It was a challenging day for both the men’s and women’s Harbourside teams. Altitude FC took all the points back to the mainland. “It's a punishing league - even more so than last year, I think,” said technical lead Daragh Fitzgerald.
Big shout-out to Nanaimo Track and Field for the positive energy and helping make the atmosphere electric! Track fans attending the Elwood Wylie Memorial meet got the chance to watch some soccer and vice versa. The multi-sport extravaganza at Nanaimo’s stadium district was a success.
The men’s game was scoreless until mid-way through the second half when Buschman-Dormand of Altitude FC put one in the back of the net in the 63rd minute. A few minutes later, Altitude scored again. Harbourside’s squad was unable to score any last minute goals like in their last home game against the Vancouver Whitecaps Academy. Technical lead Daragh Fitzgerald told the media team that the “men's team weren't at their best. Didn't move the ball as well as they usually do and Altitude have some good forwards who took their chances.” There were quite a few yellow cards given out to either side throughout the game, one of which resulted in a free kick at the top of the box for Harbourside. Billy Bagiopolous was chosen to take it. Luck was not on his side today - his shot went wide. A few words about the game from Bagiopolous:
“Yesterday’s game was a tough one for sure! Altitude is a hard working team that plays with passion and it was visible in our game! Unfortunately we didn’t rise up to the occasion but we will! We will go back to training and work hard and strive to get better! On that free kick I was thinking that this is a great opportunity to score and get the lead in a good time in the game but unfortunately it was a few inches high! We will keep working hard as a team to improve and get the results we want!”
On the women’s side, the ladies took the early lead with a great goal from Erin Jensen. Less than 20 minutes into the game, Altitude made a poor pass in Harbourside’s end. Tannis McKay intercepted and cleared it up to the midfield. Jazmine Wilkinson took control and made a fabulous through pass between two defenders to Erin Jensen, who put the jets on. The moment turned into a breakaway, with the Altitude ladies struggling to catch Jensen. A touch or two, and she was in the box, and slotted the ball into the far corner.
Unfortunately, Altitude finished two of their chances, and took the win. Fitzgerald noted that although Harbourside was in Altitude’s half for large chunks of the game, but “Altitude were clinical much like they were in the first game.” Assistant coach Aja Choy-Halo took on the role of head coach for the day and felt that “the team worked hard and executed the game plan well in the first half. Our high press was effective in the first 20 minutes with coordinated movements of our attacking players… [but] we needed to be more threatening in the final third and create more quality scoring opportunities. ”
Jensen commented on the how the game went from the ladies’ perspective:
“This past game against Altitude was a tough one for us. We came out flying and held that intensity for those first 30 minutes. After re-watching the game the next morning it showed me that we had some great possession throughout the 90 minutes, but it is those transition moments that kill us. As we move forward it is super important to keep the intensity and the speed of play high.
Every single team in this league is very good, but the score and our past results do not reflect our play and the players we have. After the past 5 games we have said ‘Okay next one, next game, we got this’.. Eventually, we are going to run out of time to say that. So, this Saturday, June 1st in Kamloops is a huge 3 points we need to secure.”
If you want to watch or re-watch the games for yourself, check out the links below:
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