Looking to improve upon their preseason success, McGill entered Molson Stadium on Thursday night for their season opener against the UQAM Citadins. Ultimately, the Redmen’s confidence led them to a victory, coming away with a pleasing 1-0 result. Although this was not a dominating performance on the scoreline, McGill (1-1-0) put forth a strong, team-oriented effort throughout. The match—which was nothing more than an ice-breaker for the stronger Redmen side—was marked by the possessive style of play preached by new Head Coach Jose Valdes.
This mentality was evident in post-game talks with Valdes. “[Getting] the [win] is our objective and doing it while playing a possession style of soccer is in our philosophy. We are implementing a different style of play… and win[ning] with it is very encouraging for the team,” he said.
The first half in particular, showed the theory in practice—long stretches of play unfolding with the Citadins (0-1-1) unable to get any touches on the ball, as the Redmen calmly controlled the tempo, attempting to pierce UQAM’s defences.
Finally, this patience was rewarded and the deadlock was broken in the 40th minute of play, thanks to the targeted strike by freshman Henri Ashe-Taylor. Ashe-Taylor broke away from his marker in the midfield and used the space to unleash an unlikely effort from far outside the penalty area. Despite the distance, it was well struck; and the UQAM keeper, Gabard Fénelon, bobbled it backwards into the bottom left corner of his net.
In the end, this was all the offensive production the Redmen needed to squeak through with the desired result and start off the season with a bang. The rest was left up to strong defensive performances, headlined by Alexis Pradie, and a few crucial saves by McGill’s keeper Max Leblond, including a necessary one off a UQAM corner in injury time.
“For this system to work, all the players need to stay involved,” Valdes added. “As soon as one element is missing, we notice a weakness in the system and then we cannot succeed. The team did a good job working together and following the game plan.”
Given that it’s still early in the season, it is encouraging to see the Redmen working so well together going forward. However, McGill may need to establish a greater goal tally in their upcoming matches against more challenging foes, should the team wish to return to the CIS Championship. It is still early however, and the starting duo up front, Sebastion Munro and Marc Palaci-Olgun, should be expected to provide more offensive chances as the season progresses.
In other play over the weekend, the Redmen travelled north to take on rivals Laval, but fell short 1-0. McGill journeys across town to take on Concordia on Sept. 14.
