Rain Leaves Soccer Match in Limbo

The City Section wild-card soccer match between North Hollywood and Bell highs, scheduled for Friday at Birmingham High, was postponed because of rain and might not be played.

The winner of the wild-card match was to be the 16th and final team to qualify for the boys’ playoffs that begin Wednesday. Because Monday is a school holiday, Tuesday is the only day to play the match.

But North Hollywood Coach Rick Pally fears that by Tuesday morning, City Commissioner Hal Harkness will decide it is too late to arrange buses to transport the teams and the match will be called off, with the winner to be decided by coin flip.

“It’s really sad,” Pally said. “But it’s all up in the air right now. It all depends on what Harkness decides Tuesday morning.”

Harkness was unavailable for comment Friday.

The condition of the North Hollywood field earlier this week forced the rescheduling of the match at Birmingham High. Pally was notified only hours before game time that flooding on the Birmingham field and surrounding streets left the field unusable.

Bell Coach William Albano is frustrated that the game was not played Friday.

“We’ve played in much worse conditions than this,” he said. “Now they’re talking about a coin flip, which is really unfair to the kids.”