Wonder at Wembley

London City FC and Union Buenos Aires produced probably the game of the season at Wembley in the latest round of the Global Premier Football League. In the end, they shared eight goals from a result that, coupled with Esportivo Rio‘s defeat, would have been welcomed by the hosts as they zero in on the title.

Further down the table, Harbour City rolled on and Olympia Munich edged LA Icons, while bottom side, Toronto Athletic, squeezed home to narrow the gap to second bottom.

ROUND 33 ROUND-UP

Under the Wembley lights, London City were three up in the blink of their collective fans base’s eyes. Mark Ives‘ double, followed by John Baxter‘s cross-come-shot seemed to have buried the shell-shocked Argentinians before they had even got going. But Sebastiano Cruz hit back just before the break to provide signs of life for the visitors.

Right back, Faustino De Marco, tapped home from a corner six minutes after the restart, before wonder-kid, Elian Corral, incredibly equalised on the hour mark.

The pause in goal scoring lasted all of 20 minutes. Joseph Texier‘s free-kick swung the match back in City’s favour and their normally solid defensive structure and intensity seemed sure to see them home. But it’s virtually impossible to keep Rico Cocci out of any game and, after a barren 90+ minutes he popped up two minutes into added time to have the final say in a pulsating encounter.

The draw played into Esportivo’s hands, but they couldn’t take advantage after falling to defeat in the Middle East. Guilherme de Freitas was back amongst the goals, hitting an 84th minute winner which broke Rio’s hearts. Victory was well earned, and deserved, for Emirates United, who went ahead early through Patrido Lavezzi, before being pegged back by a Diogo Araujo thunderbolt – something of a rare highlight on a troubled evening for the Brazilians.

Geert-Jan de Walle‘s quickfire double either side of the half hour mark effectively sealed Harbour City’s eighth win in a row, a remarkable run for a team that began the season in indifferent form. A late header from Flavio Van Overstraeten wasn’t enough to get al-Qahirah Stars completely back into the match.

Olympia picked up a welcome victory, edging a match dominated by the two sides’ German number 9s. Andre Peter‘s fine hat trick swung the result the way of the hosts, but Bjorn Goudier did his best to rescue a point for the Icons.

Martin Kuhn‘s header won the game for Eternal Roma against visiting New York Capitals to keep his side two point behind Olympia, but fellow Europeans, Ciudad de Madrid and Paris Metro were both held to 2-2 draws in the far east. Inigo Cueller forced a late own goal at Marina Bay Flyers to rescue a point for Madrid, while Metro needed to come from two down after Richard Casey’s double for Tokyo-Yokohama United. Edson de Assuncao prodded home to secure a point for the Parisians.

Maxence Remy was the hero for Toronto Athletic. His penalty ten minutes after the break won the game against Johannesburg Rush, only his team’s sixth of the season. They now sit four points behind the Rush, and have a sniff of avoiding the wooden spoon.

In the other games, Shanghai Pearl edged Hong Kong Traders thanks to two goals inside the opening half hour, while CF Azteca and Constantinople FC held each other goalless at the Azteca.

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