United comes up empty on penalty kicks

Michael Booth

Sporting Club took winning ugly to a whole new level in the Provincial Cup playoffs.

The Vancouver side emerged with the silverware as the 2005 provincial champions of men's premier soccer despite not scoring any goals in regulation time or overtime in the Cup quarter-finals, semifinals or the championship final.

After playing to a scoreless draw through 90 minutes of regulation and two 15-minute overtimes, Sporting completed their unlikely drive to the title by beating Surrey United on penalty kicks in the final at Swangard Stadium Sunday. It marked the third straight game Sporting used spot shots to win.

"Best of luck to Sporting," said Surrey United coach Martin Foden. "We all know the rules and at the end of the day, they won out. They're the champions and we wish them the best at nationals."

Surrey came into the game with a complete roster for the first time all season, but the extra bodies didn't help much. Surrey stumbled out of the starting gates and then struggled to find any form of cohesive play through the first 45 minutes.

The only thing going in Surrey's favour in the opening half was Sporting's ongoing inability to capitalize on their scoring opportunities.

"We stunk the joint out; in the first half we were a nightmare," Foden said. "We could have been down 2-0 at half time had Sporting finished their chances but they didn't. Before the game I thought we were going to come out flying. When the game started, though, we didn't execute our plays well, we gave the ball away and we weren't very smart with our control and possession. We kept turning the ball over to them and they kept coming at us."

Surrey made a number of personnel changes at the break, inserting Cory Janzen and former Vancouver 86er Craig Dalrymple into the game. The moves, coupled with United's disgust at their first-half play, resulted in a much better showing for Surrey in the second half.

Former Vancouver pro Niall Thompson picked up his game considerably after the half, creating several scoring chances including a near-goal on a header inside the Sporting box.

When the game advanced to overtime, Thompson had a great opportunity to net the winner. He rounded the keeper and attempted to tuck the ball back into the net but was thwarted by a Sporting defender who cleared the ball to safety.

Surrey kept working and came up with one more golden opportunity before penalty kicks were imposed. With the game hanging in the balance in the dying minutes of the second extra session, Surrey's Ryan Hopp broke through cleanly and chipped the ball over the goalkeeper's head. The ball had some spin on it as it bounced toward the open goal, but it carried wide of the post.

"The shot was a brilliantly done to get it over the keeper," Foden said. "It just curved agonizingly and slowly - almost in slow motion for us - and went past the post."

The game came down to penalty kicks and while Sporting has been hot with spot shots of late, Surrey countered with a streak of its own.

"When it comes to a shootout anything can happen," Foden said. "To be honest, we thought we were in good shape but this is the first time Drew Smiley has ever lost a shootout for us. The law of averages says he can't go on like that forever."

Smiley's streak came to a close when the first three Sporting attempts - including shots by former Surrey players Trevor Rosencrans and Steve Dormer - eluded him. When Surrey tried to keep pace, Clayton Dobbin, Cory Janzen and Hopp all came up empty.

"Really and truly, though, our execution of the penalty shots was the poorest I've ever seen," Foden said. "We missed the net on two. It's not like we were stoned by a hot keeper, we were beaten by our own poor execution. At the end of the day, that's what lost it for us."

Foden then quickly pointed out losing 3-0 on penalty kicks may actually be better than being nosed out by a single goal.

"The only good thing is we missed all three," he said. "If you're going miss and not win on a penalty shootout, that's the best way. The last thing you want is have just one guy missing and then feeling like he's the reason the team didn't win."

The loss on penalty kicks leaves United with an empty trophy case despite an impressive Vancouver Metro Soccer League season. Surrey posted the best record in the regular season but lost in overtime in the league final to Inter.

Surrey then rolled through the Provincial Cup playoffs only to once again come up short in the big game.

"There's some deeper lying questions which, at the end of the day, we'll have to address," Foden said. "People tend to overanalyze it but this is a team that lost in overtime in the league championship final and lost on penalty kicks in the Provincial Cup final. There's not an awful lot wrong here because we're getting to those situations. We're just not playing well on the big day."

posted on 05/18/2005