An injury to Peter McHugh, who ended up with a golf ball sized, bleeding lump on his knee, took the bite out of the YFC midfield and this led to some pressure from Burnaby. From then on they used a strict diet of hardwork and pressure to unsettle the YFC back four, who were playing their first match together due to suspension and other players being away. A chain of mistakes, first on the right of the pitch led to a ball through the middle that was missed, gifted a Burnaby forward with a clean look at goal and he finished clinically leaving Brad Bodenhammer with no chance on the shot. Burnaby to their credit smelled blood in the water and mounted some serious pressure in the YFC third. They were rewarded when a corner wasn’t cleared properly and after bouncing around the 18 a shot went agonizingly over Brad in goal after a Burnaby player got a deflection he knew nothing about. At that point the wind visibly went out of Yaletown’s sails and another goal was conceded in similarly disorganized fashion after failed clearances and miscommunication opened the door for the Fury. Three to none before half time.

The second half saw Burnaby make a few substitutions and take their foot off the pedal a bit, Yaletown played better and Adam Jennings, who worked his ass off in midfield, had a shot go off the base of the post. It just wasn’t YFC’s day in any sense of the phrase. Simon Doran was sent off towards the end of the match for his second yellow card offense, the first for accidentally kicking the ball away after a whistle and the second for a 50-50 challenge on their keeper. Another ref, another day and Simon wouldn’t have had a yellow at all, say no more…

The result was a bit of a shock to the system after having played quite well the week before, but as it is every year in VMSL the players have responsibilities outside of football and YFC have to put out a solid side no matter what and perform no matter what. That certainly wasn’t the case against Burnaby and hopefully this result will be a learning experience for the team and they can be better prepared for next time. Well done to Burnaby, well deserved and were certainly the better team on the night.