Two Ottawa-based amateur teams, Ottawa Capital City Ambassadors and Ottawa St. Anthony Italia, advanced in the Open Canada Cup Saturday.
In a Preliminary Round game, Ottawa St. Anthony Italia moved on to Round Two and a game with Toronto Supra on Sunday following their 3-2 Golden Goal victory over London Portuguese, and earlier in the day in a Round Two encounter, Ottawa Capital City Ambassadors edged past 777 Soccer Club of Toronto by a 2-1 score, both games played at Cove Road in London.
The two Ottawa wins follow defending Open Canada Cup champions London City defeating Hamilton Thunder 1-0 in one of two Open Canada Cup games played at Cove Road in London on Friday.
In the other Second Round game played Friday, North York Astros advanced with a 2-1 win over Brampton Hitmen.
In Open Canada Cup play on Canada Day, two amateur teams, 777 Soccer Club of Toronto and AEK London, together with Border Stars of the Canadian Professional Soccer League, also won in the popular one-game knockout competition.
777 Soccer Club defeated Peniche S.C., another Toronto area amateur team, by a 3-2 score in Preliminary Round play to qualify for their game against Capital City Ambassadors of Ottawa, while AEK London defeated Durham Storm of the CPSL to advance to Round Three. Border Stars also advanced to Round Three following their Goldon Goal victory over St. Catharines Roma Wolves at Club Roma in St. Catharines.
There are 10 Open Canada Cup games being played this week from Canada Day, July 1 to Sunday, July 4, in a competition that continues each long holiday weekend through to the final game on Labour Day, September 6.
The Euro 2004 Championship Final on Sunday afternoon will result in a delayed kickoff at Cove Road in London where Toronto Supra will have their Round Two match against against Ottawa St. Anthony Italia. The Cove Road ground, home of London City and part of the German Canadian Club complex has agreed to accommodate the teams in arranging a special Euro 2004 Final room with refreshments all afternoon through to the end of the final game and there will be a late kickoff of the Open Canada Cup game accordingly.
FOR OPEN CANADA CUP GAME DETAILS AND SCORES CLICK 'READ MORE' BELOW CHART
Hjima Alain struck the Golden Goal at 114 minutes for Ottawa St. Anthony Italia in the 3-2 win over London Portuguese on Saturday night, his second goal of the game after putting the Ottawa team in the lead after just 6 minutes.
Urbaine Some struck the other goal for Ottawa Italia at 82 minutes, while former London City player Erald Pope scored the two London Portuguese goals at 56 and 74 minutes.
Mili Ombasic (21 minutes) and Twmde Temidire (44 minutes) scored the Ottawa Ambassadors' goals, while Alex Lopez struck the lone Toronto 777 goal at 70 minutes.
In the first game on Friday, Boris Krimus opened the scoring for the Astros after seven minutes and the goal held up until 62 minutes when Brampton forward Kurt Mella struck an equalizer.
The game could have gone either way during the remainder of the second half, but it was former Woodbridge Soccer Club forward Alex Braletic who scored his first goal for the Astros. He broke through the Hitmen defence on the left wing to beat goalkeeper Roy Blanche for the game winner and put the north Toronto team into the next round.
Astros meet Ottawa St. Anthony Italia or Toronto Supra in Round Three.
The London City vs. Hamilton Thunder was a ding-dong struggle for 90 minutes and the official time was actually 93 minutes when with seconds remaining Gentjan Dervishi sent a blistering shot off the woodwork for Erik Elmauer to pick-up and set the stage for Paul Munster to score his sixth and most important goal of the season.
London City will now meet Border Stars in Round Three.
Sergio Rivardeneira at 28 minutes, Kyle Jones at 44 minutes and Alex Lopez at 82 minutes were the goalscorers for 777 Soccer Club in the 3-2 victory at The Soccer Centre in Vaughan on Canada Day, while Des Mpenza (56 minutes) and Tony Tavares (94 minutes) scored for Peniche.
Mike Vonella scored the Golden Goal for Border Stars four minutes into the second overtime period for the 1-0 victory over St. Catharines Wolves and the team from the Canada-U.S. border will now meet London City in Round Three.
AEK London eliminated CPSL team Durham Storm
from the Open Canada Cup on goals by Martin Painter (26 minutes) and Kim Balatouka at 88 minutes. Storm goalkeeper Devon Spiers suffered an injury at 25 minutes in that game and was replaced by Zane Hendrickson.
Results and remaining games:
PRELIMINARY ROUND:
Thurs. July 1 777 Soccer Club 3, Peniche S. C. 2
Sat. July 3 Ottawa St. Anthony Italia 3, London Portuguese 2
ROUND TWO:
Thurs. July 1 St. Catharines Wolves 0, Border Stars 1
Thurs. July 1 Durham Storm 0, AEK London 2
Friday July 2 Brampton Hitmen 1, North York Astros 2
Friday July 2 London City 1, Hamilton Thunder 0
Saturday July 3 Capital City Ambassadors 2, 777 S.C. 1
Sunday July 4 Cove Road 5:30pm (subject to late kickoff at 6.08 p.m.) Toronto Supra vs. Ottawa St. Anthony Italia
Sunday July 4 Soccer Centre 8:00pm Vaughan Shooters vs. G. S. United
Sunday July 4 Cove Road 8:38pm Real Vaughan vs. Metro Lions
When this schedule is completed, the competition will be down to the last eight, or quarter finals which takes place during the Civic Holiday weekend, July 30 to August 2.
The semi-finals will be played during the Labour Day weekend, September 3 to 5, with the final on Monday, September 6.
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