The St. Albert Impact 3 men suffered a difficult loss on Tuesday night.
Impact was unable to find the back of the net against the Fiji Youths, who kicked in three goals to win the game with a shutout.
It is the first year that the young Impact team has competed in the Edmonton and District Soccer Association men’s league. They play in the tier 4 Virk division.
Impact 3 includes a combination of players aged 16 and 17. Coach Kevin Jones said the lack of experience competing in a men’s league might have been a factor in the shutout loss.
Fiji dominated the first half of the game. Impact managed to grind out some shots but spent much of the half playing defence.
“We were slow to get going in the first half,” said Jones. “The energy that we need to compete at a men’s league wasn’t there.”
Deep into the first half, Fiji fired a corner kick into the middle of the Impact box that gave them the opportunity to find a good shot and start the scoring at 1-0.
The Impact defence was able to hold them off and keep Fiji at a single goal to end the first.
At halftime, Coach Jones had some tips for the boys. He wanted them to work on “moving the ball more quickly, getting it out of their feet before the pressure comes and keep the ball busy.”
Following Jones’ direction, the Impact came back with a more aggressive approach in the second. The energy was up and it allowed the Impact to be more effective in keeping the ball in Fiji’s territory.
Early in the half, Jareth MacDonald of the Impact was able to break away from the crowd and move towards Fiji’s net. The Fiji goalkeeper was quick to challenge MacDonald and stopped the ball at the top of the 18-yard box.
Fiji brought the ball back into Impact’s end. A pass across the front of the net found a player in scoring position. Fiji fooled the Impact goalkeeper, to increase their lead to 2-0.
Later in the second, Fiji took another corner kick to put the ball in good position in Impact’s territory. Fiji found the back of the Impact net once again to make it 3-0.
Impact kept the pressure going. In the back end of the second, they sent two balls into the posts. One shot went off the foot of Mario Ruicea, who is on the division’s top scorers list with three goals so far. Another shot hit the crossbar.
The Impact boys battled hard in the second but were unable to put up a score as the game drew to a close.
Coach Jones said the slow start in the first might have been partially due to the fact that the team was just coming off a tough weekend of playing in the U18 division of the Victoria Day Classic.
The effort put forward by the young team in the second half was promising to Jones. The game also revealed a few weak points that they will work on as the season progresses.
“I think we’ll just look at training and a bit of defending – one-on-one defending,” said Jones. “And just work a little bit on that and the quality of the ball coming in and around the 18-year box to generate that and making sure we can get a better penetrating pass into those spaces so we can generate better opportunities around the box.”
“As long as they keep positive and realize it’s a year for growth and learning and take that forward,” said Jones about the team.
After the loss, the St. Albert Impact 3 rank fifth in the Virk division with four of 14 games played.
The St. Albert Impact 3 face off against the current division leaders, Rangers FC, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Strathcona Athletic Park.
