Soccer In Toronto 09.23.11

By Rocket Robin Soccer In Toronto

CSL Result
Friday September 23, 2011

Final Score
Serbian White Eagles 1 Toronto Croatia 1

Venue
Centennial Stadium, Etobicoke

Kickoff
8:00 pm

Highlights
37 min … Toronto Croatia Hayden Fitzwilliams GOAL
TC Marin Vucemilovic Grgic 40 yard freekick chip from left has SWE Milos Vucinic head ball down on right side of box but Fitzwilliams recovers ball, dribbles from 10 yards cutting to left side of net and shoots low 6 yarder into right side of net past goalie Milos Djurkovic.

63 min … SWE Milos Vucinic chips in 25 yard cross that TC goalie Antonio Ilic fumbles forward from 6 yards and runs after ball but SWE Milan Rakic gets to at 12 yards with chance for a clear shot at a goalie-free net but TC Josip Keran pushes him off his feet. Referee Yusri Rudolph calls a Penalty kick.

64 min … SWE Milos Scepanovic GOAL
Scepanovic blasts low Penalty kick to right side of net as goalie slides left.

Notes
Attendance was about 180 on this mild but wet evening. A rain that went on for hours and just stopped before the game started discouraged a walk up crowd. It was a ‘home’ game for the White Eagles although both teams use this as their home grounds. This game was on artificial turf and the only problems were the players slipping around and the goalies dropping the wet ball.

Referee Yusri Rudolph kept the game under control giving out no cards until the second half except when he gave a Red to Toronto Croatia assistant coach Miodrag Akmadzic at 13 minutes for comments made from the bench. He wasn’t afraid to call many freekicks in a row to Toronto Croatia that infuriated the mostly pro-Serbian fans.

Best non-scoring chances were at 15 minutes when SWE Milos Scepanovic took a 25 yard chip from the right that was over the goalie but TC Daniel Niksic headed the ball behind the net from 4 yards.

At 32 minutes Niksic was in alone on the right side of the box and kicked a 10 yarder over the bar. One minute later a TC player passed forward to TC Bozenko Lesina who was in alone but shot a 15 yarder that the sliding goalie palmed over the net. Injury time found Niksic holding his injured head and a defender ignored him but he suddenly ran forward on the right to take a pass and race into the box but slipped at 12 yards and couldn’t get away a shot.

72 minutes found TC Tihomir Maletic take a cornerkick from the right that had the goalie slip when he got a hand to it and the ball fell into the box but a defender cleared from 5 yards.

77 minutes had SWE sub Sasa Viciknez take a 30 yard freekick from the right that the goalie was able to palm over the net.

86 minutes had TC Niksic rush on the right on a 3 on 2 break and take a 15 yard shot to the short side but had the goalie, who’d been worried about a cross, flew to push the ball wide right.

88 minutes had TC Halburto Harris get a rebound of a cornerkick from the left that was partially cleared and blast a 28 yard shot down the middle between a crowd of players that the goalie palmed up and caught when it dropped. Last good chance was at 91 minutes when SWE Scepanovic’s cornerkick from the right was knocked down in the box and SWE Darryl Gomez whiffed on a 4 yard shot.

This game was the rematch from one played at the end of May when Toronto Croatia earned a 1-0 win in a game that was called after the end of the first half because of a thunderstorm. That game with its all-day rain limited attendance. That has been the story for many of the games in the league this year.

There is talk of calling the Windsor Stars home game off tomorrow after 14 hours of rain in a row in that city so far today. London City’s game tonight was called off earlier in the day because of a flooded field at Cove Road. The league had planned to start the playoffs in two weeks but there are some teams which still have three or four games to play and TFC Academy has six! Quite a few games that have been played have not had dry weather and attendance has been down overall over last year.

Tonight’s result leaves Toronto Croatia nine points behind SC Toronto who were winning 5-2 over Brampton City United. That was the Rogers Community channel game-of-the-week and was cut off transmission wise at 85 minutes after having broadcast problems throughout the game. White Eagles pull into a tie for fourth but have played one more game than York Region Shooters who are scheduled to play on Sunday.