By Jack MacCool
The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s soccer team captured its first victory at a U Sports national championship tournament in program history Friday afternoon in Kamloops, B.C, beating the St. Francis Xavier University (St. FX) X-Men on penalty kicks.
After a defensive showcase by both sides that resulted in a scoreless 90 minutes, TMU and St. FX resorted to penalty kicks to decide the winner. After their third attempt was saved, the Bold’s season came down to one kick, which was heroically saved by goalkeeper Ali Ghazanfari, keeping the campaign alive.
Ghazanfari stopped another shot before Tristan Marshall put the game away in the penalty shootout.
After losing its quarter-final matchup to the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Bold faced St. FX in the consolation semi-final. The X-Men fell to the University of Montreal Carabins in their own quarter-final matchup on Thursday.
Despite less-than-favourable snowy conditions, the Bold started the game hot, controlling play throughout the opening 15 minutes. They built attacks with excellent patience and keen ball movement.
The X-Men began generating their own chances around the midpoint of the first half on a shot that went just wide of the goal.
Early on the momentum was with the Bold, but as the half continued on the X-Men’s attack became more potent. Ghazanfari kept the score a draw in the 25th minute when he stopped an X-Men breakaway with a diving attempt at the ball.
The rest of the half was a back-and-forth affair with the ball zipping up and down the pitch in both directions. Neither team was able to control the ball for a long period of time. At the break, the match remained scoreless.
The second half began with St. FX controlling the action. The X-Men moved the ball brilliantly around the edge of the Bold’s 18-yard box, but the TMU backline held strong, not allowing an attempt on goal.
Before long, the match turned back into what felt like a track meet, with each player seemingly running the distance of a marathon, trying to keep up with the play as it whipped from one 18-yard box to the other.
TMU turned up the pressure around the 60 minute mark, controlling the ball in the St. FX half for long periods of time. Outside of a few long attempts at the net, neither team generated much of anything in terms of dangerous chances.
Whenever it felt like the X-Men were generating momentum, Marshall was there to evaporate the danger, much to the dismay of the St. FX players. He was without a doubt the standout player of the match for the Bold.
The closing minutes of the match saw increased pressure from the X-Men, testing Ghazanfari on a couple of occasions. With no extra-time in consolation games, this one needed penalties to decide the victor.
TMU advances to the consolation final of the U Sports national with the victory. They’ll face the winner of the University of Quebec Trois-Rivières (UQTR) versus McMaster University match. Should McMaster advance, the consolation final will be a rematch of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) final that took place Nov. 5.
UP NEXT: The Bold will face the winner of the UQTR versus McMaster game taking place later Nov. 11. Kick-off is set for 4:30 p.m. EST in Kamloops B.C.
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