IROQUOIS – With only one week left in the regular season, several soccer teams were looking to improve their spots in the standings July 15 with an eye looking towards the South Dundas United playoff World Cup Tournment in two weeks.
Team South Korea clinched first place overall in the BMO U-11 Soccer League standings two weeks ago. However the race for second place has heated up.
Team Scotland overcame a 3-0 deficit at half time to score four unanswered goals in the second half, including Riley Plumondon’s game winning goal with less than a minute remaining in the game. Scotland defeated Spain 4-3 and moved into a points tie with second place Brazil, who lost 10-4 to South Korea. Brazil remains in second despite a tie in points and goal difference, with that team having more goals for than Scotland. Ecuador moved into fourth place in the league after a 3-1 win over Costa Rica.
The race for second place continues in the BMO U-14 Soccer League with Germany and Portugal tying 2-2. A single point separates Portugal and Italy for second place. Italy doubled Chile 4-2 in their match.
A 2-1 win by Netherlands over England knocked the latter out of contention for first overall in the BMO U-18 Soccer League standings. Netherlands remain one point back of first place Uruguay in the U-18 standings, but it was not that easy for Uruguay to maintain the top spot. Team Norway had a 2-0 lead over Uruguay at half time but were unable to maintain that lead, losing 4-3.
Finland continued their undefeated season and clinched first overall in the regular season standings with a 15-0 win over United States in the Tim Hortons TimBits U-9 Soccer League. Poland shut out Sweden 8-0, Denmark beat Ireland 5-1 and Belgium won over Croatia 6-2.
Teams Japan and and Czechia remain tied in points at the top of the Tim Hortons TimBits U-7 Soccer League. Japan shut out Mexico 7-0 to stay on top of the leaderboard, while Czechia’s 4-3 win over Ukraine kept their regular season first place hopes alive. The points tie between the two teams is currently broken by goal differential.
Argentina all but secured first place in the Tim Hortons TimBits U-5 Soccer League after scoring a 9-1 win over Iceland. Barbados remained one win away from tying Argentina with 5-1 win over New Zealand. Wales and Taiwan played to a 4-4 draw, while Switzerland beat Canada 3-1.
Teams have one more week to secure their standings before the playoff World Cup tournament on July 28-29. Regular season standings are used to seed teams in for the tournament.
Soccer for adults too
South Dundas United restarted its “Old’n’Slow” soccer for adults on Tuesday nights. Every Tuesday until mid-August, adult soccer players, or those who want to try the game out, can play a free pick-up soccer match at the South Dundas Soccer Fields in Iroquois (corner of Lakeview and Elizabeth). Adults 18 and older can play in a friendly match, at no cost – weather permitting. More information on the program is available at southdundasunited.ca/adult-programs/
