From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Fri Sep 18 2009 - 12:28:22 EDT
Simcoe Reformer - Ontario, CA
Community newspaper serves the region of Haldimand-Norfolk
Royals need a win tonight
Posted By JACOB ROBINSON, Simcoe Reformer
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Norfolk Royals have played roughly 1,530 minutes of soccer this
year, and over that span they've been the best team in the division.
Tonight they have to be the best for 90 more minutes against Eritrea to
become Western Ontario Soccer League Third East Champions.
The Delhi-based Royals had been in second place for much of the year
until the Royals beat rival St. Columban in an Aug. 30 matchup.
Following that game, all they had to do was win their final three games
to take the championship.
That brings us to today, two wins later and an Eritrea club that sports
a sixth place record coming to town.
"The nerves are running a bit high," admitted Royals player Miles
Dobias. "But we're looking at it like it's just another game, our first
of the season. We're hoping to come out and play our best and go hard
and try to forget this is the biggest game of the year."
Norfolk won the only other meeting between the two teams this season by
a score of 5-0 July 4. The Royals may have dominated that game, but
Dobias said it's no reason for his team to get ahead of itself.
"A lot can change from then to now, they could've been missing some
guys," he explained. "We're looking to play our best game of the season
and if we do that, we should have no problem winning. They are the
underdogs though, and you can't ever count them out."
It's a big weekend for all of Delhi too, not just the Royals. Their
Third Central cousins, the Athletics, will be playing AEK at the same 7
p.m. start time on the other Benson & Hedges field as part of the
Harvestfest activities.
The park will likely be packed with people, so Dobias and his teammates
will try to stray away from any distractions.
"We really can't worry about what's going on off the field," he said.
"We need to win one game and then we can celebrate for the rest of the
weekend. It will be hard to concentrate on the game, but if we have our
full team and everyone is ready to play, there's no reason why we
shouldn't win."
If they do so, it would set up an interesting scenario that would place
the Royals in the Second Division with the Simcoe Thunder next season.
The Royals have aspirations beyond tonight's game, and a win would be
the first step towards their goals.
"It would be really nice to win and move up to Second Division," said
Dobias. "It's a whole new ballgame (there). It will take a lot of work
to win there, but our ultimate goal is to become a premier team. There
are still a lot of years left to go and we have to improve as a whole,
we just need to take it one game at a time."
The first step is a win tonight.
Western Ontario Soccer League - WOSL http://www.wosl.net/
http://www.simcoereformer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1759157
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