by Dominik Luszczyszyn
A controversial goal that was scored off of a free-kick proved to be the game-winner on Sunday afternoon, as Ryerson’s women’s soccer team lost 3-0 to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.
The Rams played extremely well up until that goal and often times looked like too much for the Blues to handle. During a scramble at the top of the box, it had appeared that Rams goaltender, Lauren LaSalle, was kicked in the head by one of the Varsity Blues’ players. While she quickly recovered and managed to grab the loose ball, she only realized that she had made contact with the ball outside of the box, which resulted in a free-kick for U of T. Blues forward Diana Esteireiro converted on the free-kick to give them a 1-0 lead in the 33rd minute, but Rams head coach Kevin Souter believed that she had gained possession pf the ball inside of the crease.
“The referee explained that the goalkeeper never had full control of the ball and by the time she did, she was outside the box,” said head coach Kevin Souter. “That’s why these guys are here. It’s their job whether I agree with it or not.”
This call seemed to have destroyed all of the momentum that Ryerson gained, in what was an exceptional first half.
“It’s hard to come back from a goal. We’re the kind of team where we struggle to score, period. To then play a game where we’re behind a goal, it just makes it even harder and a lot of us were rattled about it,” said midfielder Andrea Raso.
The bad luck didn’t stop there for the Rams though, as their inability to defend set plays returned. On another free-kick in the 79th minute, Esteireiro scored her second goal of the gam, while the Rams were still setting up their wall to block the shot. Rams goaltender Katrina Persson-Thomas who played the second half of the game for LaSalle, believes that the ref did not make it clear when play would resume.
“There was some confusion as to whether or not the ref had to blow a whistle before the free-kick was taken,” she said.
U of T’s third goal of the game was scored in the 88th minute, and came off of yet another free kick
“I thought we gave ourselves a good chance in the first half. We didn’t concede through the run of play. Everything we conceded was through set pieces, which is obviously something we need to work o,” said Souter. “It gave us hope moving forward, that this team and the majority of the starters are looking good and they’re picking up on the concepts worth teaching, just gives us things we need to build on.”
Leave a Reply