Soccer In Toronto 09.29.11

By Rocket Robin Soccer In Toronto

CSL Result
Thursday September 29, 2011

Final Score
Toronto Croatia 2 TFC Academy 1

Venue
Centennial Stadium, Etobicoke

Kickoff
8:00 pm

Highlights
7 min … TC Josip Keran GOAL
TC Tihomir Maletic cornerkick from right has Keran on left leap and head in 5 yarder to left side of net.

61 min … TC Bozenko Lesina GOAL
TC Daniel Niksic on right pass forward from 30 yards and TC Halburto Harris rushes in to 6 yards and low cross from right through box between defender and goalie Chad Bush has Lesina on left post tap in 3 yarder into open net.

76 min … TFCA Michael Bilak GOAL
TFCA Dylan Carreiro from 40 yards on left sends forward pass to charging TFCA Sergio Carmargo who sends low cross into center of box for Bilak who has 6 yard shot that goalie Antonio Ilic gets a hand to to stop and Bilak gets to rebound on right end line and takes 5 yard shot that goalie stops one yard behind goal line on short side.

Notes
Attendance on this cool evening was about 125 which was good considering this game was only announced a week ago. It made up for a game postponed from July 17th. There were fans of TFCA but they were parents and family of players rather than from supporter groups.

This game had a great setup in that it involved two out of three players tied for the CSL scoring lead at 17 goals—Tihomir Maletic of Croatia and Stefan Vukovic of the Academy (Richard West of Brampton City United is the third player). Maletic played well with the assist and a few cornerkicks but only had one good chance on this own. Vukovic had one great chance but was subbed out at halftime.

TFCA looked much better in the second half with three subs made at the break. Midfielder Jay Chapman, and forwards Tristan Jackman and Dylan Carreiro came in for midfielder Christopher Mannella, and forwards Stefan Vukovic and Omari Morris.

Best non-scoring chances were at 18 minutes when Vukovic took a 25 yard freekick from the left that hit the bar near the left post and a defender headed away the rebound from 8 yards in the middle.

26 minutes had Maletic take a 30 yard roller up the middle that the diving goalie pushed wide left.

At 37 minutes TC Bozenko Lesina fed the ball up the middle and the goalie slid out to the edge of the box to poke away the ball without Lesina falling over him. First minute of the second half found Maletic getting the ball at 10 yards on the left and the goalie slid to make a point blank stop.

48 minutes had TFCA Tyler Pasher on the left push a through ball to the middle but the goalie came out to 15 yards to pick up the ball before TFCA Michael Bilak could get to it.

73 minutes had Maletic roll a short centering pass for TC Hugo Herrera who rounded a defender at 12 yards and rolled a shot to the right corner that the diving goalie pushed wide right but Maletic rescued it on the end line but was called offside.

Last chance at 92 minutes had TFCA Jay Chapman given a through ball up the middle between two defenders at 20 yards and he ran towards goal but tapped a pass from 12 yards too far wide right for TFCA Michael Patrasso to get to. This play had tie game written all over it if he’d only taken the shot himself instead of passing!

I only remember referee Gianni Facchini giving out one Yellow card to each team tonight and he wasn’t baited into giving out any Penalty kicks although both teams gave it a try with players being softly pushed over.

I asked TFC Academy head coach Danny Dichio why he only played Stefan Vukovic for the first half of tonight’s game. He answered that they plan to have Vukovic in the Toronto FC Reserves game on Saturday morning at 10:30am at Downsview Park against the reserves of New York Red Bulls. We both think that’s strange to have BEFORE the main MLS game at 7:30pm that night but he said it was some kind of scheduling restriction from the league.

The loss tonight for TFC Academy (7-13-2) officially eliminates them from the playoffs. They still have four games including this Sunday with SC Toronto but the other three will be played while the playoffs continue without them. The other three games are against fellow teams that are also out of the playoffs. This gives Stefan Vukovic a chance to capture the scoring title and cities like London and Windsor a chance to see the Academy team. Toronto Croatia (17-3-5) were going to finish second in the league no matter what the outcome of tonight and Saturday’s final game against Windsor Stars.

The rescheduling of this game from July 17th was questionable back at the time—given as a stadium scheduling problem. One owner of a rival team said it was because Toronto Croatia had just returned from their tournament in Croatia (the country) and were short of players who stayed behind for a bit of R&R. The two teams had met eight days earlier also at this stadium (TFCA played some of their ‘home’ games here) and Academy scored a 2-0 upset. Maletic was the player who was away longest (TC exec Joe Pavicic tonight said he missed six games in total) and that may cost him the scoring title with Vukovic still having four games to play.