Victoria Soccer Club – The St. Albert Men’s Soccer League stands for GSE after Green Street Elite won its third consecutive playoff cup in the team’s four-year history.
“This year we really wanted to get a three-peat. It was on our minds from the get-go and we were not going to let it slip through our fingers. This is going to be our league and we want to keep it going,” said striker Brandon Kinley, as champagne corks were popping following the 7-2 dismantlement of Chester City in Sunday’s final.
It was the sweetest of the three playoff celebrations for GSE.
“It’s nice to get the third one. You always doubt that maybe you can’t do it a third time in a row but we came through today,” said striker Terry Esposito.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the GSE team picture.
GSE also captured its first regular season pennant while going 15-1-1 overall. Last year GSE finished 10-4-2 in league and playoffs combined after posting a 14-1-3 mark in 2012.
“I can’t say this year is necessarily any better than any other year. We’ve just played our type of game all season and that’s what really counted,” Kinley said. “This team is not about trying to recruit people and make the best possible team. We’re a group of friends who have been playing together for years and we just do well together.”
GSE is an example of a team that plays together wins together.
“We’ve got a really good group of guys. We’ve all been playing together since we were young with the exception for a couple of years here and there and it helps having all that chemistry. We know where everybody wants the ball and where everybody wants to be and how they play. It just makes it a lot easier to play with a guy and know what he likes and how he plays,” Esposito said.
In previous finals GSE beat the legendary Rummies 5-1 last year and 1-0 two years ago.
“It was different having the rivalry with the Rummies the last couple of years. That was nice and that made last year really sweet,” said Kinley, the team leader in goals with 18.
This year Chester (7-10-3), who pulled off a 3-1 semifinal shocker against the SV Spurs (10-6-1), the Alberta Soccer Association Tier 3 bronze medallists, gave GSE a scare in the first half before fading away.
“We didn’t start off very well. They were all over us and it was looking like they had a good chance, but we came out to play in the second half and we got it done,” Esposito said of the 1-1 deadlock at halftime. “Last year we had probably five or six subs for the final and this year we only had one or two. It was a lot more hard work and a lot more keeping the ball moving and make the other team do the running instead of ourselves and we found that any time we did that nobody can touch us.”
Esposito, 22, showed a tremendous touch on the ball after tracking it down to open the scoring in the 11th minute against Chester goalkeeper Brandon Daubaert, who came roaring out of the crease to challenge the diminutive forward but was unable to make the save.
Daubaert did however step-up big several times in the first half to hold GSE to the lone goal.
Chester tied it in the 34th minute as Julian Mannella headed Matt Starcheski’s free kick into the top corner past goalkeeper Matt Bergin.
“After the first half we got a little bit worried. It was a team we could beat but they were holding on so good in the first half so we knew we had to get going and play a lot harder and we were able to come out and do that,” said Esposito, who scored the only goal in the 2012 final.
Three minutes into the second half Kinley threaded the needle for Jadran Mujcinovic to sew up the team’s second goal and two minutes later Brynn Schulha converted a ball from Craig Flemming to make it 3-1.
In the 61st minute Flemming caught up to a through ball and rolled it past Daubert and into the net.
Two minutes later Chester pulled to within two on a strong shot by Todd Watson after Colin Andrews collided with a GSE defender and the ball was retrieved by Chester’s top scorer this season with nine goals.
Watson came close again on a header but the ball hit the top corner of the net and bounced away.
GSE sealed the deal with three goals in eight minutes, kick-started by Kinley’s chip shot in tight of Daubert in the 81st minute. He also scored the team’s sixth goal and set up Esposito for his second of the match and 17th of the season.
“We like to get a feel for how the game is going to go and then we see what works and then we make it happen,” said Kinley, 22, who scored twice in the 4-1 semifinal win over SA United (10-9-1)
CORNER KICKS: Watson, Mannella and Starcheski supplied the offence for Chester in the semifinal against the Spurs, who lost Sunday’s third-place game 3-2 to United.
Scoring for the Spurs in Sunday’s playoff were Keith Gibbons, a beautiful header to open the scoring, and Taylor Lindstrom’s nice individual effort by to get around a defender and pot the ball into the far side of the net.
The United marksmen were Alex Sinclair on a penalty kick, Craig Cameron’s slick header and a late goal by Kevin Melanson on a great header.
