London Free Press: CPSL This Week
Kathy Rumleski, Free Press Sports Reporter 2003-06-27 03:40:52
For London AEK Olympic, the Canada Cup is the team's shot at glory. After spending the winter training in preparation for runs at the Ontario and Canada cups, AEK hopes it pays off with a $10,000 cheque on Labour Day weekend, but the team will have to beat pro teams to get it. AEK Olympic lost its second-round Ontario Cup game last weekend 2-1 to Windsor Rose City. Now the players' focus is on the Canadian Professional Soccer League's Canada Cup.
The CPSL opened its Cup to amateur teams in Quebec and Ontario this season. For a $595 fee, teams have a shot at the $10,000 first-place prize.
AEK plays its first-round game, postponed last month because of heavy rain, against Woodbridge Azzurri tonight at Cove Road field. The Cove is the site of six Cup games this weekend.
"We got ourselves prepared for the CPSL Cup and the Ontario Cup," says AEK manager Tom Kouzounas. "We have a shot at proving we're a good team and we've put in the time."
AEK will play a strong side in Woodbridge, the 2000 Ontario Cup champs. Woodbridge has picked up Lalo Maradona, the younger brother of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona, but Lalo won't be playing tonight. Word is he had failed to come to practices, so the team won't bring him to London.
Kouzounas believes his team has a good chance to beat Woodbridge as long as a couple of his starters are healthy.
In the Ontario Cup game, AEK was without three starters -- Tim Balatsoukas, Jim Tsaprailis and Ciaran McCarthy. Even so, Kouzounas believes his team should have beaten Rose City.
"We were all over them. We missed six or seven real chances. We played well. It's upsetting."
AEK filed a protest with the Ontario Soccer Association afterward because of the condition of the facilities in Windsor.
"We drove over 200 kilometres and we didn't have dressing rooms," Kouzounas says. "It was 30 degrees out there. There was no running water, no washrooms. After the game, we changed outside in front of everybody. You couldn't take a shower."
He says the team withdrew the protest because, under Ontario Cup rules, the home team only has to ensure the fields are properly attended to and lined.
"It was going to be useless," Kouzounas says. "They won the game. We have to face it like men."
London City manager Harry Gauss, host of this weekend's Cup games, was checking to make sure the showers would be working. City will play Toronto Peniche on Monday night. Peniche advanced to the second round after defeating Exeter Centennials on the opening weekend.
"They got past the first round," Gauss said. "You worry about everybody. We will play them as we would a CPSL team."
All league teams got a bye into the second round.
Other games this weekend include: Hamilton Thunder vs. Vaughan Sun Devils tomorrow at 8:30 p.m., and Toronto Croatia vs. Toronto Supra on Sunday at 4:30 p.m.
On July 1, Canada Day, the North York Astros play the Durham Flames at 3:15 p.m. The winner of the AEK-Woodbridge game plays the Mississauga Olympians that night at 7 p.m
.
.