Nuke Soccer

By Rocket Robin Soccer In Toronto

CSL Result
Sunday September 27th, 2009

Final Score
Toronto Croatia 3, Brampton Lions 0

Venue
Centennial Stadium, Etobicoke

Kickoff
8:15 pm

Highlights
9 min … Croatia Hayden Fitzwilliams GOAL
Croatia Tihomir Maletic 15 shot from right hits left goal post and ball deflects out and Fitzwilliams kicks low 12 yard shot through defender and goalie Kevin Doyle into right side of net.

38 min … Lions RED card
Andrew DaSilva earns a direct ejection from the game from referee John Oliva for either an elbow or punch to the face of Tihomir Maletic on the edge of the Croatia box. The injured Maletic is replaced by Marko Bedenikovic. (**I realize there must be something wrong with my notes because Maletic featured later in the game so either Maletic wasn’t the player hurt or more likely Bedenikovic replaced someone else and it wasn’t Maletic who was subbed out).

48 min … Croatia Tihomir Maletic GOAL
Maletic rolls ball in from 8 yards on left as he rounds goalie after Croatia Dan Jankovic sent in a pass from the right. (Very effective as Jankovic had just entered the game two minutes earlier to replace the injured Tommy Ples).

63 min … Lions RED card
Daniel Cameira earns a direct ejection for pulling down Tihomir Maletic who split the defence and got away a 12 yard roller as he was falling backwards but the goalie smothered the soft shot. The referee awarded a penalty kick because Maletic was on a breakaway.

64 min … Croatia Johnny Bustamante GOAL
Bustamante takes Penalty kick to left corner of net beyond flying goalie who guesses correctly but the ball is out of his reach.

Notes
Attendance was about 125 for this cool night.

Marko Culjak and Sandi Matika shared the shutout for Croatia. Culjak only played the first 22 minutes of the game. I confirmed with team official Tom Granic after the game that Culjak suffered a groin injury when he cleared a kick upfield and collapsed 90 yards away from the play.

Toronto Croatia finished higher in the standings and got to choose whether they hosted the first or second game in this series. That looks like a great choice now as they have a one game lead in the series and now the Lions have two players suspended for the rematch. Since a loss is only a loss of the game (total goals and road goals don’t count in the series) Cameira should have let him go because 2-0 or 3-0 didn’t matter and now Lions do without an experienced defender.

Daniel Nascimento had three chances just before the second ejection but after that, the Lions had few chances chances. Lions earned a Yellow card at 74 minutes for Alban Bultilaj tugging on Maletic rushing down the middle on yet another break.

The rematch is Sunday at 5:00 pm in Brampton. Lions have to win their game by any score to immediately force a 30 minute overtime to decide the winner of the series.

It is at the same time as the Italia Shooters vs St Catharines Wolves match taking place in Maple and Wolves are in the same predicament.

CSL Result
Sunday September 27th, 2009

Final Score
Serbian White Eagles 1, TFC Academy 0

Venue
Centennial Stadium, Etobicoke

Kickoff
5:00 pm

Highlights
40 min … White Eagles Sasa Viciknez GOAL
Viciknez freekick from 30 yards down middle is around five man wall and into left side of net on bounce beyond goalie Garrett Cyprus

Notes
Attendance was about 400 people on this cool late afternoon. Most of the fans were supporters of White Eagles. TFCA fans were mostly parents and family of the players. Danny Dichio and Nick Dasovic watched the game from the stands and Dichio signed autographs for the kids.

Dan Pelc earned the shutout for White Eagles but was ably supported by his backline of Uros Stamatovic, Dragorad Milicevic, Mirko Medic and Marc Jankovic. The Academy had scored 15 goals (7-1 against London City and 8-0 against North York Astros) in their last two games although they were against the two teams that didn’t make the playoffs.

TFCA defender Doneil Henry made a great sliding tackle on White Eagles Milos Vucinic at the start of the second half breaking in the left side of the box. White Eagles Milan Janorevic returned the favour at 76 minutes with a great scissor tackle pulling the ball away from TFCA Allando Matheson who was in alone at 10 yards.

Referee Gianni Facchini had a quiet game and didn’t give out any cards for the first hour of the game.

White Eagles take a 3-0 advantage in points to the next game. TFCA must win the rematch by any score next Saturday at Lamport Stadium to force a 30 minute overtime mini game immediately after that game. White Eagles as the higher ranking team got to choose if they wanted to host the first or second game. It will be interesting to see if getting a quick start is worth the gamble. Because the game is in Toronto, Serbians should have no trouble drawing fans as hundreds turned up for their regular season finale against Toronto Croatia.