Ottawa Fury News Release -- www.ottawafury.com
Sunday, July 10, 2011
OTTAWA, Ontario -- The Ottawa Fury suffered a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the MPS Portland Phoenix on Sunday afternoon at the Algonquin College Soccer Complex. A poor first half proved to be the difference for the Fury as they fell at home for the second time in nearly four years. Brendan Gorman was the lone goalscorer for the Fury collecting his first of the season. 
MPS Portland took the pace of the game to Ottawa early and often on Saturday and Brian Fekete tallied the opening goal in the fourth minute catching the Fury defense off guard. Six minutes later the Phoenix took a two-goal lead when Ben Havey picked out Charlie Rugg to deflate the Fury. Portland continued to pressure and the Fury defenders had little response and in the 27th minute the game would appear to be put out of reach when Jason Massie slotted it through to Aaron Shoenfeld who put the Phoenix ahead by three and started the barrage of substitutes from Ottawa. Nine minutes later Dominic Cutrofello made if 4-0 for the Phoenix and with little added time the whistle ended a rough 45 minutes for Ottawa.
It was a much different Fury team that started the second half with several scoring opportunities highlighted by some great chances from Keegan Ziada, Rob Ritchie-Smith and Fabricio Barancoski. Unfortunately for these three player Matt Williams was solid in goal when called upon and was replaced by back-up Olly Blum in the 69th minute. Eight minutes into Blum's shift in goal Fury substitution and local product Brendan Gorman rifled a powerful shot top corner to break the shutout bid. Ottawa would continue to apply pressure, but Blum and his back-four were solid, blocking several shots on the afternoon to send the Fury to their seventh loss of the season, the most since 2007.
Ottawa will look to rebound from this defeat next Saturday at 3 p.m. when they face the Toronto Lynx who they defeated 2-1 in Toronto last Wednesday.