CSL 2009, Week 6

[Rocket Robin]

Result of the Sunday June 21st, 2009 CSL game between Toronto Croatia and Italia Shooters played at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke at 8:15pm.

33 min…Shooters Kadian Lecky GOAL…Shooters Alvaro Yacques pushes ball from 35 yards through to Lecky at 20 yards and he rolls ball through goalie Sandi Matika ‘s legs at 12 yards into center of net.

56 min…Croatia RED card…Forward Hugo Herrera earns a direct ejection by referee Yusri Rudolph for knock down on Shooters defender Samuel Hazan injuring him in Shooters box.

64 min…Shooters defenders Gaston Orique and Aundrae Rollins squeeze Croatia’s Hayden Fitzilliams between them in Shooters box on his run and referee awards a Penalty kick.

64 min…Croatia Mario Pupic GOAL…Pupic blasts penalty kick low to left corner of net as goalie Camilo Benzi crumples to the right. (Benzi had earned a Yellow card before the kick for a pre-kick pat on the back of Pupic.

80 min…Croatia Mario Pupic GOAL…TC Hayden Fitzwilliams 30 yard shot has TC Tomi Ples 3 yards wide right of net on end line push ball over to Pupic who puts in 1 yarder on right post. Pupic then earns a Yellow card for running over to the stands and pulling his shirt off.

Final Score:……Toronto Croatia……..2…………..Italia Shooters………..1……….

Attendance was about 150 mostly pro-Croatia fans on this mild evening.

This was an exciting game with Croatia playing better when they were reduced to ten men. Both teams had plenty of scoring chances and there were a lot of fouls and injuries. Most serious was to Shooters Nick Cisternino who needed to be helped off the field at 34 minutes.

Two goals by Mario Pupic but a team official said he’s returning to Croatia (the country) soon and won’t be back.

This game was held at Centennial Stadium one of the facilities that will be shut during the strike by city workers. It was only a few weeks ago that soccer games had to be postponed because the field wasn’t ready as contractors were late laying down field turf in a major makeover of the stadium. There are no seats/benches in the stands so fans sit on the terraced ‘steps’ of the stadium. There is no warning tape on the real steps so it will be almost expected that someone will eventually fall down the stairs not seeing the depth of the battleship gray coloured paint.

The league may do some ground sharing during the labour dispute with those teams not in the city of Toronto or play on non-city owned fields. Serbian White Eagles and Toronto Croatia normally play at Centennial, North York Astros play at Esther Shiner Stadium, and Portugal FC and TFC Academy play at Lamport Stadium. That’s half the league so it will be a major inconvenience.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca