Concordia 3, Bishop’s 0: Concordia’s Women’s Soccer Put on Impressive Showing

Lots of Pressure and Excellent Midfield Play Saw the Stingers Outclass Their Opponents

SportsElias Grigoriadis — Published October 2, 2017

Sunday afternoon’s win at Concordia Stadium was their first three-goal effort of the season, and more importantly, helped them move up in the standings.

An early goal never hurts a team’s chances. Two minutes in, midfielder Claudia Asselin did just that when she found herself alone in front the opposing goal and made no mistake.

“We really took the game to them early and it clearly paid off. We pressed them hard all game and were rewarded for the work we put in,” said Asselin. “The formation change really played an important part in the outcome and we all really fit into the system well.”

The Stingers debuted a new formation that they haven’t practiced much, but proved to be successful. By stacking the midfield with five players instead of the usual three, Concordia was able to win back possession almost instantly and counter the Gaiters’ very defensive, pressure-free formation.

Head coach Jorge Sanchez’s boldness in implementing the new tactical approach and the team’s proper execution were instrumental in the win.

“We had played it once in awhile if the game demanded it, but we never played a full 90 minutes like that,” said Sanchez. “We were able to set the tone early and the rest was just maintaining pressure and holding them back which our defense did remarkably.”

The gamble clearly payed off as Asselin, one of the two full-backs who pushed up, put in an impressive performance on both sides of the ball.

The back three shut down the opposition, making for a relatively straightforward outing for goalkeeper Gabriela Angoso-Jimenez who kept a clean sheet against the three shots she faced.

One of the standout performers for the Stingers was center-back Imane Chebel who was confident in possession and didn’t give the Gaiters’ forwards an inch of space to work with.

“There’s always more pressure when you switch from five defenders to three but we communicated well and didn’t panic and we just focused on making no mistakes,” said Chebel. “We stayed compact and weren’t afraid to use Gabriela [Angoso-Jiminez] since they gave us so much time. That took a lot of pressure off of us.”

There were loads more chances that the Stingers could’ve put away late in the game, missing three breakaways which is still something that needs to be addressed, given how important goal differential is in the standings.

This result saw the Stingers fly up to fourth place in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec rankings, just two points behind their rivals, the McGill Martlets. Losses for Sherbrooke as well as Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières means that they now have sole possession of fourth place. All three aforementioned teams still left to play each other once before the season ends.

With the last five games of the season all being must-wins for the Stingers, they’ll be looking to get a winning streak going when they hit the road for their next game against the Université du Québec à Montréal Citadins on Friday, Oct. 13.