Soccer In Toronto 08.28.10

By Rocket Robin Soccer In Toronto

CSL Result
Saturday August 28, 2010

Final Score
TFC Academy 1 London City 1

Venue
Lamport Stadium, Toronto

Kickoff
3:00 pm

Highlights
Attendance was about 60 on this hot afternoon. The game was delayed by 30 minutes as the refereeing crew (Joe Audi-referee) were coming all the way from Ottawa. The game ending at 5:30pm still left fans 90 minutes to get to the MLS Toronto FC game at BMO Field on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds three blocks away. There was a very small contingent of TFC fans.

Both teams had chances to win this game. At 87 minutes TFCA Kevan Aleman took a cornerkick from the right that had TFCA Nicholas Lindsay head the ball wide left from 12 yards on the left. At 91 minutes City Youna Samra on a 2 on 1 rush passed the ball over at 12 yards but the defender got a foot in to break up the play. At 93 minutes Samra took a 25 yard freekick from the extreme left that had City Andrew Loague not able to turn a header from 6 yards on the right.

I asked Academy head coach Jason Bent before the game about Doneil Henry who was announced earlier in the week as signing a contract with Toronto FC. It appears doubtful that he will return to the Academy if they are in a playoff round and Henry is just spending time on the bench with the pro club. Academy have a makeup game on Monday against Toronto Croatia as their first try two weeks ago had the game rained out at 38 minutes. Bent confirmed there were no reserve division games on Sunday–they were playing on the Saturday just like this game so there won’t be any players trying to play three games in three days. With the Academy losing players to college scholarships and today’s reserve division game, the bench only had four substitutions available instead of the usual seven. Goal scorer Kevan Aleman came in at the start of the second half.

London City earned a tie and has been on a small roll lately with only one loss in their last four games. Manager Ryan Gauss told Alex B of “This Week in the CSL” show before the game that the team has won more games than last year (so far three vs one) and has been competitive in every game. Today’s result pulls them even with the slumping North York Astros who they thumped 7-0 two weeks ago. Gauss said that goal scorer Youna Samra signed from the WOSL league within the last month and has scored four goals already. This brought to mind their goal scorer Paul Munster who set a record in this league for goal scoring in his brief time over here. Gauss said Munster now plays in the first division of his native Northern Ireland [Linfield FC].

A mistake in announcing a Yellow card at 88 minutes made it look like Michael Marcoccia earned his second Yellow and should have been ejected but it was actually Carson Green who picked up the card.