Nuke Soccer

By Rocket Robin Soccer In Toronto

CSL Result
Sunday July 5th, 2009

Final Score
TFC Academy 2, Portugal FC 1

Venue
Brockton Stadium, Toronto

Kickoff
7:00 pm

Highlights
33 min … TFCA Daniel Calabretta GOAL
Calabretta beats charging goalie Adrian Ibanez to ball at 22 yards on right and boots shot low to left corner of net over sliding goalie at 16 yards.

70 min … Portugal FC Ramon Bailey GOAL
PFC player’s freekick from left is partially cleared but Bailey’s 22 yard low shot is through crowd of players with goalie Soitrir Varlokostas trapped 10 yards out and ball goes into low center of net.

92 min … TFCA Justin Maheu GOAL
Maheu gets through ball up middle from 40 yards and slides 20 yard shot under goalie into center of net. Maheu earns a Yellow card for pulling off his shirt and leaving it in the PFC end.

Notes
Attendance was about 125 on this hot evening with a bright sun setting in the North West. This game was held at Brockton Stadium in downtown Toronto because of the City of Toronto workers strike. Both Portugal FC and TFC Academy hold their home games at Lamport Stadium which was less than 5 km from here. Brockton used to be the home stadium of Portugal as recently as two years ago. It has no scoreboard as always and people who live across the street can watch from their porches. The grass pitch was in fairly good shape (their were times over past years when it was unplayable). There are locker rooms once again under the stands (players used to have to change at the school across the street over the years) as the tenants are the SCPT “Sporting Clube Portugues de Toronto”. The gates were open under the stands for the washroom and it looked like the rooms were going to be painted but there were neither toilets nor running water. I pretended to not know where the urinals would possibly drain to.

The Academy team had more chances throughout the game. Allando Matheson may have worn the # 9 of big team Danny Dichio but he played more like Pablo Vitti or Chad Barrett missing chances while on one on ones. He was subbed at 85 minutes to make room for game winning scorer Justin Maheu. Maheu must be a new player because he wasn’t listed in last week’s game.

Portugal FC brought on head coach Danny Amaral as a sub at 74 minutes to try and get the winning goal. He set up some shots for teammates who couldn’t convert these chances. Amaral had to retire at the end of the last year because of various knee operations had taken their toll. Tony Maia was formerly listed as the manager AND head coach for today’s game. Why the team pressed for a winning goal and was caught a few times short at the back putting a great strain on their defense is hard to understand.

Referee’s assistant Steve Senderovich was a busy man today because he was the fourth official in the Brampton Lions vs Toronto Croatia game that had ended just two hours earlier. One other CSL game started at 5:00 pm with Serbian White Eagles traveling to Maple to beat Italia Shooters 5-1. Dave Barrie was the referee in this game and had to give out a few Yellow cards for a chippy game but was more likely to call a lot of freekicks.

CSL Result
Sunday July 5th, 2009

Final Score
Toronto Croatia 1, Brampton Lions 0

Venue
Victoria Park, Brampton

Kickoff
3:00 pm

Highlights
22 min … TC Tomislav Ples rush to through ball on right and Lions Joao Ferreira pulls him down. Referee Justin Tasev awards a Penalty kick and also gives Ferreira a Yellow card.

24 min … TC Hayden Fitzwilliams blasts Penalty kick to left corner and goalie Kevin Doyle flies to push ball wide left of net and defenders clear.

26 min … Lions RED card
Alex Arbelo earns a direct objection for an elbow to the face of TC Jonathan Bustamante in center circle. Daniel Nascimento takes over as captain.

63 min … Croatia Tihomir Maletic GOAL
TC Hayden Fitzwilliams cross from 30 yards on left has Maletic head 10 yarder that bounces into low left corner of net beyond goalie Kevin Doyle.

80 min … Croatia RED card
Tomislav Skara earns his second Yellow card in 9 minutes as he pushes over Lions Daniel Nascimento at TC 22 yard line when Lions took a quick freekick for Nascimento to break in.

92 min … Lions RED card
Daniel Nascimento earns his second Yellow card for pushing TC Tonci Pirija at Lions 50 yard line after Pirija won ball. Pirija earned a Yellow card for his pushing back after whistle was blown.

Notes
Attendance was about 350 on this hot, sunny day with a nice breeze. Rogers Community Channel was filming this game for broadcast in the Brampton area on Monday at 7:00 pm.

This was an exciting game with Lions playing short a man for more than two thirds of the game. Both Lions who took Red cards were the captains of their team at that time of the game. They both are usually the main scoring threats for Lions in their games.

After the game I saw Lions David Guzman who wasn’t listed in today’s game. He was interviewed at halftime by the Rogers commentators but was out of earshot. He said he wasn’t playing as he injured his hamstring ten days ago and is expecting to be ready to play by this upcoming Friday.

Referee Justin Tasev had to give out many cards for the rough play in today’s game but some of the cards were for stupid things like kicking the ball away after a whistle or quickly kicking a ball at the nearest opposing player on a freekick so that player would be carded for not giving ten yards.

Goalie Sandi Matika earned the shutout for Toronto Croatia with a few key saves. Sven Arapovic crossed in many balls into the Lions box for Croatia and Hayden Fitzwilliams passed into the Lions box enough times that they could have put the game out of reach comfortably and avoid the nail biting finish.

Croatia Mario Pupic returned to Croatia (the country) and won’t be coming back. The team has given his #11 jersey and midfield spot to Ivan Zgela who is just got here from Croatia (the country) and was a substitute this afternoon but subbed in at 62 minutes—just a minute before the only goal.

Velimir Crljen is the head coach of Toronto Croatia this year. I asked him after the game to clarify. He was the head coach for the first two games of the year and then he left for Europe for a holiday and Milodrag Akmadzic coached for the team through its next four games. Both were themselves players for many years for Toronto Croatia.