Blainville, Quebec, Canada (May 15, 2019) — York 9 played in a hard fought away leg of the Canadian Championship against A.S. Blainville. The match ended 0-0 with the away leg set for Wednesday.
York 9 FC began their Canadian Championship journey with an away leg tie against the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec (PLSQ) side A.S Blainville. This was an interesting matchup. It’s the first time that fans have been able to watch a Canadian Premier League side face a team outside the league.
Canadian Championship: York 9 and Blainville play to Scoreless Draw
This game was set up as a tough task. Blainville are a top PLSQ club with players who have both MLS and Canadian Championship experience.
York 9’s Attack
The games play was underwhelming compared to the excitement of the night. York 9 dominated possession for most of the game. However, had difficulty with accurate passing, hitting long balls to open areas with no players around. When they did get into the final third of the pitch, the passes missed their intended target. This meant not creating enough solid chances. The best chances came in the first half. A clearance off the line from Blainville helped secured the draw for York 9. Tactically, York have preferred a counter attacking style of play from their preferred 3-5-2 formation, which may have been a reason they had difficulty trying to play a possession based attack.
Blainville’s defense
Blainville sat back at home and looked to counter against York9. Meanwhile, Blainville chose not to press inside York’s half. However, as soon as York entered their half they attacked and put pressure on the York players, which caused a lot of the wayward passing. On top of this spacing was an issue. It seemed all the York players were gravitating toward the ball and didn’t allow for the space to break the pressing of Blainville. Meanwhile, this allowed Blainville to obtain the defensive presence to seal the draw.
Where is Jimmy?
Meanwhile, the talk before the game centered on the fact that the York 9 FC head coach Jimmy Brennan was not in attendance. It was found out after the game that he was in fact in Europe completing a coaching course to get his coaching badges as reported by Kevin Laramee on The Two Solitudes Podcast. The game was managed effectively by assistant manager Carmine Isacco who has 17 years of head coaching experience.
What’s Next?
York 9’s next match will be another away game against Pacific FC. The Vancouver Island outfit has not experienced the most successful start to the spring season. Currently, they have four points from four games. Now, they are coming off a loss to Cavalry FC in the Canadian Championship.
