PDL Feature
Friday, July 27, 2012
If you had asked prior to the Central Conference Championships which side would end up representing the conference in the National Semifinals, it’s unlikely many people would have picked FC London. While a playoff participant in its first three seasons, the club had never won a postseason contest, and faced first defending conference champion Thunder Bay, and then potentially the host and PDL regular-season champion Michigan.
But a pair of outstanding performances earned Martin Painter and his side a chance to host the Sounders FC U23 on Saturday night for a place in the PDL Championship Game, and one of the more remarkable playoff stories in the PDL in recent years.
For London assistant coach John Dreliozis, what Painter has accomplished this season has been a proud moment for the club, and for Painter himself.
“Martin and I have been friends every since university, and for him after three years of making the playoffs and never winning, to do it this way, this year is huge for him,” Dreliozis said by phone. “He deserves all the credit, for sure.”
There’s certainly credit to go around, though. While the manner of victory had, according to Dreliozis, Painter’s rubber-stamp imprinted on it, the standout seasons of players like Jordan Ayris have helped the team reach new heights. But Ayris, who came to the team from Fairfield University, was far from a sure thing when the club got its first look at him in preseason camp.
“It’s funny, when Jordan first came here for training camp we were evaluating him for the first week, and we were like, ‘um, I don’t know about him’,” Dreliozis said. “We thought we’d made a mistake, and then he got into his first game and started playing, and he did a complete 360 and the whole team and coaching staff was like, ‘wow, we’ve really got something special here on our hands’, and we do, truly the goal he scored against Michigan was a world-class goal, an unbelievable finish.”
Ayris’ 21st-minute goal against the Bucks, adding to his game-winner the previous day against the Chill, set the stage for London’s remarkable victory. Backed by the able performances of Tommy Owens, Martin Lange, who had a goal and assist against Michigan, and the return to the side of Carl Haworth after a stint with Major League Soccer’s Montreal Impact, Ayris finished the regular season with nine goals in 11 games while creating a strong impression on all that saw him play.
“He’s got a great support staff, there’s no doubt about it,” Dreliozis said. “Martin Lange, Carl Haworth and Tommy Owens playing up high there with him, he wouldn’t be able to do it without them, but the kid, there’s something special about him and I see nothing but professional in his future. I’ve been around the block a little bit, and you see players and how they develop, and he’s definitely a very important part of our team, and we expect a lot of him, especially now that we’ve been spoiled by his play.”
Haworth’s influence has proven vital as well. A member of the team since its formation, the Canadian U23 international was selected by the Impact in this year’s supplemental draft. Let go in midseason, Haworth returned to his former club and chipped in five goals in seven games, bolstering the side’s attack and acting as a leader on and off the field.
“We knew we were going to add him to the team, when Martin shared that information with the rest of the staff and the players, we had grins from ear to ear,” Dreliozis said. “We knew that was the huge piece that was going to make us that much better and add to the whole dynamic of the team. He’s such a great person, he’s such a great player, he’s the kind of guy who comes to the field every day, puts his work hat on and just leads by example.”
Now the stage is set for what Dreliozis believes is the biggest game in the city’s soccer history. While traditionally a hockey town in the winter with the OHL’s London Knights, the soccer community has been strongly behind the club throughout the season. With German Club now hosting the semifinal, against a club with the name recognition of the Sounders U23, the club is expecting a big turnout to see if Forest City can continue its run.
“Normally we average a couple-thousand per game, but we’re anticipating five or six, and that will probably happen,” Dreliozis said. “The last time we had a big game like this it was when one of our local teams, AEK London, played the Toronto Lynx that was part of USL-1 back in 2006, and that brought in thousands of people, but this is probably the biggest game ever played in the city in terms of competitive football. The papers have been abuzz all week, the news outlets, the London TV channel, we’ve had guys on the radio all week, there’s a huge buzz here.”
With that level of anticipation, and the level of play the side has been able to produce down the regular season stretch and into the playoffs, the belief is there that London will have one more game to play after Saturday night.