Heroes with a zero
Aviators can't score, but draw comes while playing a man short much of game
By SCOTT ZERR -- Edmonton Sun
The wait for a win continues.
This time, though, the Edmonton Aviators couldn't be faulted for relying on their defence to preserve a 0-0 OT draw with the Minnesota Thunder.
With midfielder Jaime Lopresti ejected for a red-card foul in the 35th minute, the Aviators went the rest of the way focused on not giving anything up, rather than creating any attack.
So a celebration of a very first A-League victory for the Aviators (0-1-4) remains on ice.
"The minute you go to 10 men, that changes everything," said Aviators head coach Ross Ongaro.
"If you keep going forward with 10 men, you're going to give up two, three goals and Minnesota is not a team you want to give up counter-attacks to. I'm proud of what we did.
"I know it's a tie, but we're not getting beat and that's a good sign because we're definitely battling. Minnesota's a very good team and we had some concerns with 11 men, never mind playing with 10."
The Aviators specifically played their season-opening five-game road trip with a defence-first philosophy. It was a game plan they'd hoped to dump in order to dazzle a home crowd but turned out to be a valuable reminder against the Thunder (3-1-3).
"Luckily we've been playing defence for awhile - helps out and we knew what to do,"said Aviators defender Liam DeSilva. "We have to be happy with that result. We did our job and happy we did that with 10 men. It's tough to do that."
A SLIDING TACKLE
Lopresti got tossed by referee Gerry Proctor for a sliding tackle at midfield on Thunder striker John Menyongar. It was merely the start of a dubious performance by Proctor. Questionable calls were littered throughout the game - things getting so outrageous that in extra time, Aviators trainer Dwayne Laing was given the heave-ho.
Laing believed he'd been allowed onto the field by the sideline official to tend to 'keeper Jose Luis Campi, but Proctor red-carded him.
"I've seen him referee games before and he was quite good. But I'm not sure what was wrong with him today," said Aviators veteran Rick Titus. "He was uncharacteristically bad. I was very disappointed with his refereeing. Maybe it was an off day."
Campi again proved to be the Aviators' best player, coming up huge late in the first half when he came racing off his line to challenge Zafer Kilickan and making a terrific arm save.
A LUNGING SAVE
The Argentinian 'keeper kept his second shutout of the season intact with a lunging save early in the second half.
"He knows exactly where to be when the shot's been taken and he's real cool under pressure," said Titus. "As long as he can keep us in there, we've got the players to play some soccer eventually. So we'll be happy with that."
With Campi, who notched six saves, shoring up the back end, the Aviators managed a couple of brief flurries on offence and even mustered up the best chance in overtime when Paul Dhaliwal's cross found Sean Fraser darting in, but his wicked blast sailed just over the bar.
FLIGHT PLAN: Campi, DeSilva and Nik Vignjevic were all assessed yellow cards ... Edmonton defender Chris Devlin checked in during the second half after working an all-night shift at the University of Alberta hospital ... The Aviators play the first half of Thursday's doubleheader at 6 p.m. against the Seattle Sounders.
