Aztex Claim Southern Conference

Victory against Laredo earns place at PDL Championships

Saturday, July 27, 2013
AUSTIN, Texas -- The Austin Aztex (12-1-2) defense remained stingy and two goals were enough to dispatch the Laredo Heat to win the PDL’s Southern Conference Championship on Saturday evening in front of a franchise record 2,673 fans at House Park.
“It’s amazing,” Aztex forward Khiry Shelton said. “Everybody’s been working hard not just to get here but to keep going.”
Laredo had a quick start to their match as they pressed Austin’s defenders into early turnovers as they attempted to build their attack from the back. However, the Aztex defenders were able to get on track and stifled Laredo’s attack.
The Aztex jumped to a lead in the 25th minute when defender Leone Cruz sent a perfect long ball from the back line to break Shelton free for a one-on-one with Heat goalkeeper Emmanuel Frias. Frias was able to steer Shelton away from goal, leaving the Heat goal exposed. Shelton turned and sent a pass back to Sito Seoane, who smashed the ball in for the first goal.
“We were trying different things and I noticed that Khiry had a little bit of space,” Cruz said. “I told myself from the time before that if I could get it to him it would get us maybe an opportunity to score. Khiry was on the same page.”
Shelton remained the difference maker throughout the game as size and speed created mismatches as Laredo tried to come up with a solution to the tall forward.
Shelton clinched the game for the Aztex in the 86th minute when Austin connected a series of passes to find Tucker Hume open in front of goal. Hume made the unselfish play to pass the ball to Shelton, who hammered the ball home.
The Aztex move on to the PDL Championships, where they will face the winners of the remaining conference champions in a single-elimination final four tournament. The location will be held at one of the four cities. Austin has submitted their bid to host the tournament.
“Preparation,” Cruz said on what was next for the Aztex. “We don’t know what’s going to happen or where we are going to be playing. We know that there is going to be another game so we are going to treat it like any other game and be focused."

Thunder Bay blank Michigan Bucks, will face rival FC London in Sunday's Central Conference final

Chill set to Face FC London tomorrow at Fort William Stadium in the Central Conference 

Championships Final. Kick off is 6pm with gates opening at 5pm.

FC kick their way to conference final

London Community News

 

One down, three post-season games to go for FC London, but it might not get any more down to the wire than it did in their conference semifinal matchup against the Real Colorado Foxes on Saturday (July 27) in Thunder Bay.

The defending champs won their first 2013 playoff game 4-3 in penalty shots after 90 minutes of regulation time and 30 minutes of extra time left a blank scoreboard.

It wasn’t a lack of trying FC couldn’t find the back of the net taking 17 shots compared to just five from Colorado. Ten of London’s shots forced opponent goalkeeper Miguel Rosales to make a save.

FC’s goaltender Reece Richardson made just three stops during action, but his two biggest blocks came in the penalty shots.

After London’s Tom Owens couldn’t score his team had no problem getting the goals from 12-yards out by picking up goals on the next four straight shots, but it was Richardson’s saves on the third and fifth shots sealing the deal to the Central Conference championship.

FC will now play the regular season conference leading Thunder Bay Chill on Sunday (July 28) at 6 p.m.

The Chill beat the Michigan Bucks 1-0 Saturday to advance to the second round.

Chill advance

 

Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com Zeph Thomas (left) and Dominic Roberts (right) react to Sunny Omoregie's game winning goal Saturday in the 38th minute of the Chill's 1-0 win over Michigan in the PDL's Central Conference semifinal win.

A year ago the Thunder Bay Chill were shocked in the first round of the Premier Development League playoffs.

They weren’t about to let it happen again – though the Michigan Bucks gave them everything they had Saturday in a 1-0 loss in the first of two Central Conference semifinal contests played at Fort William Stadium.

Sunny Omeregie scored the lone goal of the game, slamming home a pass from Abraham Villon in the 38th minute, the only mistake Michigan goalie Adam Grinwis made in the tightly-fought contest.
“Hopefully now that’s it and we’re just going to keep rolling through,” said Chill goalie Steve Paterson, who made several key saves and repeatedly thwarted the Bucks anytime they got within striking distance of the Thunder Bay net.

“It was important to get through the first game. Last year we went (to Michigan) and lost 1-0 to London in the first game. It was a hard-fought battle and we just didn’t come out strong. But that’s the past and this is what’s important right now. We’re past that that and now we’ve got to take the next game.”

Villon said the goal came on a play the Chill have been working on all week.

“I just made a run through the back and Jose (Altamirano) found me over the top. Luckily I put my body in front of the centre-back, caused a little havoc, laid the ball off to Sunny and he buried it,” said Villon, admitting it’s getting more and more intense as the post-season moves on.

“Definitely the pressure starts to build up, but we’re just trying to take it a game at a time, a half at a time and we’ll see what happens. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day.”
The Bucks looked like it might be their day in the opening minutes, pressuring the Chill defence with a sustained attack that led to a Thomas Catalano free kick in the fourth minute, a weak shot that Paterson easily turned aside.

Paterson had to stay alert.

In the 14th minute Michigan’s Zach Steinberger belted the ball toward the Thunder Bay goal, but once again Paterson got his hands on it, pushing aside the threat.

“The games we’ve given up goals haven’t turned out very well for us. We needed to keep the ball out of the net and I think we knew that as a defensive team,” Paterson said. “And we did that. The first half was difficult and there were a couple of sticky situations, but we pulled through and we got out of them.”
Altamirano had a chance to provide insurance in the 52nd minute, breaking free up the middle, but Grinwis raced out and beat him to the loose ball.

The Bucks, desperate to find the equalizer, started pressuring the Chill adamantly in the 71st, but time and time again the Thunder Bay defence was up to the task, knocking the ball out of harm’s way to erase a few more precious seconds off the clock.

“We can be an attacking team, a team with possession, but when it comes to the playoffs we’ve always said that defence wins championships. We changed the way we had to play and we were looking to be a little bit more direct,” Chill coach Tony Colistro said.

“We played tough defence and we knew one of our strikers was going to get a goal for us. Then we just went to work defensively and Steve had a great game for us.”

Pitch marks: Sergio Camano Franco, the Chill’s leading scorer, came off the bench after coming down with a bug. He entered about a third of the way into the second half … The Chill will learn the fate of team MVP Pedro Adam. They’ve appealed the second game of a suspension he earned with a red card in their regular-season finale against Winnipeg.

The Chill await the winner of the FC London/Real Colorado Foxes semifinal. The championship will be played Sunday at 6 p.m. at Fort William Stadium.

FC LONDON DEFEATS COLORADO IN SHOOTOUT TO ADVANCE TO CENTRAL CONFERENCE FINALS

Thunder Bay, ON – FC LONDON claimed a huge win over the Real Colorado Foxes 4-3 in penalty shots in their Central Conference Semi-Final match this evening.

Fans in Thunder Bay were treated to some suspenseful soccer in the first day of the tournament as the game would remain scoreless through regulation as well as the 30 minutes of extra time. “We were unlucky not to score during the 90 minutes,” said FC LONDON Head Coach Martin Painter. “Shot after shot was wide or hit bodies on the way to the net.” London had 11 corner kicks and outshot Colorado 17-5, forcing the Foxes’ keeper to make 10 saves.

The draw would be resolved in a shootout. Painter explained, “We’ve been working on penalty shots during practice for the last few weeks, as soon as we saw playoffs were in sight.” That practice certainly paid off tonight. After going down 1:0 on the first round of shots, Boyd, Cekic, Ayris, and Hemming put away the next four shots and Richardson brought it home with a huge save. “My hat is off to Reece on a solid performance in net. He came up big on a save late in the game and was even bigger on the penalty shots.” This marks Richardson’s fifth shutout of the 2013 season.

FC LONDON will face hosts Thunder Bay Chill tomorrow at 6:00pm. The Chill move forward after knocking out the Michigan Bucks 1-0 with a goal in the 38th minute. Thunder Bay finished the regular season with 37 points at the top of the Heartland Division. They are a well-organized team and Painter is aware that anyone who can take down the Bucks will be a handful. However, he is confident that his squad can come out with a win for the Central Conference Title tomorrow. “We just need to play our game.”

Massive crowd in Brazil attends prayer service with pope

By Shasta Darlington and Eric Marrapodi, CNN

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (CNN)– A massive crowd packed Copacabana Beach late Saturday for a prayer service with Pope Francis.
The pope addressed Catholic pilgrims who came for the weeklong World Youth Day celebration.
Organizers said 3 million attended the service. They cited the mayor's office and police for the crowd estimates, which nearly doubled the 1.6 million who came here for a 2006 Rolling Stones concert and matched the 3 million who came for the 2000 millennium celebration.
CNN could not verify the estimate.
As he drove to the stage in the popemobile, Francis was pelted with T-shirts, banners and flags from the increasingly adoring crowds being held back by barricades on both sides of the street.
The pope told young people in attendance that they were the "protagonists of the future."
"In your young hearts, you have a desire to build a better world," Francis said. "I have been closely following the news reports of the many young people who throughout the world have taken to the streets in order to express their desire for a more just and fraternal society."
He said protesters should be motivated by the values of the Gospel and to overcome apathy with "a Christian response to the social and political concerns present in their countries."
The prayer vigil had been scheduled for a field 30 miles outside of the city at "Campus Fidei," or faith field, but organizers had to move events to Rio because of flooding.
"Today too, as always, the Lord needs you, young people, for his church," the pope said. "You are called to build a more beautiful church and a better world."
Many camping overnight on beach
Flags from around the world dotted the beach and marked off territories for the pilgrims with their sleeping mats who planned to stay overnight on the beach in anticipation of a final Mass on Sunday with the pope to close out the event.
"This is what the church needs now. He just brought so much new energy and so much joy," said Yana Slovakia who was attending with her church St. Anne Catholic Community outside Houston, Texas.
"In a church that has experienced much hemorrhaging of membership, tonight is a clear indication that young people are still willing to consider this Church their home," said the Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Canadian priest who has been working with the Vatican communications team.
"Just as John Paul II's election sent high voltage shocks into the Communist regime and eventually brought it down, I think that Francis' election has also sent some serious jolts deep into the shallow sects that have caused some hemorrhaging of the church in this part of the world."
Earlier, in a stern speech delivered to Brazilian bishops on Saturday, Pope Francis chastised the church for losing many of the faithful to other denominations, saying they must work harder to be close to the flock and employ a "grammar of simplicity."
"At times, we lose people because they don't understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity and import an intellectualism foreign to our people," he told the 300 bishops gathered for lunch.
The Vatican called it Francis' longest and one of his most important speeches to date. And it sets the tone for what can be expected from the pontiff's strategy for the Catholic Church as a whole.
Pontiff urges priests to get out of the office
Francis reiterated a familiar message, urging priests and higher-ups to get out their parishes and reach out to the people, especially those pushed to the margins of society.
Brazil has more Catholics than any other country, but the number has eroded in recent decades. According to a 2010 census, just 65% of the total population of 191 million considered itself Catholic, down from 74% in 2000.
In the same period, the percentage of Brazilians who considered themselves evangelicals grew from 15% to 22%.
On Saturday, Francis reflected on the causes.
"Perhaps the church appeared too weak, perhaps too distant from their needs, perhaps too poor to respond to their concerns, perhaps too cold, perhaps too caught up with itself, perhaps a prisoner of its own rigid formulas," he said.
"Perhaps the world seems to have made the church a relic of the past, unfit for new questions; perhaps the church could speak to people in their infancy but not to those come of age."
The pope arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Monday for the run-up to World Youth Day.
Before meeting with the bishops, he presided over Mass at Rio de Janeiro's Cathedral and then met with politicians and leaders of Brazilian society at the Municipal Theater.
The unpredictable pontiff even placed an indigenous headdress on his head briefly during the encounter.
Friday night, an estimated 1.5 million people turned out and the pope lead them in prayer.
Presidents and heads of state from across Latin America were scheduled to attend the final Mass, at which the pope is scheduled to announce the location of World Youth Day 2015.

London picked to host three Ontario basketball tournaments

BASKETBALL

London was at the top of the list when the Ontario Basketball Association released the host sites for its 18 boys and girls club championships.
The Forest City was selected to hold three OBA age group tournaments, one more than any other city.
The OBA, the governing body for basketball in Ontario, choose London to make the announcement, as well as taking the opportunity to announce a $50,000 grant by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport for the development of 3x3 basketball.
The announcement was Friday at Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre.
“This is nothing new for us,” said Cheryl Finn, director of sport tourism for Tourism London.
“We’ve had a lot of Ontario championships here, but this time it’s different. There have been changes in the (request for proposals) and getting tournaments like this has become a lot more competitive.
“Instead of a given where London was always awarded the tournament because London has always been here, there’s more of a competitive bid process. Since Michael has come in (Michael Cvitkovic, executive director of Ontario Basketball), it’s been for the better. It’s more for the benefit of the club’s and Ontario Basketball which we are always pleased with.”
The Ontario Cup tournaments feature boys’ and girls’ teams ranging from under-10 to under-19. The nine weekends of competition attract about 1,200 teams, 16,000 athletes, 3,000 coaches and 1,200 officials.
Two of the tournaments in London will be run by the London Ramblers basketball club, while the other will be handled by Gold Medal.
Since 2000, London has the location of more than 50 of these Ontario championships.
A list of Ontario Cup dates and assigned age categories will be released sometime next week.
The tournaments generate tourism dollars for the community. How much is always open to debate. The OBA released figures that indicated the Ontario Cup under-16 boys’ event in Ottawa in April generated $1.9 million in the province and that $23 million of economic impact is generated from all 18 Ontario Cup tournaments.
Gary Curgin, president of CSTT Sports Management Intl. in London organized 49 of these events and will handle hotel accommodations for the 2014 and 2015 events as well.
“All those years we had three or four of these events, every hotel in the city was sold out for the month of April,” Curgin said. “We’re talking 5,000 room nights in a month. Now getting back another big one of these big ones, is good. We used to use 24 gyms in a weekend.
“You take 5,000 rooms, $100 a room, that’s half a million. That’s direct spending and April is a down time. This is critical.”
The second part of the announcement Friday dealt with the $50,000 government grant to Ontario Basketball to move forward the development of the 3x3 game, an aspect of basketball that has faded in recent years. At one time there were numerous 3x3 privately-run tournaments like the Gus Macker.
Internationally there seems to be a revival in that type of competition.
FIBA, the world governing body for international basketball, holds a men’s 3x3 world championship and the OBA ran a pilot 3x3 tournament with 70 teams.
“There’s talk it may be an Olympic sport in the future,” Cvitkovic said. “This is a good way to develop the skills at a younger age.”