Top three all win

At the halfway point of the inaugural Global Premier Football League campaign it’s shaping up as a four horse race, as a gap has started to appear to the chasing pack. The top three all won, in varying fashions, during the latest round, while Olympia Munchen was surprisingly held, at home, by New York Capitals. Further down the table, Johannesburg Rush, in the midst of a run of four wins in five games, continue to rise.

ROUND 19 ROUND-UP

Union Buenos Aires seem to be right back in form. The confidence gained from their previous outing flowed through to their clash against bottom side, Toronto Athletic. Two goals inside the opening half hour, from Diego Santander and Abel Orzoco, erased any doubts about the outcome. Athletic were decent throughout, but ran out of gas in the final quarter hour. Santander grabbed a second, then Sebastiano Cruz, back after his three game suspension, completed the job for Union in what was their largest win of the season.

London City FC bounced back after last week’s disappointment with a solid win in Istanbul. Goals from Anthony Mears and Mark Ives, with his sixteenth of the campaign, had City in charge at the break. While hosts, Constantinople FC, mounted a charge through the early stages of the second half, the visitors were able to weather the storm and see the game out. City stay level on points with Union, but second on goal difference.

For Esportivo Rio it was a different matter, as they were made to fight for the points on the road thanks to Hong Kong Traders providing a stern test. Milton Nakata point Rio in front midway through the first half, but the Traders were level less than 15 minutes later through Mark Evans‘ close range header. It took until minute 71 for Rio to re-take the lead – Rodrigo Machado‘s piledriver was worthy of settling any match.

Samuel Fernandes put the Capitals in front early on in Munich, and they did a good job of frustrating their hosts throughout the remainder of the match. Remko Vreman leveled things for Olympia early in the second half, but that came from their only clear cut chance of the final 45 minutes. The Capitals were well worth their ninth draw of the campaign.

LA Icons and Eternal Roma are in fifth and sixth after both recording 1-0 wins. Neto Guimaraes settled LA’s match against CF Azteca in the cauldron of Mexico City, while Davor Drazenovic‘s tenth goal of the season, just after the hour, helped Roma overcome a sticky test at home to al-Qāhirah Stars.

The game of the round came in France, as Tim Ludwig hit a hat trick for Paris Metro but Shanghai Pearl came from behind to secure a share of the points. A brace from Albert-Jan Stroek drew Shanghai level after going two down early, before Diogo Esteves drew the visitors level again after Ludwig had secured the match ball. Metro slipped to seventh, while the visitors remain in the bottom two.

The great recent form of Johannesburg Rush continued as they secured their sixth win of the season. Artur Santana‘s free kick with twelve minutes left was ultimately the difference, although visiting Tokyo-Yokohama United were unlucky not to take a least a point home with them.

Harbour City remain in the top ten, edging their match against Ciudad de Madrid, who slipped to their ninth defeat of the season, and fourth in five games. Goals from Geert-Jan de Walle and Tomas Canales heaped more pressure on Madrid coach, Raul Malillos.

A goal each from Kay Kraus and Guilherme de Freitas saw the points shared in Singapore. Kraus scored early for Marina Bay Flyers, before de Freitas leveled thing up for Emirates United six minutes after half time.

AL-QAHIRAH STARS

CF AZTECA

CIUDAD DE MADRID

CONSTANTINOPLE FC

ESPORTIVO RIO

ETERNAL ROMA

HARBOUR CITY

HONG KONG TRADERS

LA ICONS

LONDON CITY FC

MARINA BAY FLYERS

NEW YORK CAPITALS

PARIS METROPOLE

SHANGHAI PEARL

TOKYO YOKOHAMA UNITED

TORONTO ATHLETIC