New look Chill

Posted May 14, 2012 by ThunderBayClassifieds.ca in Sports | No comments yet

Thunder Bay Chill coach Tony Colistro still has some surprises up his sleeves.

Faced with the loss of perennial stalwarts like Brandon Swartzendruber, Gustavo Oliveira. Wilson Neto and Nolan Intermoia, players who helped turn the franchise from pretenders into national champions, Colistro had plenty of holes to fill this offseason.

He may have found a gem in Sullivan Silva, a 22-year-old Brazilian who spent the 2010 season with the Austin Aztex of the USL First Division, one rung below Major League Soccer.

On the wish list of most teams in the PDL, Silva, the cousin of former Chill player Marcos Silva, had 15 goals last season with the Capital City Football Club of the Canadian Soccer League. When Capital City decided not to rejoin the CSL, Sullivan Silva was without a home and Colistro didn’t hesitate to contact the 6-foot-1 forward.

“That just happened a couple of weeks ago,” Colistro said Saturday, watching 20 of the 30 players invited to camp start an intense two-week evaluation process at Chapples Field.

“Sullivan Silva is a player we’ve tried to get for the last few years and we were successful this year.”

No stranger to the Premier Development League, Silva spent the 2006 season with the Vermont Voltage, failing to score in a dozen appearances.

The Goiania, Brazil native is the guy Colistro is counting on to fill Swartzendruber’s shoes and replace some of the 57 goals the Colorado native scored in four seasons in Thunder Bay.

Though Swartzendruber won’t be easy to replace, Silva has the pedigree to do it, Colistro said.

“We think Sullivan Silva is going to be that player,” Colistro said.

Silva, who arrived in Thunder Bay too late to make Saturday’s morning practice, won’t be alone out there. Colistro also has high hopes for import Juan Velez.

“He’s played at a high level in Spain, where he scored a lot of goals. So we’re hoping to see that contribution from them.”

But if there are questions on offence, it’s the defence where Colistro expects the 2012 edition of the Chill to make their mark.

Anchored by veteran goalie Stephen Paterson of Thunder Bay and defenders Zetroy Robertson and Sicielio Buthelezi, the Chill are a team that might not need a lot of offence to survive.

Robertson, a Jamaican native, said there are a lot of new faces in camp, but he’s excited to take on the challenge of living up to the expectations the Chill have set for themselves, with three Final Four appearances and one PDL championship since 2008.

Robertson, who wintered in Thunder Bay, said having experience in the back end is always a good place to start building for success.

“Coach (Colistro) always says that a good defensive team is a strong team and he always tries to recruit the best defenders. This year he kept most of his strong defenders, so that will be a plus for us this season,” Robertson said.

The offence should be a little more spread out, he added.

“Last year we had Brandon, but we didn’t have enough attacking push. Brandon scored the goals, but this year hopefully we have a good set of strikers coming in who can find the back of the net just like Brandon used to. He found those goals, but he’s not here anymore so we have to work with what we have.”

Working with each other will be the key to any success the Chill experiences this summer, he added.

“It’s just that simple. If we start and we’re not a team at the start, it’s going to be hard for us as we progress during the season.”

One of the newcomers who has little time to adapt is South African Jarryd Phillips, who most recently suited up for the University of Maine-Fort Kent.

The midfielder says it’s clear there are a lot of opportunities with the Chill and said the recruits will have to work hard to fill the void left by the departing players.

He knows the expectations are high.

“Tony actually made the clear to me on the phone,” Phillips said. “He said we’re going for another championship and that’s the bottom line. You can see the seriousness of it, so it’s nothing to joke about it when you get here. Hopefully we can push for another title this year.”

Chill chatter: Intermoia has hung up his cleats, but is still with the team as an assistant … Oliveira is now a financial consultant in Oklahoma … The Chill will play a pair of friendlies next weekend against the Winnipeg Lions on Saturday (7:30 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.). They open the regular season at home on May 25 at home against the WSA Winnipeg.
 
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Chill in first

Posted July 13, 2011 by ThunderBayClassifieds.ca in Sports | No comments yet

The playoff recipe is simple: win four times and the Thunder Bay Chill are guaranteed in. They took their first step toward that goal on Tuesday night, riding a pair of Brandon Swartzendruber goals to a relatively easy 3-0 win over the visiting WSA Winnipeg, taking over top spot in the Heartland Division in the process. The Chill (10-2-1) also got a late goal from Anthony Putrus, a beautiful header off a cross from substitute Cody Shelton. Swartzendruber, despite the margin of victory, said the team needs a better effort on Wednesday when the two teams hook up for a final time in 2011. “We had trouble tonight in the attacking third connecting passes and finding each other. I think that really limited our chances. We still found the net three times, but we’re a little disappointed in our performance,” he said, having upped his goal total to eight this summer, well off his league-leading pace of a year ago. “Tomorrow is another day, and hopefully we’ll come back and play a little better.” The Chill have every right to feel a little fatigued. The game, their first at home since June 18, was their seventh in 11 days. They went 4-1-1 on their recent road trip, but it took its toll, he said. “Guys aren’t 100 per cent. But it’s games like this you’ve got to fight through to prepare for playoffs. It’s just big games. We need to fight through the injuries and play hard and finish our chances when we get them.” It didn’t help that striker Gustavo Oliveira was on the sidelines, serving the first game of a two-game suspension, accrued against Colorado when he smacked an opponent after a particularly hard tackle. But Chill coach Tony Colistro wasn’t making excuses, acknowledging the sluggishness, but nonetheless happy knowing the team controls its own destiny from here on in. “Obviously it’s a tight race, so every game is important for us,” Colistro said. “Our biggest concern right now is managing through this next game tomorrow with the legs we have.” As always, he’s not stressed at the lack of finish, despite numerous chances to put the game away early, including a first-half missed by Swartzendruber, Putrus and Skandar Babay. “When you’re fatigued sometimes you’re not as sharp with your shots and things and it’s difficult. You can definitely see there is a bit of fatigue in the striker’s legs, with the way they’re hitting the ball. So we were glad we got the one goal up very early. “These guys are very dangerous with the counterattacks and their set plays. That’s what got us in Winnipeg (a 3-0 loss earlier this season). So we had to be aware of that in the second half. It was nice to get the two insurance goals.” Swartzendruber tallied first, heading a cross-crease pass from Nolan Intermoia in the 12th minute. Winnipeg (3-11-1) had its best chance to score in the 36th, when Kenny Sacramento headed a Jonathan Hernandez cross just over the net and the outstretched arms of Chill keeper Stephen Paterson, who recorded his sixth shutout.   Swartzendruber was stuffed by Winnipeg goalie Alexander Gladstone in the 75th minute, but three minutes later the Chill’s leading scorer tapped in a pass from Putrus to double the Thunder Bay lead and put the game away. Putrus’s tally came in the 90th minute. View full post on Tbnewswatch.com – Sports

Swartzendruber’s early goal leads Chill to win

Posted June 28, 2010 by admin in Thunder Bay News | No comments yet

Brandon Swartzendruber and Gustavo Oliveira were brought back to Thunder Bay to beef up the Chill offence. So far they’ve delivered. On Sunday Swartzendruber scored in the second minute, on a pass from Oliveira, and the Chill hung on to defeat the host St. Louis Lions 1-0, their second win in two days to start a five-game road trip. With the win Thunder Bay (7-1-1) takes over top spot in the Premier Development League’s Heartland Division, one point ahead of Rochester and Des Moines.

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On a soggy field, Chill snag second win at home

Posted June 14, 2010 by admin in Thunder Bay News | No comments yet

A convincing second-half performance allowed the Thunder Bay Chill to walk away with a 4-1 win over the Springfield Demize Friday night. While the home team took the second game of a two-game series against the visiting Demize, it was nowhere near the convincing victory the Chill had Thursday night. The Springfield squad looked like a different team on the soaking wet pitch at Chapples Park. The Chill owned the ball for almost the entire game Thursday, but were forced to fight for possession and many times struggled to keep it Friday. Thunder Bay cracked the scoreboard first in the 15th minute when Brandon Swartzendruber tapped the ball into the back of Springfield’s net, but Springfield came right back and headed in a goal of their own to tie the in the 19th minute. Teams traded chances and Springfield’s offence at times had the Chill on their heels. The half ended with the draw still in tact. But a stronger and more confident Chill team entered the second half. “As a coach that is what you want to see,” said Chill head coach Tony Colistro. “You want to go in, make some corrections and then see the players produce in the second half. It was nice to see that the players came out and adjusted to take the game away.” The Chill’s offence started to take the game away from the Demize early in the second half. Miguel Abascal ripped a shot into the top corner of Sprinfield’s net to start the scoring in the 49th minute. William Zardetto brought the score to its final 4-1 in the 81st minute, giving the defenceman his first goal as a Chill. “It felt kind of lucky that I was there,” Zardetto said about getting to a loose ball in front of the Demize keeper. “It’s a great feeling. Every time you score for your team it’s an indescribable feeling; it is very good.” The competition gets stiffer next week as the Chill take on the Des Moines Menace. The first game of the two-game series takes place on Friday, June 18 at Chapples Park, with a second game scheduled for Saturday, June 19 at the same venue. Both games are expected to start at 7:30 p.m.

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Chill open season on the road

Posted June 4, 2010 by admin in Thunder Bay News | No comments yet

The Thunder Bay Chill opens the 2010 Premier Development League regular season this weekend on the road against the Kansas City Brass. The Chill faces the Brass on Friday night in the first of three games in three days on the road for the Chill. The team moves on to play the Rochester Thunder on Saturday and Sunday in Rochester, Minn.
“We open the season with a bang this weekend, and it is important we start things off on the right foot,” said Chill head coach Tony Colistro.
Colistro says he is optimistic with his team facing three games in three days; “Our preseason training has us ready to handle this type of competition, and we want to send a message to the rest of the league.” The game against the Brass kicks-off at 9 p.m. on Friday, June 4 at William Jewel College in Kansas City, Missouri.
After Friday’s game, the Chill will travel to Rochester to face the Thunder in a two-game series, with the first game on Saturday, June 5, 2010 at 8 p.m., followed by the second game on Sunday, June 6 at 4 p.m. The two games will take place at Rochester Technical Community College.

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