View from the 18: Week 4

It was a rare cold night in June at Lytle Park. The wind was blowing and we had a young and fast team in front of us. Nonetheless, we blazed past them and scored 5 goals. It was a team effort with our Wolves holding our shape — better than our last two games.

In the first half, we opened things up with a nice outside the foot goal by Kaleb Rodrigues. Then a barrage of goals from our striker Tarrell ‘Osigwe’ Erua, supplemented by two more from Anand Balaram.

It was great to get our first win as the Wolves MR2!

Our ‘Player of the Game’ was Tarrell ‘Osigwe’ Erua, who was our ‘tank‘ up front. Reliable. Hardworking and he scored a brace (almost had a hat-trick).

Tarrell’s work rate was over 100% which was a catalyst for us to have a great game! 

This match, held under the lights of the UOttawa stadium was supported by many Persian spectators. Our boyz, under the leadership of team manager, Roozbeh Manesh started playing with an all-in attack from the first whistle. In the first 10 minutes we scored three nice goals, effectively sealing Stella’s fate. In the third minute, Alireza Zarepour scored on Mohsen Haghighat’s rebound shot. Just two minutes later, a spectacular free-kick shot by Alireza Fal Asiri found the net. The third goal came in the 10th minute with an accurate through pass from Alireza Fal Asiri, leading to Reza Zarepour scoring in a one-on-one with Stella’s goalkeeper.

Stella tried to regain composure in the first half and, in the 35th minute, following a corner kick and a clearance by Westboro’s defensive midfielder, the ball struck Hadi Ahmadi’s hand. The referee immediately pointed to the penalty spot. Stella’s left-footed striker, Fabian Vargas, converted the penalty, making the score 3-1.

However, this wasn’t the end of the first half. Wolves continued their attacks, and in the 44th minute, Omid Balazadeh headed in a powerful cross from a free-kick by Roozbeh Manesh from the left wing. The teams went into halftime with Rideau leading 4-1.

In the second half, Stella’s coach made substitutions to balance the game, reducing the pressure from our Wolves’s wing attacks. They relied on counter-attacks and the speed and skill of their number 14 striker, Fabian Vargas, who managed to score with a left-footed shot in the 48th minute, denying Milad Deldar, Westboro’s goalkeeper, his first clean sheet.

Westboro Wolves MR3, eager to attack and add to their lead, managed to find the net once again. A well-practiced corner kick and a powerful, curling shot by Vahid Farhadi secured their fifth goal. The match ended with a brilliant 5-2 victory for Wolves, propelling them to the top three of the standings at the end of week four.

Watch the full game here:

In week five, Westboro Wolves MR3 will host Ottawa Falcons Boro.

Congratulations to our ‘Players of the Game’ were Omid Mirshahi and Navid Kadkhoda

I appreciate how we rallied together due to absent players and early injuries, many of you stepped into playing out of position, wherever you were needed. Thank you for that.

We’ve talked about getting an early lead, to establish ourselves and put pressure on our opponents. We did just that. We finally capitalized on our early scoring chances. An honourable mention to Kevin Ridgway, who got it all started with another gutsy goal, his 4th in 4 games!
It doesn’t matter if they’re pretty, they all count!

Leading 3-0 at the half, their woo-hoos and chirping dissipated and I believe they knew they had a formidable opponent. We welcomed Kian Yamada to the Wolf Pack and he christened his performance with a nice goal proudly watched by his father, Mitsuo. Who happens to play on our Wolves OT5 team.

Let’s get this party started!!!

Thank you to those who supported us and to Dennis and Ahmed for the post-game bevies.
We are grateful.🫶

Our ‘Player of the Game’ for his exceptional backfield performance was our Center Back, Dennis Voltchek. To celebrate he chose an ABBA classic, ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’, the remix version!

Other goals scorers:

Kevin R. – 1
Carlo – 1
Joseph – 1
Kian – 1

As expected, it was a tough, physical battle against the defending champs with neither team wanting to give up an inch or concede a victory.

The Wolves once again started the match with just enough players, with post-game host, Timon Gareau arriving slightly after kick off to give them one spare. It turned out that this spare was needed as our Juan Carlos’s was suffering from an ankle injury and was in and out of the match.

Mkango struck first with a towering header from a free kick, off of a foul committed just outside our own box. The Wolves shook off this setback, and drew even before the half with our Liam Smithies pouncing on a loose ball inside the box to strike home. It was 1-1 at the half, with much to play for. A familiar Wolves’ back four had a lot do with the scoreline as Corey Sul, Mike Owen, and Dmytro Khonko were joined by Bert Lee, who was making his season debut, and looked like he’d just run 40km of a 50km race. 🏃‍♂️

Mkango again took the lead in the 2nd half, taking advantage of some missed coverage and it looked like the momentum would take them to victory. However, there was no quit in our Wolves, and they battled back with Peter Akpan tying the match, thundering home a loose ball, after considerable pressure. The Wolves had a shout for a penalty with less than 5 minutes to play, but the foul was deemed to have taken place outside the box.

Timon stepped in late to host a Father’s Day post-game match, which may have raised the stakes for future hosts. His hunting inspired meal included a delicious venison stew, topping white rice and aromatic naan, along with fresh veggies and spicy venison pepperettes, all washed down with ice cold bevies, and chased with some delicious walnut cookies. An appetizing meal from a grizzly veteran.
The Wolves are still tied at the top of the table with a 3-1-0 record with another big match against Falcons on Friday.

Finally, after about half an hour of play our Wolves managed to break through and make it 1-0. A nice shot from outside the box, which was slightly deflected by one of their defenders causing their keeper to go in the other direction.

Despite several other attempts, from both teams and superb saves by both goalies the half ended at only 1-0.

A bit of half time chatter about changing strategy on the way we defend helped us prevent those 1 on 1 breakaways. Early in the second half we managed to make it 2-0. It did not take long for them to make it 2-1. The cat and mouse game continued but we prevailed finishing with a 5-3 victory.

Overall, our team played well. Our keeper Bryan Lefebvre made several 1 on 1 saves and kept us in this game. Our ‘Players of the Game’ were Perparim Dauti and Ami Barakat for helping out in the midfield, supporting the attack but also defending when duty called. They both scored a goal each which helped us further discourage the opponents from having any hope of coming back. The Wolves’ Helio Alves scored the final goal, closing the lid on the game before the final whistle.

Next week we’re playing Saigon whom we expect to be a strong opponent.

Players of the Match Perparim and Ami scoring a goal each to earn us that precious W.

The Nepean Hotspurs came into the game undefeated and looking to leverage their home field advantage. The beginning of the game was relatively balanced with both sides creating a couple of half chances. We slowly gained a possessional advantage and started pressing that advantage, finally making the break through at about the 25 minute mark when our Oscar Arrieta popped home a scramble in the 6 yard box. The rest of the first half was a bit of an untidy muddle as we got caught in possession too much and failed to use our speed to our advantage. Second half we looked much sharper and really started to use the space they were giving us on the wings. Still, we were struggling to find that final touch until our Jefferson ‘Airplane’ Daughtery ran onto a lovely angle pass and forced their defender into a rash and late challenge in the box… the ref had no choice but to give us the spot kick and Jefferson (recovered miraculously) dispatched the kick with aplomb and gave us some breathing room. From there the balance of possession and play was largely in our favour but it took an OG for us to finally get a third and finish off this game. At that point we seemed to shut it down and the Hotspurs almost made us pay, but for a couple of excellent saves from our keeper, Dom Pecora, kept the clean sheet.
Overall, another step in the right direction for our squad and a win that moves us top of the table on goal difference, although the Rockers still have a game in hand on us.
Special mention to Andrew Specogna both for also making his debut plus for his excellent choice of post-game bevies. With the exception of some questionable music choices by Tony Zito at the end, the night was a great success :).

(Editor’s note: usually our Player of the Game usually chooses his post-honours celebration song. When asked, Dwayne said you’d find my musical choice quite strange so I proceeded by playing the Italian National Anthem, which was appropriate considering the comeback our Boyz made in Match 1 at Euro 2024 😄