BACK LINE STALWART RAFAEL ALVES CONTRIBUTES IN ATTACK IN FURY FC'S TITLE-CLINCHING WIN
The Brazilian defender scored the equalizer to help lift Ottawa to a comeback win and Fall Season Championship
No one will ever confuse Rafael Alves with his brother-in-law, the free-kick maestro Roberto Carlos.
Sure, both are from Brazil. Both prowl (or prowled) the back line for their teams. And they are now connected by marriage.
But while Roberto Carlos (who is now a coach in India for the Delhi Dynamos) mesmerized the soccer world with some of the most prodigious free kicks known to man, Alves has had to content himself with being part of the best defensive unit in the North American Soccer League.
That was until Wednesday night when Alves scored the tying goal from a free kick that proved to be pivotal as Ottawa Fury FC defeated Jacksonville Armada FC, 3-1, and clinched the league’s Fall Season title. The win means Fury FC (who would have also clinched with a draw) will get to host a semifinal match in The Championship, the league’s four-team postseason tournament.
“The goal was very important for the team to clinch the title,” Alves told NASL.com on Thursday morning as the club was preparing to travel back to Canada. “On this team, the same person does not always score the goal. It was a big goal for me and for the team.”
Ottawa now has more than a week off before finishing the regular season with a match at Atlanta. In addition to winning the Fall Season title, Fury FC holds down first place in the Combined Standings, five points ahead of the New York Cosmos. A Cosmos draw or loss on Saturday at San Antonio would enable Ottawa to claim the No. 1 seed overall in the postseason and home field throughout, should it advance past the semifinals.
On Wednesday night against an Armada FC club that had yet to lose a game at Community First Park in the Fall Season, the home team took a 1-0 lead in the first half after a stunning goal by the Haitian international Mechack Jérôme. The goal ruined Romuald Peiser’s bid for a league-record 15th shutout, but did little to derail Ottawa.
Fourteen minutes into the second half, Ottawa was awarded an indirect free kick about 20 yards from the Jacksonville goal.
“Before the game we talked about who would take the free kicks, either me or Sinisa,” Alves said, referring to midfielder Sinisa Ubiparipovic. “I had only taken one free kick, much earlier in the season. But I’ve been practicing.
“At that moment, I felt like this was a good place for a kick by me. It was close to the goal so I knew it would be hard to get it over the wall. I decided to shoot low and hard because it was on an angle.”
The shot from Alves appeared to glance off a defender before ending up in the back of the Jacksonville net. It was his fourth goal of the year. Ubiparipovic added a goal three minutes later on a skillful, measured shot and Andrew Wiedeman capped the scoring with a goal in injury time. Peiser earned an NASL record 15th win (single season) for a goalkeeper.
Ottawa is on its way to the postseason sporting the league’s best defense (only 22 goals allowed through 29 games) and the top goalkeeper in Peiser (0.76 goals against average). Even more impressive is that Fury FC’s back line of Alves and Colin Falvey in the middle with Mason Trafford and Ryan Richter on the flanks has been together for 23 consecutive games, making it easy for head coach Marc Dos Santos to pencil in five of the eleven names in his starting lineup.
“It’s so important,” he said. (Ottawa fans have conflated the surnames of Alves and Falvey into Falves.) “Playing together we are getting better and better. We know how to play together. We are thinking with one mind and read each other very well. If one goes, one stays.
“This team is so much a defensive team. We do our jobs, but when it’s time to attack we can do that, too. It’s great that I scored the goal, it was good for the team.”
Asked if garnered any tips or pointers from his brother-in-law, Alves chuckled and said: “On vacation we play together, but he’s a different kind of player. I don’t compare to him.”
ROWDIES FACE MUST-WIN STRETCH OF GAMES IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE
Tampa Bay needs to win both of its remaining games to have a chance to reach The Championship
Saturday is Fan Appreciation Night at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg, Fla., and the fans and players for the Tampa Bay Rowdies would appreciate nothing less than a victory.
A Rowdies win, coupled with a loss by Fort Lauderdale at Indy Eleven (best case) or a Strikers draw (acceptable) would keep Tampa Bay alive in the race for the No. 4 seed in The Championship, the NASL’s four-team postseason tournament.
If Fort Lauderdale (7W-6D-5L, 27 points Fall; 10-8-10, 38 Combined) takes three points at Indy and the Rowdies (4-5-9, 17 Fall; 9-9-10, 36 Combined) tie or lose, it’s all over, not only for Tampa Bay but for Carolina (5-3-10, 18 Fall; 8-8-12, 32 Combined) and Atlanta (6-6-6, 24 Fall; 7-11-10, 32 Combined), two clubs clinging to long-, very long-shot hopes of making it to the postseason.
The Strikers have a 12-goal lead over the Rowdies in goal differential, the NASL’s first tiebreaker, meaning the Rowdies will probably have to top the Strikers on points at season’s end to advance to The Championship.
The Rowdies have not taken advantage of Fort Lauderdale’s recent up-and-down play. In its last four games, Tampa Bay has three draws and one loss while scoring only two goals.
Tampa Bay wraps up it season against Carolina and then at the New York Cosmos on Oct. 31, hoping the regular-season finale bears a chance to reach The Championship.
A Rowdies win, coupled with a loss by Fort Lauderdale at Indy Eleven (best case) or a Strikers draw (acceptable) would keep Tampa Bay alive in the race for the No. 4 seed in The Championship, the NASL’s four-team postseason tournament.
If Fort Lauderdale (7W-6D-5L, 27 points Fall; 10-8-10, 38 Combined) takes three points at Indy and the Rowdies (4-5-9, 17 Fall; 9-9-10, 36 Combined) tie or lose, it’s all over, not only for Tampa Bay but for Carolina (5-3-10, 18 Fall; 8-8-12, 32 Combined) and Atlanta (6-6-6, 24 Fall; 7-11-10, 32 Combined), two clubs clinging to long-, very long-shot hopes of making it to the postseason.
The Strikers have a 12-goal lead over the Rowdies in goal differential, the NASL’s first tiebreaker, meaning the Rowdies will probably have to top the Strikers on points at season’s end to advance to The Championship.
The Rowdies have not taken advantage of Fort Lauderdale’s recent up-and-down play. In its last four games, Tampa Bay has three draws and one loss while scoring only two goals.
Tampa Bay wraps up it season against Carolina and then at the New York Cosmos on Oct. 31, hoping the regular-season finale bears a chance to reach The Championship.
THROWBACK THURSDAY | TORONTO METROS-CROATIA WIN FIRST NASL TITLE BY CANADIAN SIDE IN 1976
The lone Canadian side competing in 1976, Toronto lifted the Soccer Bowl trophy at season's end
The Toronto Metros-Croatia had a roller coaster season in 1976 but, despite the dips, the Canadian side rose up to win its first NASL title, and the first championship by a team from Canada in the league’s Golden Era.
As the only Canadian team in the NASL that season, Toronto in one sense flew the flag for the country, but more so for a group of people from the Balkans.
“I suppose since we were the only Canadian team at the time soccer fans around Canada could kind of root for us,” Bob Iarusci told NASL.com. He played on the Metros-Croatia’s back line from 1976-77.
“The team represented a community, not only in Toronto, but a community that was looking for independence at the time – Croatia was at the time a state or province of Yugoslavia. One of the most important parts of having the Croatia hyphenated with the Metros and representing the city of Toronto was the identification and awareness of the plight of the Croatian people for independence.
“It didn’t strike us at the time, but we were definitely a vehicle of awareness for the eventual independence of a nation. It’s quite incredible actually.”
Not just in name, the team had a heavy Yugoslavian (Croatian) influence on the field, but also boasted one of the greatest players, Portuguese international Eusébio, who scored 16 goals in 21 matches in ’76.
“It was an incredible honor to play with arguably one of the best five players to kick the ball,” Iarusci said. “Eusébio was a phenomenal soccer player, but a great person, and it was an honor that year to be with him on a day-to-day basis on and off the field.”
Winning eight of the first 11 games, part of the Metros-Croatia’s up-and-down season eventually focused around Eusébio. Friction existed between head coach Ivan Markovic and the forward, leading to the Portuguese’s benching – a match Toronto lost, 3-0, to the New York Cosmos.
Two events, however, transpired to put the Metros-Croatia on the track toward an NASL Championship. Markovic was let go as coach and in came Domagoj Kapetanovic. He restored Eusébio to the lineup with the captain’s armband. The other was the addition of German midfielder Wolfgang Sunholz to an already talented squad.
“We wanted to see our best player happy,” Iarusci said. “This is a gentleman that can resolve a game for you, so when he is unhappy it causes problems in the fabric of the team. Once that was solved, we added the cherry to the parfait with a great midfielder like Wolfgang Sunholz.
“These things aren’t measurable, but they are intangibles that serve to make everyone a better player.”
Losing the next three games, Toronto eventually peaked at the right moment. Winning four in a row to close the regular season, Metros-Croatia headed into the postseason as a confident bunch, despite losing the team’s goalkeeper. Starter Paulo Cimpiel believed his contract didn’t extend to the playoffs. He eventually went home to Italy, and local Zeljko Bilecki took over in goal.
Toronto knocked out the Rochester Lancers, 2-1, in the first round of the playoffs and eliminated the Chicago Sting with a shootout win in the conference semifinals. Chicago had finished above Toronto in the Northern Division, although both sides had 15-9 records (there were no ties because the league used a shootout to resolve deadlocked matches).
In the conference championship, the Metros-Croatia came up against the defending champion Tampa Bay Rowdies, who won in the club’s inaugural year in ’75.
“We were very loose,” Iarusci said. “Funny enough, we didn’t realize if we won this game we would be headed directly to Seattle. Most of the guys didn’t even have a change of clothes.”
In the final, Toronto met the upstart Minnesota Kicks, in their inaugural season, and the club’s high-powered attack. Goals by Eusébio, Ivan Lukačević, and Ivair Ferreira gave Metros-Croatia the championship before 25,765 at Seattle’s Kingdome, which was demolished in March 2000.
“I think we were a better team,” Iarusci said. “We were a ball-control team. With Wolfgang in the middle – we already had skillful players – he became our fulcrum. It’s a funny game, sometimes it’s so difficult to play, but when everything clicks in, it’s quite a simple game.”
Iarusci went on to play for the Canadian national team and won three more titles with the Cosmos. But it was helping Toronto become the first Canadian side to win an NASL trophy that proved to be the seminal moment in his career.
“It was one of the highlights of my whole life, it was a magical moment,” he said. “It probably launched my career.”
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As the only Canadian team in the NASL that season, Toronto in one sense flew the flag for the country, but more so for a group of people from the Balkans.
“I suppose since we were the only Canadian team at the time soccer fans around Canada could kind of root for us,” Bob Iarusci told NASL.com. He played on the Metros-Croatia’s back line from 1976-77.
“The team represented a community, not only in Toronto, but a community that was looking for independence at the time – Croatia was at the time a state or province of Yugoslavia. One of the most important parts of having the Croatia hyphenated with the Metros and representing the city of Toronto was the identification and awareness of the plight of the Croatian people for independence.
“It didn’t strike us at the time, but we were definitely a vehicle of awareness for the eventual independence of a nation. It’s quite incredible actually.”
Not just in name, the team had a heavy Yugoslavian (Croatian) influence on the field, but also boasted one of the greatest players, Portuguese international Eusébio, who scored 16 goals in 21 matches in ’76.
“It was an incredible honor to play with arguably one of the best five players to kick the ball,” Iarusci said. “Eusébio was a phenomenal soccer player, but a great person, and it was an honor that year to be with him on a day-to-day basis on and off the field.”
Winning eight of the first 11 games, part of the Metros-Croatia’s up-and-down season eventually focused around Eusébio. Friction existed between head coach Ivan Markovic and the forward, leading to the Portuguese’s benching – a match Toronto lost, 3-0, to the New York Cosmos.
Two events, however, transpired to put the Metros-Croatia on the track toward an NASL Championship. Markovic was let go as coach and in came Domagoj Kapetanovic. He restored Eusébio to the lineup with the captain’s armband. The other was the addition of German midfielder Wolfgang Sunholz to an already talented squad.
“We wanted to see our best player happy,” Iarusci said. “This is a gentleman that can resolve a game for you, so when he is unhappy it causes problems in the fabric of the team. Once that was solved, we added the cherry to the parfait with a great midfielder like Wolfgang Sunholz.
“These things aren’t measurable, but they are intangibles that serve to make everyone a better player.”
Losing the next three games, Toronto eventually peaked at the right moment. Winning four in a row to close the regular season, Metros-Croatia headed into the postseason as a confident bunch, despite losing the team’s goalkeeper. Starter Paulo Cimpiel believed his contract didn’t extend to the playoffs. He eventually went home to Italy, and local Zeljko Bilecki took over in goal.
Toronto knocked out the Rochester Lancers, 2-1, in the first round of the playoffs and eliminated the Chicago Sting with a shootout win in the conference semifinals. Chicago had finished above Toronto in the Northern Division, although both sides had 15-9 records (there were no ties because the league used a shootout to resolve deadlocked matches).
In the conference championship, the Metros-Croatia came up against the defending champion Tampa Bay Rowdies, who won in the club’s inaugural year in ’75.
“We were very loose,” Iarusci said. “Funny enough, we didn’t realize if we won this game we would be headed directly to Seattle. Most of the guys didn’t even have a change of clothes.”
In the final, Toronto met the upstart Minnesota Kicks, in their inaugural season, and the club’s high-powered attack. Goals by Eusébio, Ivan Lukačević, and Ivair Ferreira gave Metros-Croatia the championship before 25,765 at Seattle’s Kingdome, which was demolished in March 2000.“I think we were a better team,” Iarusci said. “We were a ball-control team. With Wolfgang in the middle – we already had skillful players – he became our fulcrum. It’s a funny game, sometimes it’s so difficult to play, but when everything clicks in, it’s quite a simple game.”
Iarusci went on to play for the Canadian national team and won three more titles with the Cosmos. But it was helping Toronto become the first Canadian side to win an NASL trophy that proved to be the seminal moment in his career.
“It was one of the highlights of my whole life, it was a magical moment,” he said. “It probably launched my career.”
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STANDINGS
| P | Team | Pld | Pts |
| 1 | Ottawa Fury FC | 19 | 44 |
| 2 | Minnesota United FC | 18 | 35 |
| 3 | New York Cosmos | 18 | 30 |
| 4 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | 18 | 27 |
| 5 | FC Edmonton | 19 | 25 |
| 6 | Atlanta Silverbacks | 18 | 24 |
| 7 | San Antonio Scorpions | 18 | 18 |
| 8 | Carolina RailHawks | 18 | 18 |
| 9 | Jacksonville Armada FC | 18 | 18 |
| 10 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 18 | 17 |
| 11 | Indy Eleven | 18 | 17 |
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