skip navigation

Match Recap: Aurora FC 1 - 0 FC London

By League1 Ontario staff, 06/05/17, 8:30AM EDT

Share

Despite being defeated by FC London 4-1 during a mid-week L1 Cup first round match, Aurora FC showed their mettle by returning home and defeating London 1-0 at St. Maximillian Kolbe H.S.

"I thought we played much better today than we did in the mid-week Cup game," said Aurora team official Peter Bulfon.

"We were connecting our passes and we were more alive. It just seemed we wanted to play, wanted to win and we got the goal we needed." 

"What we did today was we tried to go towards them a bit and at the same time make sure they didn't get the first goal on us. We tried to attack them as much as we could and put them onto the back foot. It just went well for us, and we're glad the way it worked out." 


Sarah Stratagakis (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

League1 Ontario 2016 Young Player of the Year and Canada U20 captain Sarah Stratagakis (55') had the lone goal for the home team, while fellow Canada U20 keeper Patricia Koutoulas held the clean sheet. 

"Sarah the goalscorer, our keeper and our defence as well I thought played very well," said Bulfon. 

"They took care of their striker and captain up front, who is a very dangerous player, and they limited her to only one look. We're fortunate she didn't put it in the net."


Patricia Koutoulas (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

FC London head coach Mike Marcoccia thought Aurora looked to have a different mentality from their previous match, but rued some missed chances that he felt would have changed the result. 

"In terms of personnel, I know there were a couple different players, but in terms of how they played - yes, I think this was a different looking Aurora team," he said. 

"I think they did things much better tonight, especially defensively, than they did in the last match." 

"I don't know that we were missing anything when we hit four posts and had balls cleared off the goal-line," he added. 

"I'm not a big fan of luck, but it would have been nice for once. That being said, I don't want to take away from their goalkeeper. She made some absolutely fantastic saves and she was busy all night." 

"But I'm happy with the way we played," he concluded. 

"We had about 80 per cent of possession and were counter-pressing and winning the ball back very quickly. I'm happy with my players when they do that but they are going to feel differently as players. As a player you tend to look at the result to gauge how you played but from my point of view, although the result wasn't what we wanted, they played very well."

Aurora FC will next play Toronto Azzurri Blizzard on June 18 at Azzurri Village Main, Toronto.

FC London will next play North Mississauga Panthers on Saturday June 10 at German Canadian Club, London.