Soccer In Toronto 10.04.09

By Rocket Robin Soccer In Toronto

CSL Result
Sunday October 4th, 2009

Final Score
Italia Shooters 2, St Catharines Wolves 1

Venue
St Joan of Arc Catholic High School, Maple

Kickoff
5:00 pm

Highlights
15 min … Wolves Matthew Cain GOAL
Wolves Carlo Arghittu short pass from 15 yards to Cain who from right puts low shot into left corner of net from 10 yards over sprawling goalie Camilo Benzi.

25 min … Wolves YELLOW card
Danny Gallagher earns it for charging along with another Wolves player into Shooters Desi Humphrey and their high/low crunching tackle somersaults him over. Because this tackle was just inside the Wolves box, referee John Oliva also signaled for a Penalty kick.

26 min … Shooters Geron Duport GOAL
Geron blasts Penalty kick to right corner of net as goalie Tony Visca crumples to center of net.

83 min … Shooters Geron Duport GOAL
Shooters Daryl Gomez gets pass up middle to Dupont setting up a 2 on 1 breakaway but he takes 18 yard shot just over sliding goalie into center of net.

Notes
Attendance was about 100 people on this cool overcast day. It had rained earlier in the afternoon wetting the aluminum seats but there was no sliding around on the field turf by the players during the game. The crowd was inflated by teams from the Richmond Hill Soccer Club which means there were family members to watch as well.

Shooters won the first game in St Catharines so Wolves had to win this game and if they did, they would have to win a 30 minutes overtime period. That would be difficult as the team had only brought 13 players. Their last game saw midfielder Matthew Stillman and forward Joe DelPriore both Red carded. I was told starting goalkeeper Claudio Perri is away on his honeymoon. Wolves had come so far this season because of their defence and they worked well getting the Shooters players called on offsides about a dozen times.

Shooters had the luxury of a full bench and always had fresh legs and even switched some players from forward to defence and defence to forward to mix things up.

Shooters almost put the game out of reach earlier when Desi Humphrey playing forward (he moved back to defence in the second half eluded a sliding defender on a rush up the middle then rounded the goalie but pushed the ball too far forward. He stopped the ball near the left end line and took a sharp angle shot from 20 yards that hit the bar and Shooters Mario Orestano took an 8 yard rebound from the right that a defender deflected behind his own net.

At 75 minutes, Shooters Fitzroy Christey helped ensure they’d advance by making a header off their own goal line when a long throw-in from the left had the goalie rush left to punch the ball before a Wolves player could head it but a cross into the box had a Wolves player send in a 12 yard shot that Christie kept out.

Shooters will once again know what it’s like to play short next week when they have something like seven players absent between this Tuesday and next Tuesday as they also play for Real Toronto who will represent Ontario in the 2009 BMO National Championships Challenge Trophy competition in Saskatchewan next week. Shooters owner Tony DeThomasis says they will be back by the second leg of the semi-final which will be against CSL regular season champs Trois-Rivieres Attak. Shooters lost their CSL regular season final game 4-3 against Wolves two weeks ago when Real Toronto were winning the Ontario championship later the same day.

Before this game TFC Academy II beat Italia Woodbridge Strikers 5-1 in a game that went into 30 minute overtime. Strikers had a player pick up his second Yellow card and the Strikers playing the last 20 minutes of regular time and the extra time, they didn’t get the offensive chances. The Academy was presented with the CSL Reserve Division championship trophy but the ceremony was spoiled by having the presentation table moved from the sideline into the center circle. We couldn’t hear a word of what was said but the players did come over singing “Champi-onas” holding the trophy to pose for their parents taking pictures. The ceremony was filmed by the guy who puts the stuff on the TFC website so I’ll get to see what was said no sooner than anyone else. Also on view should be stands ‘spectators’ Jason Bent (the head coach of Academy I) and Chris Cummins (the head coach of Toronto FC of the MLS)—they had a bye week this week—with some comments about the thrill for young players winning this competition. Bent confirmed with me that about seven players playing in today’s game were at least on the bench yesterday for the CSL quarterfinal against Serbian White Eagles. White Eagles knocked Academy 1 out of the playoffs. I also introduced myself to Chris Cummins as a TFC season ticket holder but he said he’d seen me before (good eyesight?—nope he said he saw me at last week’s Academy 1 game). I wished him good luck and gave him a card with my web site address.