Thunder Bay Chill News Release -- www.thunderbaychill.com
Friday May 30, 2014
THUNDER BAY, Ont. – Following a disappointing loss in the PDL Championship Game to host Austin Aztex last August, the Thunder Bay Chill are looking forward to opening their 15th PDL season, and hoping for a couple of wins this weekend in Winnipeg. The Chill face WSA Winnipeg on Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET and Sunday afternoon at 2:30 pm ET.
WSA Winnipeg (1-1-1) has already played three games and sits third in the Heartland Division with four points, all picked up on the road. The Chill’s record against WSA Winnipeg, which entered the league in 2011 is 10-1-1 but “we can’t take them lightly” said Chill head coach Tony Colistro.
“They picked up 4 points in 3 games on the road last week without their full roster, so we can expect two hard-fought matches from them,” Colistro said.
In addition to the new jerseys the Chill are sporting to mark the 15th anniversary, the team also has 12 different players from the 2013 squad. The team has only been together since mid-May with only two exhibition games under their belt. Going into two full PDL games this weekend will create some challenges. The Chill are looking for great goaltending from returning keeper Daniel Alvaro who is looking to fill the huge shoes left from 10-year veteran Stephen Paterson. Also the back four won’t look the same with 6-foot-6 center back Axel Sjoberg currently overseas. The Chill will be looking to the new names on the team to grab the reins and jell quickly as a team if they expect to make a run towards the playoffs.
Both games will be played outdoors at the Winnipeg Soccer Complex on a turf field. Expect to see a young eager WSA Winnipeg team that would like nothing more than to start adding to their wins and try and balance out the lopsided advantage that the Chill has had during the past three years.
“This is a great rivalry between WSA Winnipeg and us, and we have been fortunate to have dominated in most of the games thus far”, said Colistro. “We hope to continue that trend this weekend."
WSA Winnipeg and the Chill play each other four times this year. WSA will return the favor when they travel to Thunder Bay for two matches on June 20th and 21st.