BOAVISTA DEFEAT CPSL SELECTS 3-0 AT LONDON

Boavista of the Portuguese first division defeated a CPSL select side 3-0 in an exhibition game played at the Cove Road ground in London Friday.Ricardo Sousa, Boavista’s leading scorer in the season just ended, opened the scoring after 33 minutes for a 1-0 half-time score. Joao Paulo made it 2-0 for the visitors two minutes after the interval and Hugo Montaro struck the third goal at the 59th minute mark. Boavista, which won the Portuguese first division title in the 2000-2001 season, will play a third and final game in North America at Centennial Stadium at Etobicoke in Toronto’s west end on Sunday. The opposition will be Toronto Supra of the CPSL with a 6.30 p.m. kickoff.Boavista opened its North American tour losing 3-1 to NY/NJ MetroStars of Major League Soccer at Elizabeth, N.J. on Wednesday, May 26.Toronto Croatia’s George Azcurra was the goalkeeper for the CPSL Selects, which played well throughout, but in a game where the result was never in doubt.The complete CPSL Select team of players mostly from London City and Metro Lions, which promoted the game with Toronto Supra, was: Harry Paul Gauss(London City,GM/Head Coach)Steve Nijjar (Brampton Hitmen,Co-coach)Jeff Brown(London City,Co-coach)George Azcurra (Toronto Croatia,Goalkeeper)Haidar Al’Shairbani (London City, Goalkeeper)Peter Zorbas (North York Astros, Defender)Stu Pow (London City, Defender)Mason Greene (Mississauga Olympians, Defender)Bayete Smith (Brampton Hitmen, Defender)Marko Peeters (London City, Defender)Sasha Kosanovic (Metro Lions, Midfielder)Kosta Stojkovic (Metro Lions, Midfielder)Justin Medeiros (London City, Midfielder)Caswain Mason (Metro Lions, Midfielder)Gentjan Dervishi (London City, Midfielder)Kareem Reynolds (Metro Lions, Midfielder)Phil Ionadi (Brampton Hitmen, Midfielder)Billy Ninopoulos (Metro Lions, Midfielder)Marko Janjicek (Metro Lions, Forward)Darryl Gomez (Metro Lions, Forward)Paul Munster (London City, Forward)

Tackling another level

Londoner Justin Medeiros, 22, who raised his game last year, gets a chance to test his mettle against a Portuguese Premier team at Cove Road tonight
By RYAN PYETTE -- London Free Press

When the older gents at London's Portuguese Club start speaking in their native tongue, Justin Medeiros just shakes his head, smiles and shrugs.
"I don't understand a word -- my dad's from Portugal and my mom's from Ireland -- the guys at the club bug my dad for not teaching me any Portuguese," the 22-year-old Londoner and talented soccer sweeper said with a laugh.
Medeiros will undoubtedly hear more Porto lingo tonight when he suits up at the back for the Canadian Professional Soccer League Locust Selects against touring Portuguese Premier team Boavista.
If the foreign phrases turn nasty, it means the London City defender and John Paul II high school grad is doing a good job of frustrating the Boavista shooters.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I've been super-excited ever since I found out about the game. I was going to go watch it anyway and now I'm playing in it," said Medeiros, a maintenance worker and moulding apprentice at Falcon Plastics. "It would probably be far-off to say we're hoping for a tie or even a one-goal game. They're just coming off their season and we're just starting ours.
"But we want to show that, as Canadians, we can play with a Portuguese pro team."
Boavista, 12-11-11 in the Portuguese Superliga this year and losers in the UEFA Cup semifinals last season, played Wednesday night in New Jersey against Major League Soccer's MetroStars. They wrap up their North American visit Sunday against the CPSL's Toronto Supra.
"I didn't really follow the Portuguese league until a couple of years ago -- I knew Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon but not much about Boavista," Medeiros said.
London City general manager Harry Gauss didn't know much about Medeiros until his veteran sweeper Jeff Brown (now a City coach and the select team's co-skipper) went down to injury last year.
"My son Sean, who knew Justin from high school, kept telling me he had the perfect replacement," Gauss said. "For the longest time, I wouldn't listen. Finally, I went to watch him play (club soccer with Porto) and he was OK, but I wondered how he would handle things at another level."
Quite well, actually. Medeiros was instrumental in City's remarkable Calgary Flames-like run to the CPSL's Open Canada Cup crown last fall and was named MVP of the final match.
"He's a super kid, he thinks the game well, he knows where to go to put out the fires," Gauss said. "I love him out there with Marco Peters (Medeiros's City teammate who will also play tonight). You want defenders who know each other in a one-game deal like this."
Medeiros is hopeful he can get involved in a nice tackle because he'll have a lot of supporters in the crowd tonight.
He also hopes, some day, to make the visit to his father Nurno's hometown of San Miguel in Portugal.
"With Euro '04 being played (in Portugal) this summer, you think about getting a package and just going to see what it's like over there," he said. "But there's car payments and bills, it costs a lot of money. It'll have to wait. We'll see."
Until then, Medeiros will settle for tonight's game against Boavista and tickets to see FC Porto play Liverpool in Toronto at the end of July.
IF YOU GO
What: CPSL Locust Selects vs. Boavista of the Portuguese Superliga
When: Tonight, 8:10 p.m. at Cove Road field at the German Canadian Club
Tickets: $30 at the gate

London Gryphons set first exhibition game

By RYAN PYETTE -- London Free Press

Print up the schedules -- the London Gryphons have themselves an official game.
The new women's soccer club, which is assembling a summer exhibition season before starting W-League play in 2005, will meet the Detroit Jaguars on Friday, July 16, in Motown. Other games against teams from North America's top women's circuit will be announced soon.
Meanwhile, the Gryphons continue to hold workouts and head coach Frank Sauer expects to finalize the roster in the next few weeks.
"We want to have (a half-dozen) games this summer -- we know we'll be on the road for the most part, but we want one or two here in London," Sauer said. "We have an idea what players we want on our team but, right now, we're waiting for the girls who played university soccer this year to come home."
The NCAA considers the W-League amateur so players on university scholarships are eligible to compete.
London will enter the W-League's Midwest division next year, with teams from Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana.
Sauer said one of the benefits of the league is it allows good local talent to stay at home and train in the summer. In his soccer salad days, the former Canadian men's team member remembers travelling to Toronto a couple of times a week for practices.
"You had to do it back then; I knew I would have never been discovered or played on the national team if I didn't get to Toronto," he said.
"Now that London's in the W-League, there will be a closer connection between the city and the women's national team. It will open up opportunities and if one of these girls moves on to play a higher level of soccer, then it's worth it."

2004 Greater London Super Cup Champions

2004 Super Cup Champions

Under 10
Champions
LONDON UNITED STRIKERS
Runners Up
LONDON UNITED FURY

Under 11
Champions
SCARBOROUGH BLIZZARD
Runners Up
BRAMPTON BULLETS “A”

Under 12
Champions
GREATER LONDON THUNDER "Regional"
Runners Up
RICHMOND HILL RAIDERS

Under 13
Champions
GREATER LONDON KNIGHTS "Regional"
Runners Up
MT. HAMILTON AVALANCHE

Under 14
Champions
LONDON UNITED BULLDOGS
Runners Up
WATERLOO UNITED

Under 15
Champions
CONCORD GUNNERS
Runners Up
NUCLEO SPORTING

Under 17
Champions
GREATER LONDON PHOENIX 87s
Runners Up
KLEINBURG LIONS

Soccer Substitute Shining

STEVE GREEN, Free Press Sports Reporter
2004-05-06 03:03:36

When the John Paul II Jaguars picked up a couple of red cards in their TVRAA boys' soccer season opener last week, Mike Pereira got his chance. Four goals in three games would seem to say he's making the most of it.
The Grade 12 forward got two yesterday as the Jaguars sheared the Laurier Rams 6-1 in a Central A tier game between two former champions with widely diverging fortunes at the moment. The win, coupled with the Regina Mundi Titans' 2-2 tie with the Aquinas Flames, leaves the Jaguars and Titans tied atop the division at 3-0-1. Aquinas sits in the third automatic quarter-final spot at 2-0-2.
Pereira wasn't a starter when the season began, but he wasn't about to mope about it.
"I just tried to do my best and prove why I should be out there," he said. "I took notes in my head and saw what I should do to help the team.
"But I also want to have fun and the guys are giving me good opportunities to score. We motivate each other to keep going and whoever scores, scores. In the end, it's still a win for us."
The Jaguars lost last year's TVRAA AAA final 2-0 to the Titans.
"It's like extra energy for us," Pereira said of recalling that game. "We see what we did wrong and work on it and so far, we've been improving every step of the way."
Jaguars head coach Gabe Febbraro lauded Pereira for the way he's seized the chance to shine.
"He's someone who's like our black knight, our back-door bandit. He brings a lot of intensity and he took a leadership role as a senior and accepted it full-heartedly. He's earned his place as a starter.
"And it's nice to see we do have guys who can step in. We lacked that a bit last year."
Yesterday's game was over early as Pereira got his goals and Fred Nunziata scored three in the first 18 minutes. Tshaka Anderson pulled one back for the Rams near the end of the first half, but Shawn Pacheco restored the five-goal gap with the final kick of the game.
"We've got a lot of new guys and a lot of new faces and we've struggled to string some passes together and put the ball in the net," said Rams head coach Cam Telfer, whose team fell to 0-4, but has already played the tier's top three squads.
"We just have to play positively our next three games. All the teams we have to chase (for a challenge-round playoff spot), we still have to play. It's going to come."

Greater London Super Cup is a Super Success!

May 3, 2004
Super Cup is a Super Success!

The first ever Super Cup was a huge Success as 50 teams battled all weekend to bring home the Cup. No thanks to the rain, Tournament Chair Christine Moogk managed to pull together an incredible time for all. Many thanks to all the volunteers.
The tournament took place on Saturday May 1 and Sunday May 2. Games were player at Windemere 1, 2 and 3 fields, as well as at Ted Early, Stoneybrook and the Greek Club.
2005 will be even better!!