Nouble was fouled to give Cascadia a penalty for its opening goal
Photo: Ali Gilmore
Joy for James Riley and pals as Cascadia progress
Cascadia 6 : 0 Tamil Eelam
Cascadia will advance to the knockout stages of the ConIFA World Cup after they comfortably beat Tamil Eelam 6-0 at Fisher FC on an incredible afternoon.
They finished with six points, the sane as Barawa and Ellan Vannin, but ahead of the Manx on goal difference. They lost 2-0 to Barawa who top the group. Group favourites Ellan Vannin are eliminated. Both the Wilson brothers were phenomenal, Jordan at defensive midfield and his brother Patrick at centre half against a Tamil attack that was better than the scoreline suggested.
They opened the scoring after Jon Nouble was awarded a penalty when he was felled by Tamil keeper Robert Osman.The referee had no hesitation in awarding a penalty which Nouble slotted home to the goalkeeper’s left.
Will Marment in goal became Cascadia’s saviour making stops off the dangerous winger Prasanth Kulenthiran among others in a ten minute spell of Tamil domination.
Perhaps against the run of play, Cascadia doubled their lead in the 32nd minute. Max Oldham played the ball into Tayshan Hayden-Smith who turned on a sixpence and volleyed in the second.
Hayden-Smith scored Cascadia’s second
Photo: Ali Gilmore
Kevin Navendra made a great interception to keep the Cascadians at bay and a Hector Morales header went woefully wide. It stayed 2-0 at the interval.
Nouble narrowly missed an Oldham cross on just after half time before he shot at the keeper. He was a source of constant trouble to Tamil Eelam and he nearly rounded the keeper Osman who just got enough on it. Gregory forced a great save after beating three men on a mazy run.
Cascadia were ascendant but news that Barawa had gone into half time 1-0 up overshadowed any joy as such a score would leave them needing a six goal win.
The Tamil keeper did well to deny Gregory and palm out a shot to dangerous territory, but it wouldn’t fall to a blue shirt. Cascadia pressed and pressed but time was running out and Levock fired just wide as time began to slip away. An Oldham header was good but just too close to Osman. The news came through that Barawa were 2-0 up which theoretically reduced the target to five (as long as Isle of Man did not score).
Needing to make magic happen, Nichols introduced Calum Ferguson for Morales in the 57th minute and the Scot hit an effort into the side netting before having a goal chalked off for offside in his opening exchanges.
Two quick goals in quick time raised hopes again with Yuri Farkas netting in the 67th and 69th minutes. Ferguson should have rounded the keeper in the 72md but Osman showed no fear and needed treatment for his efforts.
Levock tried his luck and then tragedy struck when Matt Braem was red carded for denying a goal scoring opportunity. It seemed impossible for the Cascadians and even less likely when James Riley went down with a cramp and the side was temporarily down to nine men.
Cascadia had just been put back to ten men with the introduction of Anthony Wright when Nouble unleashed a scorcher from distance to put them 5-0 up and on the cusp of the knockout rounds.
Calum Ferguson ends his scoring drought with Cascadia’s sixth goal
Photo: Ali Gilmore/Prost Amerika
At that point an Isle of Man goal would have eliminated Cascadia but the men in green, white and blue were taking no risks.
When Ferguson ended a goal drought with the sixth, he guaranteed Cascadian qualification and history and an increasingly supportive and vocal crowd erupted.
Cascadia will now play Carpathia at Sutton on Tuesday.
