Carabins 3, Stingers 1: Stingers fall at the hands of the Carabins
Men’s soccer team loses semifinal at CEPSUM
Disclaimer: Colin van den Ameele is a member of the Concordia Stingers men’s soccer reserve team. He is not an official member of the men’s soccer team and he did not play in this game.
The Concordia Stingers men’s soccer team lost in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) semifinal against the Université de Montréal Carabins, at CEPSUM on Oct. 25. By the end of the game, the scoreboard read 3-1 for the Carabins, after the Stingers took the lead early in the first half.
The game itself was heavily contested, with the Stingers opening the scoring after only 10 minutes of play. It was a delicately delivered set piece by captain Lundon Durand Browne that was converted by defender Zackiel Brault.
The Carabins largely controlled the remainder of the first half as forward Julien Bruce scored a long-distance shot that was deflected off defender Olivier Langué Dubé.
In the second half, the Carabins added two more coming off a freekick and a penalty to see out the game. Stingers rookie forward Obeng Tabi received a straight red card for his challenge in the box which led to the penalty.
“I am very happy because it was the first time that I’ve experienced something like this,” Tabi said. “I’m very happy the guys gave their 100 per cent, but it wasn’t our game today.”
Despite the result, Tabi looked back on a good season.
“Honestly we had a good season. I was really happy with the guys,” Tabi said. “We gave it our all till the end and we managed to qualify, but we fell in the semifinal. But that's alright, next year we’ll try again.”
The Stingers had to face the top-seeded Carabins because of their fourth-place finish during the regular season. They found themselves near the top of the league six games into the season. However, they went on an unfortunate slide down the table, losing five of their last six regular season games.
Stingers head coach Kouyabe Ignegongba was not disappointed in his team’s season.
“I would like to really, really commend the guys,” Ignegongba said. “It’s been an honour and a privilege this season to work with them, and guess what, we’ll keep building on this and we’ll be back next season bigger and stronger, for sure.”
For Stingers players such as goalkeeper Tony Awad, Adrien Belliard, Jordy Kerlegrand and others, this was their last game with the team.
“I think we played our hearts out like we always do, and I'm very proud of the boys,” Awad said. “And I’m happy to at least finish my time at Concordia with guys that are willing to fight and die on the field.”
Awad went on to say that the team “meant everything” to him.
Ignegongba also had some high praise for his graduating players.
“Well they helped build this [...] but the idea is to keep going forward and keep building all this,” Ignegongba said. “They will be in the stands, like we had a few that graduated before and our community keeps getting bigger and bigger [...] and as a program, that speaks volumes to how far we’ve come over the past few years.”
The Carabins will move on to face the McGill Redbirds in the RSEQ final on Friday, Nov. 1 at CEPSUM.
