Algonquin Thunder Soccer Captain, Mike Gagliano, has redemption on his mind after one year ago his Thunder team lost a heartbreaking National Championship final. This year he and his teammates are back and ready to challenge for the national title they held two years ago.

A fourth year sweeper, Mike has found his niche on the soccer field with a team that has rewritten the OCAA history books. In his OCAA career to date, he has twice been named an All-Canadian, collected four provincial championship titles and has two national championship silver medals to compliment his National Championship gold. The season may be winding down, but the road to redemption still has one final mile to go.

Follow the team from the perspective of their captain while they make another championship run.

Algonquin Thunder – Road to Redemption

Saturday, November 1st

With our flight scheduled to leave in only a few days the team is getting restless. Being that many of us have been there (to nationals) before, everyone is looking forward to the week ahead to get away from school and assignments and focus on our one true passion; soccer.

Having lost last year in the finals (in penalties), there is a strong drive to get back to the final. The guys are really loose and ready to play. Our training sessions have been getting more and more intense as we near the tournament. The good thing about our team is that most of us in this locker room have won a national title and we know what it takes to win again. The commitment to training and team play is strong and we’re looking forward to playing next week.

Within the team is a deep and rich history, something that gets passed on from year to year. As new players come in, they get embedded with the traditions that have been instilled by past players and coaches. Superstitions have also snuck their way into the dressing room/onto the pitch with us. When things are going right, the guys don’t want to change the warm-ups, the stretches, their partners or even uniforms (colours).

For the Algonquin Thunder Men’s soccer team, the biggest and longest serving tradition is that of “knocking boots”. Each player from the starting eleven taps one another’s “boots” with their own. It is an important part of the pre-game preparation. This is something we will do before every game right before the whistle.

Monday is fast approaching; BC, here we come.

Monday, November 3rd

Today we arrived in Kamloops. It’s a pretty small town, not too much to do (so far from what we’ve seen). It’s also different staying in a different hotel than the rest of the tournament teams. The guys are using this day to relax and explore the city. The time difference is already playing a toll as it is still afternoon but it feels like evening. The plan for the week has been laid out and we now know what we have to get through. Tomorrow is the first official day of the National Championships with our first training session at 1 pm and then with the awards banquet tomorrow night.

Tonight, we are going to soak in the atmosphere and just get comfortable by spending time at the pool/hot tub, and we will likely get a friendly game of poker going as well. On or off the field, we’re a very competitive team. Nobody wants to lose anything we do.

Finally, like any true sports fanatic will be doing, it’s time to watch Monday Night Football.

Tuesday, November 4th

Today was the official kick off of the Nationals Championships. The morning went by rather slow as it was a long one with everyone waking up early due to the time difference. You know there’s something wrong when your coach wakes up at 4 am and starts pumping soccer balls in the washroom, crazy...

His early morning hardwork however proved to be beneficial for the training session we had at 1 pm. Not touching a ball for nearly 4 days meant the guys were itching to get their touches in. Lots of possession and touches on the ball were on the order of events for our practice time. The field complex is outstanding and it’s a very inviting environment.

Over the past two days, we were able to check out the pool area which has a pool (obviously), a hot tub, and more importantly a water slide. It would’ve been nice to know the first time that there is a button which turns the water on. Most of the team went down and ruined their backs on the hard plastic, including the coaches (I think they got it the worst). Once we finally figured out the trick, the waterslide presented many hours of fun. A special mention must go out to Loui Legakis (former all-canadian and OCAA Athlete of the year), as today I was able to teach him how to swim. Congrats Lou.

Finally, the evening ended off with the All-Canadian Banquet. With all the teams there you could feel the tension in the room. I can’t say the food at the banquet was the best I have ever eaten. After the dinner they had the presentations of the All-Canadians, the Coach of the Year and the Player of the Year awards. Finally, the story of the night, my boy Will Beaugé was named CCAA Player of the Year. Will was the first ever representative from Algonquin College to win CCAA Player of the Year.

Hopefully this is the first of many awards for Algonquin this week....

Wednesday, November 5th

The day started off with a team breakfast in the hotel. The guys were very anxious but it was still a loose atmosphere. The rest of the morning was dedicated to watching Champions League, Manchester United vs. Celtic. Some of us were even able to get our hands on a mini ball and have a little fun in the hallway.

Getting to the field, the guys were excited, we started kicking the ball around just juggling and having fun, but the focus was starting to set in. The women’s game before us had gone into extra time and so our game was delayed and our warm-up seemed to last forever. When the game finally started we had come out very flat and seemed to be playing on nerves. They ended up scoring in the 6th minute on a free kick from the top of the box. The morale of the team wasn’t down but we were still playing on nerves. We never doubted each other though. They had a few more chances and then we started to settle down. This was the first time this year that we have gone into half being down 1-0. It presented a challenge to us. That was likely the worst 45 minutes our team had played all year.

At the start of the second half we came out flying. The pressure was on them and they were struggling to deal with it. We were playing a high press and we had maintained possession of the ball. You could feel something coming. Then somewhere around the 60th minute we went down a man when Edgar Soglo took his second yellow of the game. This was to present a challenge to us. A few minutes later we earned a free kick at the top of the box and Loui Legakis promptly buried it side netting, silencing the home crowd. Within two minutes of the goal, recent substitute Bruno Motta made his mark on the game and scored a cracker from 30 yards on the half volley.

With the game continuing and the intensity rising we were handed a further obstacle. Stephane Lemay was given a straight red card for a seemingly innocent play. In my opinion it was very questionable. This put us down to nine men playing against eleven with about 20 minutes remaining. The rest of the game we attempted to make a shell and defend whatever TRU was throwing at us. We were successful and we went on to win the game, down two men, 2-1 in regular time. CCAA Player of the Year, Will Beaugé, was named Algonquin’s player of the game. Needless to say there was a big celebration on the pitch but we all know that we need to be better and we need to be more disciplined.

Edwin Moran came in to the game at the 65 minute mark. Cool.

This game was made harder than it was, no thanks to the refereeing. We were given two very questionable red cards, and it forced us to dig deep and find out what kind of character our team had. I, for one, was very impressed with the response our team had, and how we played for each other.

That night we went for a team dinner, and a special mention must go out to Michael Tjareira, who enjoyed his first ever slide down a waterslide. Apparently he says there are many more to come...

Thursday, November 6th

Today was a very relaxed day. Everyone used today to relax and recover their knocks from the game on Wednesday. Icing and stretching in between games of poker and champions league re-runs. The lead up to the women’s game seemed to last an eternity. We wanted to get out of the hotel room.

Yesterday the girls did an OUTSTANDING job cheering us on during our game and they gave us a huge lift to help us come back to beat TRU. We returned the favour today giving them some provincial support. We were able to put together some sick cheers in the process and we hope we were able to provide the girls with a lift. They battled hard and were very unfortunate to have lost the game. They played very well and left everything on the field. The guys would like to congratulate Humber on a very well played game.

After the game we stayed to watch a bit of the TRU and Concordia game. We didn’t stay very long and then afterwards headed out for a team dinner. It was good for the guys to be together the day before a big game. We had told the waitress that it was our coach’s birthday, so after dinner they brought him a cake and sang happy birthday. The highlight of the trip, so far, came after that. No one had seen it coming, but the waitress had come running around the table with a plate full of whip cream and pied Coach Caruso in the face. Covered in whip cream he turned around and jokingly chased the waitress. The team would like to congratulate Coach Caruso on turning 23!

By the end of the night we were all tired and some of us chose to go back to the room and play Nintendo Wii. There were a few intense games of Tennis and Mario Kart and then we ended with a couple of rounds of boxing. Needless to say I am the greatest Wii player of all time.

Friday, November 7th

Today started with the usual breakfast. We went to breakfast with our game faces already on. Breakfast is a good place for the guys to gather and talk about anything, including soccer. Clearly the talk of the morning was the big game to come that evening. Strategy, formations and just simple ball movement was being discussed. We were clearly going to be well prepared.

The day went on with the guys just lounging around, while updates were being sent to us from the Humber girl’s game. They fared better in this one according to those who watched and they got a result they deserved, beating MacEwan College from Alberta 3-1. Congratulations to the girl’s team on a big win. They will be battling FX-Garneau from Quebec on Saturday at 10 am for the bronze. Good luck girls.

In between naps, talks video games and updates, the coaches prepped us on the game in small groups. Talking about the game really helped get us more focused on the task at hand. To skew from the jokes and finally say something positive about the coaches this week, they've done a very good job preparing us for what was to come in all of the games we've played.

Once we arrived at the pitch, everyone was quiet and in their own zone. Focused. The warm up was brilliant and the guys were flying from the beginning. With the experience on this team, everyone knew what was at stake in this game and we really came to play. In the 13th minute Will Beaugé netted the first goal of the game off a scramble in the box. We dominated play and held the majority of possession. Taking the game to them, Perry Legakis (eventual player of the game) rippled the old onion bag in the 33rd minute on a half volley screamer from 25 yards. We went into the half up 2-0.

Coming out for the second half, nothing had changed. We were still controlling the play and forcing them to play balls they were not comfortable with. Our back line was standing tall and Concordia was struggling to find ways to break our team down. In the 51st minute, Perry Legakis scored another highlight reel goal on a great header just under the bar off a corner. Perry's celebration was so far the best of the tournament. He stopped at a line on the field and went down as he was getting ready to run the 100 m sprint, and he took off. Well done Ta.

The rest of the game was under control as all they could do was ping balls into our defenders, which made life easy on us. As mentioned, Perry Legakis was named the Algonquin Thunder Player of the Game. I would like to say though, the captains pick for player of the game has to go to Erichsen Bailey for his solid play in the middle of the park. Brilliant Bailey. We would also like to commend the Humber Hawks women's team on their unbelievable support once again. They really do act like a 12th man. Thanks
ladies!

Finally, when we got back we took a dip in the hot tub (some down the water slide) in attempt to rejuvenate ourselves. We ended the night with a team dinner.

Big game tomorrow, let's bring gold back for Ontario.

Saturday, November 8th

Today was the last day of the tournament. The medal games were happening and we were to compete in the gold medal game at 6 pm. Similar to every other day everyone staggered down to breakfast as they pleased and the bonding began. For some of us it was to be our last game as an Algonquin Thunder men's soccer player. We wanted to make sure it was a good way to remember our Algonquin careers.

At 10 am the Humber women's team played FX Garneau for the bronze medal and they beat them 3-1. Congratulations girls. You've done Ontario very well and the guys are all proud of you.

The day continued like any other game day and the final was fast approaching. Before the game we had decided to get all the guys to sign two practice shirts for our two ball girls, who (other than Humber) were our only fans in BC. They were very nice girls and we would like to thank Nicole and Katy again! You girls were awesome! We presented them with the shirts before the game and they immediately put them on.

As everyone knows the result of the game by now, I'm not going to go through it because it was one of the hardest games I have ever had to go through as a player. Leading 3-1 at half only to drop the game 6-5 and lose the gold medal shattered our hearts. We don't even know how our problems began. Up until that game, we had let in four goals against all year, and somehow we let Capilano score five goals in one half. I can truly say, however, that throughout my four years played at Algonquin, Capilano was the best side that we have ever faced.

After the game there were obviously heavy hearts and tears were flowing. Some of us knew that would be our last chance at the glory and we let it slip through our hands. It was very tough to be proud of what we accomplished immediately following the game but second in the country is an unreal feat for any team. We played our hearts out and we put so much into everything that we did. The dedication and devotion to winning that was shown by each and every player was all that I, as captain, could ask for. I am honestly very proud to have played this year with such an unbelievable group of men, not boys, but men. Guys, pump me all you want, but I have more respect for each and every one of you than anyone will ever know. I'm so proud that I could have been included in such an inspirational and close family all year.

I would also like to say something about our coaches. Coming into the year it was a new coaching staff and they needed to gain the respect of the old players, which is never easy. Through thick and thin, they were always there for us. Their preparation for games and training sessions was second to none. There was not one game where our team didn't feel confident heading into game play. The strategy and tactics changed based on the opponents. On behalf of the players, I would like to thank Coach Caruso, Coach Zito and Coach Loney for all their time and commitment and for the dedication they have shown to the team. You guys were true leaders.

To end this week of blogging, I would just like to say that all week our team felt as if we constantly had to overcome obstacles. But, we stuck together as a family and dug deep to find a way to get through all of the emotion involved and we really showed the true class of Algonquin College. Guys, you're all class acts.

Finally I would like to shout out to the Humber women's team and thank them for an awesome week and for their support for us all week. You girls were truly inspiring and we enjoyed your company this past week.

Guys, heads up, we've accomplished a lot this year and it's nothing to hang our heads about. Next year is a new year and we'll see what fortunes will come the Thunder's way.

-MG-