The St. Albert Impact Rangers gave up a goal in the last minute of the game for a heartbreaking loss to Africana FC on Monday night
The third place Div 1A Men’s St. Albert Impact Rangers kicked off against the fifth ranked Africana FC at Riel Park but came one goal short and suffered a 4-3 defeat.
“They took it to us,” head coach Jim Casper said. “They were pretty quick and we couldn’t account for their speed coming off the wing.”
The Rangers opened the scoring with an unfortunate goal on its own net from a corner kick gone awry. The ball bounced off an unlucky defender and he roofed it over the goalie to the top of the net, putting them down a goal early in the game. Down but not out, the Impact Rangers fought back, looking for the tying goal in the game. The Ranger’s Miguel Cunha charged wide down the field in a two-on-one with Mark Tetreau. Cunha’s pass hit the mark when Tetreau headed the ball into the back of the net to tie the game.
The Impact managed to score two insurance goals before the end of the half when Mike Thompson settled a bouncing ball down in front of the net and sent it past the unsuspecting goalie. Shortly after, Tetreau found the net again. This time with a corner kick that curled over the mob and in to the back to the net, leaving both the players and crowd in awe and putting them up 3-1.
Before breaking for the half, things on the field became heated with the opposition over an offside call that led to two yellow cards being distributed for dissent and unsportsmanlike behaviour. The referee stopped the play several times to warn the players and the coach before finally penalizing the team.
During the brouhaha, the Impact remained generally calm and co-operative, waiting for play to resume.
“We just have to play the game,” Casper said. “The ref is going do what he’s going to do and if whoever we are playing is going to take offence to it then we will let the referee deal with it. We will just play our game and keep our mouth shut.”
Going in to the second half, the game began to settle down and the visitors opened with a lucky break and closed the gap to a one-goal difference. Shortly after, Africana FC capitalized again when they managed an odd man rush and caught the goalie out of position. Abdoul Barry dribbled and deked the goalie, sending him flying in the wrong directing and gently passed the ball into the net to tie the game.
The final nail in the coffin came when the opposition managed another odd man rush, leaving the home team’s goalie with no help and finally put Africana FC in the lead in the last minute of play.
“We digressed after half,” Casper said. “You can’t give out three unanswered goals and not do something wrong. I think we started to coast a little bit too and take for granted guys being on the ball and then not going on the ball. Our work rate was decreasing and theirs was increasing and pretty quickly the ball was in the back of the net. “
Next week the third place Rangers meet the second place Edmonton Warriors Men and they are hoping to carry forward positives from the first half of the game to help conquer the tough challengers.
“Movement of the ball was great,” Casper said. “We were getting chances and shots and we were creating opportunities. We have to build on all we did right in the first half and forget about the second half and go from there.”
The Div. 1A St. Albert Impact Rangers meet the Edmonton Warriors Men on Monday July 20 at 8:15 p.m. on the ESA complex artificial turf.
