Coming into Saturday afternoon’s clash, both York9 and HFX Wanderers FC were coming off their first wins of the Island Games and looking to keep that positive momentum going.

The early moments of the game went in Y9’s favour as Manny Aparicio scored from a set piece to make the game 1-0. A minute later, João Morelli was shown the red card meaning the Wanderers had to work extra hard for the final 70 minutes.

And work hard they did!

A stoppage time goal by Omar Kreim delivered a massive strike from a free kick as both Wanderers players and fans at home embraced in pure jubilation. Even Stephen Hart couldn’t resist jumping up with a series of enthusiastic fist pumps!

The 1-1 result means the Wanderers are in fifth place with five points but are only one point behind York9 and Valour.

A showcase of character

To keep pace and equalize while down a player, it takes more than just skill on the field. After the game, both the goal scorer and Stephen Hart were happy to talk about the character of this Wanderers team. It was even more impressive to see the drive in the final moments considering this was the third game of the week for the Wanderers.

“Honestly I think it’s character, being one man down for 70 minutes and being able to attack, still attack in the last five, 10 minutes, I think it’s just character,” said Omar Kreim.

That character gave the team the will to keep pushing and finally get the goal.

“They showed a lot of character. This team has that quality in spades. Even the players that come off the bench are coming on with an enthusiasm to make a difference, to give us a different look, to make things happen. I’m very proud of them. I’m also proud of the way that they responded tactically. Not losing their discipline, not losing their shape and were still willing to attack,” said Stephen Hart.

Omar Kreim comes through

Of course the player coming off the bench who made the biggest impact was Omar Kreim. In his 11 minutes on the pitch, he scored the goal, won three duels and had 10 touches. Hart revealed he thought about bringing on the attack-minded player earlier — and his staff was encouraging him to do so — before replacing Alex Marshall for the final moments.

“Then at the right moment you say, okay, now is the time to bring on Omar because he has a lot of energy, he covers a lot of ground and in the end he did it for us,” said the coach.

Kreim took that energy and created chances. As for the goal, he decided to try and go for the far post and score like he did a handful of times in his time with the Montreal Carabins.

“I knew we were down 1-0 so I had to push, push, push, try to create something. I know I’m here to provoke, provoke fouls and take guys one-on-one. I tried to do that and it worked. Honestly, the guys were working really, really hard,” said the Man of the Match.

A feeling something good could happen

Going down to 10 men presented a challenge for Hart and his side. The team had to adjust the press and also how the wide players would operate the rest of the way. The coach had few words for the team at half-time, giving them time to calm down and focus on the game. He explained they weren’t being outplayed and preached discipline.

“They have a belief in each other, they have a belief in what we’re trying to do. At half time today, I said to them if we keep our discipline, we could very well win this game. But you know, sometimes you say things like that when you’re just trying to keep the players focused on the game itself. But I just had a feeling we might be able to get something out of the game,” said Hart.

That feeling turned out to be a correct one and a big part of why the Wanderers stayed in the game was because of the play of the backline. Both Mateo Restrepo and Jems Geffrard had four interceptions. Chrisnovic N’Sa was on the winning end of 11 of his 13 duels and Peter Schaale led the team with nine clearances.

“I don’t know how it looked on the television, but you just felt the last sort of 15-20 minutes of the game, that we were actually coming into the game. Of course it was on the backbone of some brilliant defending by Chrisnovic, Peter, Jems and Restrepo. But that’s what you need when you’re down to 10.”

The Wanderers now move on to a match against Valour on Wednesday at 2 pm ADT.