TORONTO — The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men's soccer team made a statement in their home opener with a 4-0 victory over the visiting Trent Excalibur on Sunday afternoon at Downsview Park.
It took just nine minutes for the Bold to establish a lead they would never relinquish — thanks to what was a beautiful finish from Zakaria Abdi. Abidi, who scored eight goals during 12 games last season, registered his first of 2022.
The Bold would go on to add two more tallies in the match's opening 45 minutes and went into half with a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from
Kai Martin and
Bilal Reslan, which was the freshman's first-career goal as a member of the Bold.
TMU wasn't done in the second half, as Sean Fafinski delivered a bending ball off a free kick just outside the 18-yard box, which ricocheted off the post, then off the Trent goalkeeper to extend the lead to 4-0 — a scoreline that would stand as the final.
"He is amazing at that," said Bold midfielder Faisal Ghaffur, when asked about Fafinski's set piece finish. "It was a great finish."
After a 2-1 loss in their season-opener against the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks, the Bold rebounded in dominant fashion and improved their record to 1-1-0.
"It was a pretty good performance from the team," said Ghaffur. "Obviously it was a tough loss on Thursday, but it was good to be back home. We had a lot of support from the crowd and that helped a lot. I thought we did pretty well — maintaining the ball and playing the way we want to play."
"I thought our guys got the job done and played the right way — no matter the score or the opponent," said Bold head coach Filip Prostran. "I liked the group's focus and their business-like mentality."
Despite the loss in their season opener, which was the program's first time not picking up three points in their first game since 2013, Prostran is looking forward to seeing his team face adversity early in the season.
"There's been so many years where we finished first and done so well — then come playoffs we haven't come across that hardship or that loss. It's good to have those bumps along the road early and I'm hoping we have some more along the way where it'll really help us grow," said Prostran.
With Ali Ghazanfari out of the starting 11, third-year keeper Yoel Kebreab earned the start and recorded a clean sheet for the Bold in what was his first start since Sept. 8, 2019.
"It's really nice. He's such a great leader on our team, but also just a wicked guy and a great leader on our team. So I'm really happy that he could share some of those moments with the team and keep the victory and clean sheet," said Prostran.
Kebreab led TMU to a win over a Trent side that was fresh off a 1-1 draw with the Toronto Varsity Blues on Saturday. The Excalibur were unable to record a point on Sunday in the second half of their weekend back-to-back, as they fell to 0-3-2 in 2022.
"They're a really strong, competitive team and you could see that the game yesterday really wore them out today. It's really hard to play back-to-back, especially when your opponent doesn't," said Prostran.
The Bold will look to continue their winning ways next Saturday afternoon, as they play host to the visiting Carleton Ravens — who were ranked No. 3 in the latest U SPORTS Top 10. Kick off is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. at Downsview Park.
"We've had some incredible battles (against Carleton) over the years — regular season and playoffs — as two nationally ranked teams over the past decade. We've had incredible history and games. Those are my favourite games (against teams like) Carleton and York — ones where you're really tested and the game is close. It's high level. High level coaching and high level players. I got a lot of respect for Casey, his staff and his team, so yeah we're really looking forward to it. Carleton is always tough," said Prostran.
"That's always a good battle. It's going to be good. We're going to have the support from our crowd and hopefully that will make the difference. We always play pretty well at home," said Ghaffur.
The Bold will conclude next weekend's schedule with a rematch against Ontario Tech at Downsview Park, with kick off also scheduled for 3:15 p.m. All the action can be seen on OUA.tv.
