Men’s Soccer: A Hard Fight

Stingers Come From Behind to Stun the Montreal Carabins 2-1 in Home-Opener

SportsAlexander Perez — Published September 10, 2016

The Stingers bounced back Friday night after losing to rivals the McGill Redmen as they showed their gritty side in a 2-1 comeback win to seal in their home-opener at Concordia Stadium.

“It was rough, hard fight,” said Stingers captain Oliviers George. “Game plan was to outwork them. Our coach told us from the start that honestly.”

Coming back from a one goal deficit doesn’t seem like a difficult task, but with the performance the Carabins displayed, it seemed like a mountain to climb for the Stingers.

The Carabins stamped their mark on the game, opening the scoring in the first half with a goal from forward Hugo Chambons. But it was midfielder Hicham Manaa who tormented the Stingers defence en route to the goal. Manaa’s quality and ability to stretch the Stingers defence on the right hand side posed a major attacking threat for the Carabins.

Overall the Carabins displayed a superior performance over the Stingers. The Carabins pace on and off the ball thwarted any chance for the Stingers to make an impression on the game, giving little room to generate an attacking threat.

The Stingers were caught in possession on a few occasions, and found themselves hesitant on the ball at times. It was especially a busy night for the Stinger defence as they stood firm throughout the 90 minutes.

The Stingers gave glimpses of their quality, but had difficulty being consistent through the course of the game.

“I think that comes down to our mental attitude and making sure we are always switched on for 90 minutes,” said Stingers head coach Greg Sutton. “I think when we are switched on for 90 minutes and we’re organized the right way then we can be a handful.”

Come half time, the Stingers knew if they stuck to the plan and worked harder, they could achieve the results they wanted.

Despite a dominant performance by the Carabins, the Stingers took their opportunities in stride. The Stingers would take advantage of their counter attack with a goal courtesy of Stingers forward, Gabriel Quinn.

“[Sutton] repeated to us at the half time, that we just need to put in the work, that if we do we’re gonna score. We did.”

The Stingers would follow up with a dramatic 90th minute winner from Mustapha Medouni to seal the deal.

It’s a cliche that hard work beats talent, but the Stingers did just that over their opposition.

“I think in the second half we showed some character in coming back, and that’s something I’m proud to see,” said Sutton. “It’s a great start for us at home, something that was a challenge and we knew that going into it, but we also knew that we were capable of it. Hopefully this is something to start something good.”

The Stingers will look to seal another win at home against Université du Québec à Trois Rivières next Friday, Sept 16.