OM WINS THRILLER AGAINST INSPIRED DIABLOS

 A CLASS ZACH

Franscisco Aguilar
SPORTS WRITER

WEST JORDAN, UT.-- JUNE 28, 2008.--Diablos FC and Olympique Montreux butted head at West Jordan Complex this evening and the Gran Classico lived up to expectations.

Neither team wilted under the 98-degree plus heat wave.

Gerry Bellazantine’s men came out firing on all cylinders, forcing the Olympians to defend for long stretches of time.

All star striker Jorge Estrada, one of Utah’s all times best, ran tirelessly at the defense. Chris Kirkpatrick and the Olympians’ defense had to dig very deep to keep the former Utah Blitzz man under some control.

With playmakers Maran and Guti Gutierrez operating in midfield and El Gran Cholo in central defense, the Red Devils showed their intent to run over Bel-Ami’s protégés.

At the 12th minute, Maran connected with a fine midfield pass to put Diablos on the score sheet after exploiting a defensive error on the right side.

Seven minutes later, Diablos’ forward Ephrain Aguilar, a former Real Salt Lake target, came face to face with OM keeper Shaun Fuhriman who was called upon to play in goal after regular OM keeper Martin Martinez opted out of the game.

Shaun saved Aguilar’s powerful shot in extremis.

The Olympians quickly reorganized behind Zach Burton’s leadership and started to push Diablos back.

At the 23rd minute the referee awarded the Olympians a penalty when Zach was taken down in the area. The keeper stopped Sina Alipour’s penalty kick to the delight of the Red Devils’ fans.

At the 30th minute, Eduardo “Super Lalo” Romero forced the keeper into a good save.

Luis Garcia dribbled past two Diablos defenders at the 37th minute, but his powerful strike was diverted into a corner.

Zach rose up high to tie the game on a header on the ensuing corner kick. 

The score remained tied at half time.

Whatever manager Bel-Ami told his men during the break must have had an impact.

In the 50th minute, Super Lalo put a great cross on the head of a well-placed Luis Orozco.  The stylish forward let rip an unstoppable header that found the back of the net.

Man on Fire

The Red Devils responded quickly to tie the game. 

They scored their third goal in the 55th minute to take the lead.

With ten minutes left, Zach caught on fire. The big Olympian started to dominate the midfield.

At the 80th minute, Zach placed a perfect pass to the feet of Super Lalo who just could not miss. The young forward unleashed an unstoppable strike to again tie the game for OM.

With about three minutes left in regulation and the dreaded penalty shoot out looming, the Olympians were awarded a free kick just outside the area.

Sina stepped up and his ground shot went into the Red Devils’ net despite the keeper’s outstretched dive.

The game ended with the score 4-3 in favor of the Olympians.

“Any match between Diablos and OM is a Classico. It was a very entertaining game. Two good teams. We had to pump up the volume of play to get a win. It was not easy,” said Bel-Ami after the game. “They were ready for us.”

To a question about the strange absence of Keeper Martin Martinez, the manager responded that Shaun was great in goal. “But we needed Louis Staley with Estrada being too much to handle,” he added.

“Have you seen him?”

Earlier in the day, Diablos’ first division team defeated OM’s first division 3-1.

“It was a total lack of desire from the forwards and an unfit midfield that cost us the points in the first division game. Playing with two refs for most of the game did not help either,” said Bel-Ami.

OTHER TEAM NEWS:

Since the victory over Pan World, both Olympique Montreux teams have been cruising in league play. The first division has won all but two of its league games. It is undefeated in Utah Open Cup and Utah Challenge Cup games.  The team is the mid-season champion, ahead of Diablos on goal difference. 

The Premiership team remains undefeated in league play and is in first place as well.

However, the side exited the Utah Open Cup in the semifinals round, losing to Lazio in a penalty shoot out after a 1-1 tie. A few days later, the Premiership lost 3-1 to Diablos in a Daynes Cup quarterfinal game that Diablos totally dominated.

STORM MOUNTAIN JOY FOR BEL-AMI AND OLYMPIQUE MONTREUX

By  Scott Cunningham
Sports Writer

STORM MOUNTAIN PARK (LNS) June 2,——Olympique Montreux displayed its title credentials by claiming a resounding 6-1 victory over Odyssey Web in the Utah Premiership this evening. 

Leading scorer David CHEVEZ scored a double. Jake CAVANAUGH, Todd MILLER, Jimmy CUADROS and Ricardo MARTINEZ each added one goal to secure first place for the Olympians.

“This was an important game and we came out to win. We know what we have to do,” said OM manager Bel-Ami.

Last Saturday’s match between Diablos and Olympique Montreux was abandoned in the 50th minute partly because no league accredited referee showed up to call the hugely anticipated fixture between the top two teams. The citizen volunteer who was given the whistle proved mammothly incompetent and became incapacitated under the pressure.

That game is now rescheduled for November 3 at Westminster College Stadium.

Today’s result shows that the Olympians understand their mission. Since the mid season humiliation when the team lost important games to Pan World and Lazio, and prematurely exited two important cup races, the players have come to appreciate that everybody’s soccer dream in Utah is to beat them.

Since then, the organization made necessary roster adjustment and the side has been playing like a true Olympique Montreux team, outscoring opponents 23 goals to 1 in just the last six outings.

“Our confidence is up. We feel we can,” said star playmaker Nate MURPHY who added another nugget in a long string of stellar performances.

Yet though, it was not all fun at first. Odyssey Web started the game strongly and played well for the first fifteen minutes or so. Its forwards made several entries into the zone, forcing Kenan POWELL and the defense to backpedal a few times.

The score remained nil until the 21st mi

nute when Nate combined with Jimmy who found Todd criminally unmarked to open the scoring with a booming shot.

In the 43rd minute, Garrett danced around the left fullback, combined well with Jake who fired past the keeper for the second goal.

At the restart, OM’s dominance became perfect as Ricardo joined in the goal scoring with a low right foot shot in the 50th minute on a through pass from Nate.

Ten minutes later, on a fine pass from left winger Louis STALEY, David “El Tanque” scored the fourth goal with one of his classic finishes that made so many Peruvians happy when he was an Alianza Lima player in Peru.

El Tanque was at it again just three minutes later when ace forward Sina ALIPOUR cushioned a fine pass into his path. The marksman could not but score his 22nd goal of the season.

Not to be left out, at the 78th minute, number 7 Jimmy took off on a solo run that ended with him rounding the keeper to score the sixth and final goal.

Odyssey Web did score a consolation goal just before the referee called full time to end keeper Martin MARTINEZ’s impressive run of six games with clean sheets. It was good joy for Bel-Ami and his men after last week’s weird experience against Diablos.

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CANOCANIONERY race

David Chevez, 22 goals

Jimmy Cuadros, 14