CPSL Week 20

[Rocket Robin]

Result of the Thursday September 22nd, 2005 CPSL game between Hamilton Thunder and Toronto Croatia played at The Soccer Centre in Vaughan at 9:00pm.

Final Score:.......Hamilton Thunder............0...............Toronto Croatia................0...............

Attendance was about 70 on this warm night. There had been rain for several hours during the day but it just stopped at game time. Playing on the Fieldturf at The Soccer Centre meant there was no mud and the surface was not soaked. Sliding tackles were easier to get in than when the surface is dry so we saw a lot of them but little viciousness. Referee Amato De Luca did not give out any cards tonight. The only one who was in trouble was Thunder's Bosko Borjan as the assistant coach who was frequently leaving the player's box on the sideline and walking down the sideline and complaining about the referee's calls. He was warned by the fourth official, assistant referee and the referee to stay at his bench. Head coach Jorge Armua was in the crowd tonight after being suspended in last week's game for fighting the Shooters coach last week.

George Azcurra earned the shutout for Toronto Croatia with all routine saves. Matt Diguglielmo earned the shutout for Thunder with more work to do. He had to survive five corner kicks in the last seven minutes of the game in a late flurry. At the start of the second half Diguglielmo made one miscue and that was when TC Caswain Mason crossed in from 30 yards on the left and a TC player headed the ball off the bar from 7 yards and the ball stayed in play. A defender passed it back to him to clear and he picked up the ball. That resulted in a free kick from only 5 yards but with all the Thunder players blocking the net, the kick was easily blocked.

Kadian Lecky and Ryan Thompson played forwards for Thunder and had most of their chances. For Croatia, Danny Draganic took many of the corner kicks, Halburto Harris and #9 (Jason Shannon?) were the forwards, Hayden Fitzwilliams had some good runs up the wing.

This was a fair result between the two playoff bound teams. This wasn't a dull game although the scoreless tie was exactly the same result as their July 15th meeting at Memorial Park the home of Toronto Croatia. These two teams could meet in the Rogers Cup final. Thunder continue to play their remaining games at The Soccer Centre in Vaughan because of dispute with the City of Hamilton which keeps them locked out of Brian Timmis Stadium. Hey it seems if I wanted a game with lots of goals, I should have driven to Oakville where the Blue Devils beat Durham Storm 12-1.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca

[Rocket Robin]

Result of Saturday September 24th, 2005 CPSL game between Toronto Croatia and Laval Dynamites played at Memorial Park in Streetsville at 8:00pm.

54 min...TC RED card...Roman Harapyn earned his second Yellow card within three minutes of his first, this time for jumping with elbows up for a header near center circle. Referee Neil Schofield gave Dynamites goalie Patrick Geffard a Yellow card for coming all the way out of his box to give his opinion of the call.

62 min...TC RED card...Peter Curic earns a Red card directly for a sliding tackle from behind near center line injuring Dynamites Hicham Lamnini.

82 min...TC Antonijo Zupan GOAL...TC Hayden Fitzwilliams outruns two LD defenders who were waiting for ball to roll across end line for goalkick. He rescues ball and then dekes both of them on left end line and passes out to Zupan who rolls 10 yard shot from left into open right side of net beyond goalie Patrick Geffard who was covering the left corner of net.

93 min...LD RED card...Patrick Geffard earns his second Yellow card (although could easily have been a direct Red) for a crunching body check on TC Leo Laurito breaking up middle on through ball. Referee calls a Penalty kick. Laurito was injured and had to leave the game and wasn't substituted.

95 min...TC Antonijo Zupan GOAL...Zupan blasts Penalty kick goal into top left corner of net beyond Nasson Theosmy who'd played midfield the rest of the game but became the goalie.

95 min...game ends.

Final Score:..........Toronto Croatia............2...............Laval Dynamites.............0..............

Attendance was about 80 on this cool night played on a field thin on grass with some dry mud patches.

What an incredible game! Toronto Croatia played down two men for the last 30 minutes and improved from the first half when they were fairly even with Dynamites and both teams with few scoring chances. There's a saying in soccer that a team often will play better a man down but no one says that about two men down. It was true. Dynamites were burned on a couple of offside calls with too many guys running too soon to tear up the field. Croatia didn't have to worry about that with Leo Laurito ending up the lone guy forward running on 1 on 4 rushes.

The first Croatia goal was an excellent effort by Hayden Fitzwilliams for not giving up on the ball which looked like it would roll out of play. George Azcurra earned the shutout for Croatia with some alert stops but really not much to do in the last half hour.

Dynamites coach Jr Toussaint complained about the referee's calls but; come on you're up two men; make your own breaks! Leo Laurito was coming back from a run when he was given the through ball, even if he was going to be called offside, it's not an opportunity for the goalie to crush him with a body check on a man almost a foot shorter than him. I thought the hit was just outside of the box so that's why the goalie didn't play the ball. That might have been just a freekick but I don't know all the rules of soccer. This was rough game with the referee frequently awarding freekicks because of the close checking. TC director John actually caught flak from assistant coach Kruno Culjak for continuing to send in their trainer Caralann to treat injuries of the Dynamites players. Dynamites only official was their coach.

What a difference half an hour makes. I thought it would be just a matter of time before Dynamites asserted their two man advantage and Croatia would be hanging on for a scoreless tie. With a definite possibility that Dynamites might pass TC in the standings and Croatia would have to play a one game quarterfinal game on the road in Laval. Now Dynamites are without a starting goalie on this road trip which has them play North York Astros tomorrow night. They did have four substitutes listed for this game which is four men better than their last road trip to Toronto.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca

[Rocket Robin]

Result of the Sunday September 25th, 2005 CPSL game between Brampton Stallions and St Catharines Roma Wolves played at Victoria Park in Brampton at 7:00pm.

26 min...Stallions Mladen Dikic GOAL...Dikic rolls in 15 yarder after short pass from left by BS Hugo Herrera from left that Dikic controls in middle and his shot is into right corner of net behind goalie Claudio Perri.

78 min...Wolves RED card...Yahance Moore. ..........Stallions RED card...Andrew Harris. While waiting for the Wolves to take a freekick from 25 yards on left of Stallions net, players for both teams waiting on the edge of the box on right get into a pushing match that escalates into a fist fight. Referee Alex William ejects one player from each team. He waves off Wolves captain Carlo Arghittu but comes over to explain to the Wolves coach Tom Bernardi. He orders Moore to stay over at the fourth official's table to avoid walking to the exit of the stadium past the stand and into the parking lot. There would be no Penalty kick said William because the ball was not in play before the punch up.

82 min...Wolves Ashley McMillan GOAL...Wolves Stephen King cornerkick from right has McMillan charge forward and head in 4 yarder under bar past goalie Roy Blanche.

92 min...Wolves Chiek Diarra GOAL...Diarra has low 15 yard shot from left through crowd of players in box into right side of net.

94 min...game ends.

Final Score:........Brampton Stallions...........1............St Catharines Roma Wolves..........2...........

Attendance was about 50 on this warm night with the threat of rain. There was a bit of mist at around 57 minutes for all of three minutes then again during the time added on.

Stallions had the lead from the first half onward but I had no feeling that they were wasting time except that goalie Roy Blanche played balls that came into his box on his feet and waited several seconds until the Wolves realized they'd better force him to pick up the ball or they'd lose more valuable time in their comeback attempt. Both teams had their chances. At 83 minutes, Stallions Mladen Dikic had a 25 yard freekick up the middle that rang off the outside of the left post. At 85 minutes Ashley McMillan raced down the right wing and cut around Milodrag Akmadzic to get away a 15 yard shot that a sliding Blanche got his foot to and deflected the ball over the net. At 93 minutes, Wolves goalie Claudio Perri had to make another save for about the third time in ten minutes when he blocked a Kevin McIntosh shot from 20 yards.

Wolves had six subs listed and brought on two of them. Stallions listed twenty guys which is more than the eighteen they could have so some were held back. I'm not sure which ones. I wrote the lists down from the fourth official's copy at halftime. The Stallions stopped operating the scoreboard or providing a PA system a few games ago. There was an incident in the parking lot after the game as the Wolves made their way to the dressing rooms at the back of the hockey arena next door. I think it was the Stallions player who was ejected now in street clothes trying to get into the Wolves players but it was soon broken up. Smart of coach Benardi to keep the players in a group. Ah the players heard worse at halftime when he tore into them for being disorganized and not trying hard enough!

This was the Wolves last game of the regular season. They temporarily grab the third and final playoff spot in the Western Conference but with a week to go in the season they could be passed by either Windsor Border Stars, Brampton Stallions (who have two games left, now three points behind the Wolves) or London City (although they could be out after their game tonight against Vaughan Shooters). If things work out right, I can still see all but Windsor and Wolves one more time before the playoffs including a five games in five nights run.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca

[Rocket Robin]

Result of the Sunday September 25th, 2005 CPSL game between Brampton Stallions and St Catharines Roma Wolves played at Victoria Park in Brampton at 7:00pm.

26 min...Stallions Mladen Dikic GOAL...Dikic rolls in 15 yarder after short pass from left by BS Hugo Herrera from left that Dikic controls in middle and his shot is into right corner of net behind goalie Claudio Perri.

78 min...Wolves RED card...Yahance Moore. ..........Stallions RED card...Andrew Harris. While waiting for the Wolves to take a freekick from 25 yards on left of Stallions net, players for both teams waiting on the edge of the box on right get into a pushing match that escalates into a fist fight. Referee Alex William ejects one player from each team. He waves off Wolves captain Carlo Arghittu but comes over to explain to the Wolves coach Tom Bernardi. He orders Moore to stay over at the fourth official's table to avoid walking to the exit of the stadium past the stand and into the parking lot. There would be no Penalty kick said William because the ball was not in play before the punch up.

82 min...Wolves Ashley McMillan GOAL...Wolves Stephen King cornerkick from right has McMillan charge forward and head in 4 yarder under bar past goalie Roy Blanche.

92 min...Wolves Chiek Diarra GOAL...Diarra has low 15 yard shot from left through crowd of players in box into right side of net.

94 min...game ends.

Final Score:........Brampton Stallions...........1............St Catharines Roma Wolves..........2...........

Attendance was about 50 on this warm night with the threat of rain. There was a bit of mist at around 57 minutes for all of three minutes then again during the time added on.

Stallions had the lead from the first half onward but I had no feeling that they were wasting time except that goalie Roy Blanche played balls that came into his box on his feet and waited several seconds until the Wolves realized they'd better force him to pick up the ball or they'd lose more valuable time in their comeback attempt. Both teams had their chances. At 83 minutes, Stallions Mladen Dikic had a 25 yard freekick up the middle that rang off the outside of the left post. At 85 minutes Ashley McMillan raced down the right wing and cut around Milodrag Akmadzic to get away a 15 yard shot that a sliding Blanche got his foot to and deflected the ball over the net. At 93 minutes, Wolves goalie Claudio Perri had to make another save for about the third time in ten minutes when he blocked a Kevin McIntosh shot from 20 yards.

Wolves had six subs listed and brought on two of them. Stallions listed twenty guys which is more than the eighteen they could have so some were held back. I'm not sure which ones. I wrote the lists down from the fourth official's copy at halftime. The Stallions stopped operating the scoreboard or providing a PA system a few games ago. There was an incident in the parking lot after the game as the Wolves made their way to the dressing rooms at the back of the hockey arena next door. I think it was the Stallions player who was ejected now in street clothes trying to get into the Wolves players but it was soon broken up. Smart of coach Benardi to keep the players in a group. Ah the players heard worse at halftime when he tore into them for being disorganized and not trying hard enough!

This was the Wolves last game of the regular season. They temporarily grab the third and final playoff spot in the Western Conference but with a week to go in the season they could be passed by either Windsor Border Stars, Brampton Stallions (who have two games left, now three points behind the Wolves) or London City (although they could be out after their game tonight against Vaughan Shooters). If things work out right, I can still see all but Windsor and Wolves one more time before the playoffs including a five games in five nights run.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca