Women’s soccer: Stingers Fall 2-1 to UQAM Citadins

Concordia Fails to Breach UQAM’s Defence After Slow Start

SportsSolène Jonveaux — Published September 26, 2016

“It’s disappointing,” said Stingers captain Alyssa Ruscio. “Our goal was to keep a zero to zero score as long as possible and we didn’t.”

A few minutes after kick-off, Citadins midfielder Marie-Yasmine Alidou D’Anjou shot a free kick directly into the goal frame. Concordia then conceded a second goal on a corner kick, courtesy of forward Chloé Malette.

“I felt we were a lot more panicky than usual,” said Ruscio. “We did not really play ball to feet, which is more our strength.”

The Citadins were reactive during the first 45 minutes giving few opportunities to the Stingers. Concordia managed to come back after half-time, being more offensive and maintaining ball possession.

“I found we were very competitive in the second half,” said Concordia head coach Jorge Sanchez. “We had two chances that should have been goals, we deserved more than what we got here.“

Concordia midfielder Laura Lamontagne gave the team a much-needed boost for the rest of the game with her goal that cut the UQAM’s lead to one. Coming back from a difficult start, the team pushed the ball forward but their biggest opportunity turned out to be a goal that was called offside.

“When we get chances, we have to put them away,” said Sanchez. “We can practice it but it’s about having a killer instinct, they had it and we didn’t.”

The Stingers maintained possession for most of the second half but UQAM defended well enough to keep their lead and ultimately win the game 2-1.

“In certain crucial moments they were a little bit better and that’s what made the difference,” said Sanchez.

Despite the loss, Sanchez said he is still optimistic about the rest of the season. With nine games left, getting into the Réseau de Sport Étudiant du Québec playoffs remains a possibility—as long as the team manages to get 13 more points.

“There’s points on the table,” said Sanchez. “The test is going to be: can we go steal the points that somebody else didn’t get, like steal a tie against Laval.”

In their next matchup, the Stingers will host the Laval Rouge et Or on September 30 at 8:30 p.m.

“Laval is in the top teams so from there you want to keep a tie as long as possible,” said Ruscio. “But our mindset it to go get three points.”