Soccer In Toronto 08.22.09

By Rocket Robin Soccer In Toronto

CSL Result
Saturday August 22nd, 2009

Final Score
North York Astros 3, London City 2

Venue
Esther Shiner Stadium, North York

Kickoff
8:00 pm

Highlights
38 min … Astros Alon Badat GOAL
Badat gets pass at 20 yards up middle and he rolls ball in to center of net with goalie Anthony Santilli and defender right beside him.

50 min … Astros Shondell Busby GOAL
Busby kicks in 12 yard shot while in crowd of players on left side of box to right corner of net.

55 min … Astros Adrian Pena pushes pass from 20 yards to left for Astros Alon Badat on break and City goalie grabs at his foot and trips him up at 7 yards. The ball would not have rolled over the end line so it would have been a shot to the open net. City defender Jevon Vanderreyden had charged up for header and left City short at the back. (He was subbed right after the goal). Referee Yusri Rudolf awarded Astros a Penalty kick.

56 min … Astros Diego Maradona GOAL
Maradona rolls Penalty kick into left corner of net as goalie slumps to right.

62 min … City Brian Adidakun GOAL
City Roberto Molina cornerkick from left has goalie Euloge Awitor palm ball but it falls to Adidakun who pushes shot in from 3 yards.

73 min … City John Zdrunca GOAL
City Andrica Botica 30 yard freekick from right has ball drop in box and partial clearance stopped by Zdrunca who blasts 25 yard shot through crowd of players down middle into right side of net.

Post game Red card …
City Sergio Siguenza was shown the card after the game for a post game pushing match with an Astros player.

Notes
Attendance was about 150 on this warm evening. The game had originally been scheduled for Downsview Park at 3:00 pm but it was rescheduled for here. The crowd was boisterous with a group outing of Big Brothers and Big Sisters. The crowd was novice fans though as they oohed and awed as if they were watching fireworks most often for high balls sent on goalie’s punts or balls that bounced over the side fence.

City almost scored the tying goal at 78 minutes when Roberto Molina crossed the ball from 25 yards on extreme right and Andrew Loague stopped it for control and he turned and blasted 15 yard shot that goalie Eulogbe Awitor stopped on the goal line.

Other missed opportunities were at 33 minutes when Astros Phil Rivers chipped a pass on the left from 30 yards and Astros Adrian Pena 12 yard shot hit the right goal post. Two minutes later City John Zdrunca rolled a 20 yard shot from the extreme right that the goalie stopped but the ball trickled behind him and he crawled back to stop it on his line with City Roberto Molina bumping and injurying him. At 42 minutes, City Molina rolled a 5 yard shot wide left of open net when the Astros goalie and defender Kurt Ramsey messed up on a ball near the right post giving him the chance.

These were just the most obvious missed chances on both sides but that was not unexpected for a game between the 9th and 10th place teams in the league (the two worst who won’t make the playoffs). Portugal FC holds the final playoff spot and they play the league’s best team Toronto Croatia tomorrow night.

City won their first game since 2007 last week against TFC Academy scoring six of their ten goals of the season in that game all on the Academy’s number one goalie Sotiri Varlokostas according to general manager Ryan Gauss. 2008 Windsor Border Stars players goalie Anthony Santilli and defender Scott Paquitrin stabilized City this game as they were missing from the 7-0 loss against Serbian White Eagles that I saw three weeks ago.

This game was broadcast live on Rogers Community Channel and will be rebroadcast later in the week.