In Pictures: The 2013 PDL Championship The best photos from the Austin Aztex's victory

PDL Feature

Thursday, August 8, 2013
The Austin Aztex claimed their first PDL championship this past Sunday night in front of a crowd of 4,253 fans at House Park. Take a look back at the action with some of the best photos of the Aztex’s 3-1 victory against the Thunder Bay Chill.

The Austin Aztex, in white, and Thunder Bay Chill process onto the field ahead of the 2013 PDL Championship Game, led by PDL Senior Director Ryan Brooks and Thunder Bay Chill Owner John Marello, who greeted the teams before kickoff.

The Austin Aztex and Thunder Bay Chill, and the packed crowd at House Park, face the flags for the singing of national anthems of Canada and the United States. The 4,253 in attendance was a record crowd for the Aztex.

Austin Aztex goalkeeper Devin Cook, who was an All-Southern Conference selection in 2013, prepares for kickoff in front of the Aztex’s supporter’s group, Eberly’s Army.

The Thunder Bay Chill celebrate Pedro Adan’s second-minute goal that gave them an early lead against Austin. Adan was on hand to blast home a rebound after Zetroy Alexander’s initial shot had been turned on frame to put the regular-season champions on top.

Austin’s Sito Seoane puts away a penalty kick past Thunder Bay goalkeeper Daniel Alvarado to tie the game in the seventh minute. The penalty kick was Alvarado’s first action in the game after he was brought on to replace starter Stephen Paterson, who had been sent off after bringing down Aztex forward Kris Tyrpak in the fourth minute, a foul which resulted in the penalty.

Austin forward Sito Seoane claimed the PDL Championship Most Valuable Player award after scoring twice in Sunday’s 3-1 victory. Seoane finished the postseason with five goals in four games, including the game-winning goal in each of the Aztex’s victories on the way to the title.

Austin Aztex captain Zack Pope, left, and Aaron Guillen celebrate following a stoppage-time goal that gave the Aztex a 3-1 halftime lead against Thunder Bay. Pope played a big role in the side’s success during the weekend, providing the cross that led to the second goal in the championship game.

The Austin Aztex regroup in front of Eberly’s Army after taking a 3-1 lead against the Thunder Bay Chill in first-half stoppage time.

A panoramic view of House Park at the start of the second half between the Austin Aztex and Thunder Bay Chill. The 2013 PDL Championship Game was the highest-attended since 2007, when the game was also hosted in Texas by the Laredo Heat.

Austin Aztex captain Zack Pope lifts the PDL Championship Trophy following his side’s 3-1 victory against the Thunder Bay Chill. The win capped a remarkable season for Austin that saw the club go 10-0-0 in the PDL at House Park, lose just once in league play, and see standout forward Kris Tyrpak earn PDL Most Valuable Player honors and Paul Dalglish take Coach of the Year honors.

London majors win Game 1 6-2 over Burlington Bandits

The London Majors are a step closer to changing their first-round woes after beating the Burlington Bandits 6-2 at Labatt Park on Friday (Aug. 9).

New Zealand ace Andrew Marck took to the mound to start the Majors first game of the playoffs and pitched masterfully, giving up just six hits and collecting seven strikeouts in 8.2 innings.

The Majors didn’t fair much better in the batter box getting just eight hits in 31 at-bats (.266 hitting average), but they managed to take advantage when it counted.

In just the five walks Burlington’s pitcher Matthew St. Kitts threw in eight innings of work, two of the free bases led to runs on the scoreboard.

In just two errors by the Bandits, the Majors were able to bring in a run after London’s Chris Stewart tagged first base with a mistake by the Bandits’ shortstop Jeff Kosta.

Paul Young and Ryan Lapensee (hitting in the third and fourth spot in the lineup) led the way for the Majors, both going 4-for-2 with two RBIs and one run.

It’s a good start for London, who lost in the first-round of the Intercounty Baseball League playoffs the last two years. In neither of those series did the Majors win the opening game.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven first-round series will be held Saturday (Aug. 10) in Burlington with the first pitch thrown out at 1 p.m., before the series comes back to Labatt Park for Game 3 Sunday (Aug. 11) at 1 p.m.

London Knights Horvat Signs with the Canucks

After being selected ninth-overall in the 2013 NHL Draft, it was announced Bo Horvat signed a contract with the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday. 

London Knights Bo Horvat is officially a Canuck.

The Vancouver Canucks president and general manager Michael Gillis announced Tuesday (Aug. 6) his team signed their first-round 2013 draft pick.

Selected ninth overall, Horvat played 67 games in the 2012-13 Ontario Hockey League regular season and picked up 61 points. The Rodney, Ont. native also scored a league leading 16 goals in 21 playoff games.

The 6-foot, 206-pound forward also collected four points in five games in the 2012 Under-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, where Team Canada won gold.

Captain Back Friday August 9 after missing 10 Games

London City’s captain returns for late push

In London City Soccer Club’s 2-0 loss to Toronto Croatia on Friday (Aug. 2) there was something missing from them — and not just a ball in the back of the net.

In fact, it has been missing the last 10 games.

Nenad Begovic hasn’t stepped on a Canadian Soccer League (CSL) field in the London black or red colours since the team’s fourth game of the season held June 2 on the road against North York’s Astros Vasas FC when City’s captain was issued a red card for allegedly assaulting an official.

“

Mr. Begovic (player #15) sprinted in a threatening way towards me yelling at me using foreign language and stopped face to face with me then proceeded to headbutt me,” wrote Hassane Rifai, the harmed referee in question, in a witness report to the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA).

The CSL deals with all league discipline, except for abuse of an official. In that case the governing body CSA handles the incident.

The 33-year-old London player was suspended indefinitely until further notice by the CSA.

Begovic, and his team, vehemently denied the allegations and had a personal hearing with the CSA Discipline Committee to appeal the decision on July 13 in Toronto.

London City general manager Jasmin Halkic and teammate Aldin Kukic spoke at the hearing in Begovic’s defence.

There’s a YouTube video of the incident, which the Committee looked at as well and can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDJX-w0qOv0.

When it was all said and done the suspension was dismissed.

“The Committee is unable to agree and support the allegations brought forth by the CSL against Begovic,” the CSA wrote in a letter to London City announcing their decision on July 30. “From the angle of the video of the alleged incident, the Committee determined that the match official’s head did not move back at any time to indicate that he had been head butted by Begovic. To support this finding, the players on the field would have responded or reacted to any physical act or contact by Begovic towards the match official, especially a headbutt.”

The infraction had originally been posted in the discipline section of the CSL’s website in bold red letters reading Bega wouldn’t return to a field until next year. Now the infraction isn’t even publicized, unlike the rest of the yellow and red cards that have gone and past. It’s like the incident never even happened.

But it did, and it cost Begovic and his team seven games together.

“He’s the team leader, he’s the team captain and he’s the most experienced player here,” London City’s leading point-getter Marin Vucemilovic Grgic. “We need him.”

Just as Begovic was about to take back his captain duties from defender Zvonko Bakula, who has filled in the role in the meantime, the reinstated pro player received a call from back home in Belgrade, Serbia.

His mother-in-law had died and Begovic returned to his European home to be with wife and pay his condolences. With that, he missed another three games.

His teammates kept in constant contact with Begovic since he returned to Serbia and they could hardly await his return to the Forest City when he flew into Toronto on Saturday (Aug. 3).

According to Grgic, teammates would be meeting Begovic at the airport with a sign reading, “Team captain, we miss you.”

“When one player goes home because of a death in the family that affects all of us,” Grgic said in describing the closeness of his team. “We always called him asking, ‘Are you coming back?’”

Begovic’s return can’t be understated.

London City did fine without him, going winless with a 0-2-2 record to start the season and following it up with a 5-4-1 record with Begovic gone.

There’s no doubt he can help his team pick up a few extra points though, but what Begovic does transcends outside of the field.

He’s been the face of the team since London City changed ownership last year and completely revamped its roster.

In a club where English isn’t most of the players first language, he’s been the one answering questions.

When City’s head coach mysteriously left midway through last season, Begovic was the one organizing practices and running drills.

In other words, since joining the team in 2012 Begovic has been London City’s “guy.”

At the end of the day the suspension is off the CSL’s website and you would be hard pressed to find mention of it anywhere. The standings, however, will never be taken down and London, currently in sixth place, will most likely only go up in the rankings with Begovic back in his spot in midfield and eight games left.

“Definitely we need him in the game. He’s a quality player,” said London’s new coach Tomo Dancetovic, who has two games under his belt with the team. He previously coached Begovic on the Brantford Galaxy. “He’ll definitely be a big help for the team.”

Begovic is expected to make his return in a London City jersey Friday (Aug. 9) when the team hits the road to take on the St. Catharines Roma. He’ll make his first home appearance Aug. 17 against the Serbian White Eagles.

Aztex Claim 2013 PDL Championship

Seoane has two goals in 3-1 win against Thunder Bay

Sunday, August 4, 2013
AUSTIN, Texas – The Austin Aztex claimed their first championship as they rallied from an early deficit to defeat the Thunder Bay Chill 3-1 in front of a crowd of 4,253 fans at House Park in the 2013 PDL Championship Game presented by Nike on Sunday night. Sito Seoane capped an outstanding postseason, and claimed Most Valuable Player honors, as he scored twice and added an assist to lead the Aztex’s victory, while Thunder Bay was forced to play most of the game with 10 men as goalkeeper Stephen Paterson was sent off early in the contest.
Seoane had five goals in four games in the PDL Playoffs, including the game-winning goal in each of the Aztex’s four victories on the way to the championship. He pulled the Aztex even from the penalty spot following Pedro Adan’s early goal had given the Chill the lead. Seoane then added a second midway through the first half before assisting on Khiry Shelton’s finish just before the break.
“It’s unbelievable,” Seoane said. “Thanks to my teammates, they were supporting me the whole season, and without them I couldn’t have done this. It’s unbelievable, to win a championship in front of all of your fans. There are no words.”
The game got off to a flying start, with Thunder Bay taking the lead in just the second minute. After a long throw-in from the left by Paul Dillon was half-cleared by the Aztex, the ball came to Zetroy Robertson 20 yards from goal. His long-range shot was redirected on frame in front, and parried away by Austin goalkeeper Devin Cook, only for Adan to be on hand to blast home the rebound.
Austin responded immediately, and momentum swung in their direction two minutes later as Tony Rocha slid a pass through the Thunder Bay defense that allowed Kris Tyrpak to break in on goal. Paterson came out to challenge, but brought down Tyrpak just inside the penalty area, which earned not only a penalty kick but also a red card for the goalkeeper. Daniel Alvarado came on to face Seoane’s penalty kick, but went the wrong way as Seoane’s shot went into the upper-left corner for his fourth goal of the playoffs.
“When they scored, we were like, ‘we’re here, we’re in the national championship, we’ve got to step it up, we’ve got to come back and get one back as fast as we can’,” Tyrpak said. “That run that I did, me and Tony have been working on that all year, we worked on it every day in practice, and we just made eye contact and he put it where I needed to be. Unfortunately for the goalie came out, he caught my foot and we tied it up.”
With a man advantage, the Aztex tried to drive home their advantage quickly as Shelton threatened twice on the left side. Austin was able to take the lead in the 22nd minute as Zack Pope overlapped and sent in a low, near-post cross from the left side that Tyrpak beat his man to. The ball deflected perfectly to Seoane eight yards out, who lashed home a finish into the roof of the net from just outside the left corner of the six-yard box.
Thunder Bay’s best chances to get back on level terms mostly came from set pieces, with Dillon’s long throw-ins a consistent threat. The Chill came close in the 45th minute as a header by Axel Sjoberg went straight at Cook, but saw the hill they had to climb get steeper in the first minute of stoppage time as Seoane played a pass to Shelton in the right channel, and the rangy forward rifled a low shot into the left corner for a 3-1 halftime lead.
The Chill came out aggressively to start the second half, and were offered an avenue back into the game in the 54th minute as Sullivan Silva was brought down in the penalty area by Aaron Guillen. Dillon stepped up to take the kick, but sent his shot wide of the left post as the Aztex held onto their two-goal lead. The Chill were able to continue to generate chances from set pieces, Nolan Intermoia’s header forcing a save from Cook in the 58th minute, but as the second half wore on, the chances became fewer as playing down a man took its toll.
Austin did have chances to add to its lead, the best coming to Tucker Hume as he was played into the left side of the penalty area in the 66th minute, only for Alvarado to come off his line quickly and make a fine save. Jesus Cortes also had a pair of opportunities, both of which missed the target, but they were academic as the Aztex sent their fans, led by Eberly’s Army, into massive celebrations as the final whistle went.

London City snaps win streak

Friday’s (Aug. 2) 2-0 loss to Toronto Croatia at the Hellenic Community Centre. 

 

If the London City Soccer Club has recently picked up their pace through July, then they missed a step to start August during Friday’s (Aug. 2) 2-0 loss to Toronto Croatia at the Hellenic Community Centre.

A heavy rain pour in the first half quickly changed the game to a slip n’ slide soccer with and splashes at every step, which proved to be trouble for London as they brought the ball past midfield less than a handful of times.

Third-place Toronto had a much easier time and scored at 10-minute mark.

The second-half of the match was much closer with both squads trading shots and going end-to-end, but only the away team was able to capitalize by scoring on a free kick just outside the 18-yard box right before the final whistle.

The loss breaks a three-game win streak for London, in which they picked up more than half of their wins on the season.

“We played a terrible game. I think this was the worst game of the season for us,” said London leading point getter, Marin Vucemilovic Grgic. “We played a terrible game. I think this was the worst game of the season for us.”

London will hit the road for their next game on Aug. 9 when they take on the Windsor Stars, before coming back home Aug. 17 to play against St. Catharines Roma.