The Gazette: Canadian teen makes an Impact

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Canadian teen makes an Impact

Matondo sticks out in exhibition. A-league team has little trouble winning as it prepares for next week's opener

PAT HICKEY
The Gazette

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Impact coach Bob Lilley says his team is on the right track as it prepares for its A-League opener, April 26 in Charleston.

"We're hoping to have a dynamic team and we're looking better with each game," Lilley said last night after the Impact posted a 4-0 exhibition win over the Ottawa Wizards of the Canadian Professional Soccer League.

"I thought we put a lot of pressure on them tonight and the only problem we had was finishing," said Lilley. "We could have had a few more goals."

The Impact will get their toughest exhibition test Sunday at the Sportplexe Catalogna in Lachine when they face Syracuse, an expansion franchise in the A-League, before they venture to South Carolina for the season-opener.

"It's always tough to start the season against Charleston because they have the advantage of getting an earlier start and it can be warm there at this time time of year," Lilley said. "We might not be able to put the fullcourt press on them, but we have a pretty demanding program and we use lots of players, so we should be okay."

The exhibition games offer veteran players a chance to hone their skills, but Lilley is also assessing the new blood and one eye-catcher last night was 18-year-old Sita-Taty Matondo. He set up a goal by Zé Roberto and also had several scoring chances of his own after coming off the bench in the second half.

"We haven't signed him yet, but there's a very good chance we will and he'll be playing a lot," Lilley said of Matondo, who has seen action with the Canadian under-20 squad and is also in the pool of players for the Canadian team hoping to qualify for the 2004 Olympics.

"Taty has a lot of talent and the way we play, we use a lot of players," explained Lilley. "Age isn't a problem for us. We had Jason Ditullio with us as an 18-year-old last season and David Fronimadis was 19 and they both started games for us."

Veteran Mauro Biello opened the scoring for the Impact last night when he scored on a penalty kick in the 14th minute. Biello was in the open on the left side when he was fouled from behind by Ottawa fullback Robbie Hart.

Eddy Sebrango made it 2-0 in the 39th minute when he converted a crossing pass from Fronimadis.

Patrick Leduc set up Mark Rowland to make it 3-0 in the 51st minute while Roberto completed the scoring in the 71st minute.

Veteran Greg Sutton played in goal for the first half and had a rather easy time of it. Michael Ueltschey and Andrew Olivieri shared the duties in the second half, with Ueltschey facing the tougher chances.

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