Men’s Soccer: Stingers Get a Big Draw at UQAM
Concordia Keeps Third Place After Heated Contest With Citadins
_900_507_90.jpg)
It might have been just a 0-0 draw but this was quite the statement game for the Concordia Stingers.
The men’s soccer team managed to hold up the UQAM Citadins at Stade Saputo’s turf field on Sunday afternoon.
“This is a team that got ranked nationally in the top five constantly so it’s good,” said Stingers head coach Greg Sutton. “It’s where we want to be. We know we can continue to improve in certain areas and that’s the goal.”
With the draw, the Maroon and Gold find themselves at the third spot in the Réseau de Sport Étudiant du Quebec rankings with a 2-2-1 record and seven points. The Citadins find themselves one spot below in fourth place with six points, but with one game in hand.
“It was a really good effort from the guys,” said defender Amadou Lam. “A tie away from home is perfect and I think it’s a pretty good statement.”
Keeping up with the 2015 RSEQ champions was a big feat for the Stingers. Keeping a clean sheet through the whole weekend—which included a 6-0 win against Université de Sherbrooke—was even better for Sutton.
“That was important for us to be able to start limiting our goals against because we know we could do better in that area,” said Sutton. “It’s something that you have got to be able to do if you want to be successful in this league.”
The final few minutes of the game saw the two teams getting more and more heated towards each other. Both the Stingers and Citadins tried to get the go-ahead goal and heavy challenges ensued.
A late challenge saw Stingers defender Antonio Burzzese get a second yellow card, throwing him out of the game. Burzzese is the third Concordia player to receive a red card in the last three games. He joins the likes of Brandon Anderson and Abdalla Medouni. The Citadins supporters made their voices heard about this from the stands.
When the final whistle blew, the tension in the air did not have enough time to settle down. With the two teams arguing at each other and the referee, a few pushes and shoves were seen from the stands. If there was no animosity between Concordia and UQAM before, fans witnessed the start of a rivalry.
“It’s just two teams that are really competitive and they expect to win,” said Sutton. “We’ve got to be smart. These are times when you have to keep your emotions in check because you don’t want to do anything stupid and cost yourself anything down the line.”
“The Guys are working so harder so they take pride in what they do,” said Lam. “It’s normal that you have thing kind of things. Stuff happens you know.”
The Stingers will have a chance to jump to second place in the RSEQ standings as they will host the Université Laval Rouge et Or on Sept. 30.
_600_375_90_s_c1.jpg)
