by Glen Gibbs Peak Sports If Powell River Villa is going to overcome a slow start to its soccer season it is going to need commitment from more than just a handful of players.
Sympathy will get you nowhere in the world of sport but Villa could have used some on Sunday when the team arrived in Nanaimo to play against United with only nine players and two keepers.
Add to that the absence of key players Kye Taylor, Brandon Knox and Jordan Peters and there are big boots to fill on a team that’s already struggling.
The absence of those players combined with several others, such as Mike Hurren, Nick van’t Schip and Dylan McLean who normally travel, meant Douglas Rivera, one of the two keepers, would fill in as a striker.
Villa arrived at the pitch knowing the odds were stacked against it but during warm-up the challenge became almost insurmountable.
To add to the team’s woes, Rob Devlin was taking part in pre-game drills, rolled his ankle and had to be helped off the pitch.
He was done for the day and when heads turned to the bench the only warm body who was carded was manager Todd Phillips.
“Gordon Head had a good-luck charm playing a 50-year-old,” recalled coach Jamie Zroback who thought, “maybe this is going to work.”
Villa started the game with no substitutes on the bench. The one bright spark of the day, however, was the knowledge Joel Harry was playing on the other field with his Metro team and whenever that match was done he could step in for Villa.
The match began relatively even with Villa starting five in the midfield with the plan more or less to play a conservative style game.
Nanaimo struck for the first goal, however, at 15 minutes when a long ball got through and the shot eluded keeper Matt Liknes.
Villa responded when Zroback got a ball over to Rivera in the box and when Rivera tried to set up Zroback for a shot a defender got his hand on the ball.
Zroback took the penalty and when the keeper dove right, he drilled the ball into the lower left side of the goal.
“He was moving well before I was at the ball,” he said, “so I could have even put it right down the middle of the net.”
His goal at the 33-minute mark raised the spirits of the team and the score remained 1-1 into the halftime break.
The second half started in similar fashion to the first but another curve was thrown in the direction of Villa at 70 minutes.
There was a rush toward Villa’s goal and starting keeper Liknes was injured on the play that resulted in a corner for Nanaimo.
The ensuing kick was successful with Liknes still on the limp and after the goal he was forced to leave the game which pulled Rivera from the front to play goal.
Villa played with 10 men briefly before Harry joined the team from the other game and there were a couple of opportunities for Powell River to tie the game.
The extra effort and push forward however ultimately cost them when Nanaimo struck for the insurance goal with a few minutes to go.
“It’s frustrating,” said Zroback, “because with more commitment we could have had those points today. We are planning to talk to our players this week because this situation is completely unacceptable.”
The bench should be considerably longer this week when Villa hosts Cowichan FC2 at 5:15 pm on Saturday, November 5 at Brooks Turf field.
