London City gets closer to playoff spot
London Community News
By Jonathon Brodie/London Community News / Twitter: @jonathonbrodie
The London City Soccer Club survived a late rally by Brampton United Friday (Aug. 31) and are now the outsiders looking to bust through the Canadian Soccer League playoff window.
London forward Younan Samra opened the scoring at the 11th minute at Cove Road Field and team captain Nenad Begovic made it 2-0 at the 31 minute mark with a drive from 16 yards, to make the score 2-0 at the break.
Forward Dalibor Mitrovic increased the lead to 3-0 in the second half before Brampton started to form a comeback, but just fell short with goals from midfielder David Guzman at the 70th minute and David Velastagui scored at the 86th minute.
“Its amazing. We were just defending in the last minute,” Samra said.
The victory puts London one point behind Brantford Galaxy, who sit in the eighth and final CSL playoff spot with 25 points.
London City started their season slow, only winning one game in their first 11 matchups, but in the team’s last eight games they’ve gone 5-2-1 to charge up from the league’s basement.
“Its just communication and hard work that put as up in the standings,” Samra said.
Although this is the closest the Forest City soccer team has moved into a postseason position this year, London is joined by seven other teams in the standings who have between 28 and 22 points in the 16-team CSL.
On top of it, London has played at least two games or more than any team ahead of them.
London City will be looking to keep the momentum moving forward when they take on Niagara United on Sept. 8, before the team’s home closer against Mississauga Eagles FC on Sept 14 at 7 p.m. at Cove Road Field. London closes out their 2012 regular season schedule on the road Oct. 6 against Kingston FC.
“If we win the next three, we’re definitely in the playoffs,” Samra said.
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