CSL Toronto Croatia visits British Columpbia for game...

[Rocket Robin 2]

For Immediate Release

Toronto Croatia announce August friendly at Swangard Stadium

CSL expansion discussions on the agenda

TORONTO – Wednesday, August 11 -Toronto Croatia will play an exhibition game against Athletic Club BC at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, British Columbia on August 27.

Athletic Club BC won the Fraser Valley Soccer League title earlier this year, one of the top leagues in that province. The club also has teams in other leagues in British Columbia.

Toronto Croatia is one of the longest standing professional clubs in North America with a long list of achievements going back to the 50s. They won the CSL championship in 2000, 2004 and 2007, a year they went undefeated to win the inaugural world tournament for Croatian teams, a competition that included Austria, Germany, Australia, the United States and France. A year earlier, in 2006, the club celebrated 50 years in Canadian soccer.

But the club is best known for being Toronto Metros-Croatia, winner of the North American Championship in 1976, a time when the team attracted world stars such as Portuguese superstar Eusebio. Just two months ago the club was inducted into Canada’s Soccer Hall of Fame for that championship win.

“We are very pleased to play in British Columbia and appreciate the opportunity to play Athletic Club BC and for the chance to play before Vancouver fans,” said Toronto Croatia president, Joe Pavacic.

CSL executives, including CSL Commissioner Domenic Di Gironimo, will be on hand to meet with interested soccer administrators in the province with a view to explore ways Canadian soccer at the upper level can be structured to help develop more players for professional soccer and for Canada’s national teams.

“We must work together to move Canada forward at home and in world soccer and I look forward to reaching out to those in western Canada who share this common purpose,” said Di Gironimo in accepting an invitation to visit the province.

“We are looking forward to this game and we will take the opportunity to stimulate discussion for a CSL presence in British Columbia,” said Richard Gablehouse, Chairman of Athletic Club BC.

Canadian Soccer League Inc.,

56 Pennsylvania Avenue, Unit 5, Concord, Ontario L4K 3V9

Tel: 905 564-2297 Toll Free 1 888 216-9913 Fax: 905 671-6450

Email: csl@canadiansoccerleague.ca

Website

[Richard]

Hmmm... Athletic Club BC were bottom of the PCSL standings this past season, winning only one game out of 16 plus they were suspended by the league in July. Good luck CSL.

[Vic]

What were they suspended for?

[Bill Spiers]

Hmmm... Athletic Club BC were bottom of the PCSL standings this past season, winning only one game out of 16 plus they were suspended by the league in July. Good luck CSL.

Just took a look at the PCSL web site. Am I reading it wrong or does their schedule only run from May 1st. to July 18th.? What kind of a league is that? Not much better than some of the USL divisions (PDL and Super-Y).

(I'm avoiding posting this on that other thread for fear of firing up BBTB and Juby!).

[Vic]

Ahhh now I get it. Makes perfect sense now. Thanks Bill I missed that.

Most indoor winter leagues in the east are 7v7 and run 5-6 months. Bad enough being stuck in a coop half a year, the bigger problem is the outrageous cost. A full field is $25 per player per hour.

[Richard]

What were they suspended for?

The league did not disclose reasons. I think it is safe to assume it was an issue of meeting minimum league requirements.

[Juby]

Hmmm... Athletic Club BC were bottom of the PCSL standings this past season, winning only one game out of 16 plus they were suspended by the league in July. Good luck CSL.

wow could you be more snotty? you know you got into an arguement with me and not the csl right? your not gonna get a medal if the csl fails eh? I'm not going around dumping on the pdl for whatever reason (especially when their overinferred), I don't hate them or wish them ill will, the canadian clubs are still canadian clubs after all. I'm just reminding you, you have no vested interest in seeing the csl fail, and I hope your not going to take our argueing as a reason to needlessly smear the csl every chance you get.

A csl club is going across the country to play a game in your backyard, you'd think you'd have the good manners to not scoff at them. I guess they should give up since your not impressed (that last line really made me laugh)

Edit: sorry, it just really bugged me, it really seems like he got a crumb of satisfaction out of embaressing canadian soccer which is just completely counter to...well....canadian soccer

[Juby]

The league did not disclose reasons. I think it is safe to assume it was an issue of meeting minimum league requirements.

such as? (pitch irregularities? financial irregularities? facility issues?) I'm not argueing, I'm just curious what kinda problems.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Does not look good for the CSL if they travel across the country to promote their league with a game vs. a team that is the worst in its league, is suspended for whatever reason, don't you think, Juby?

I mean, if you really have a basis for negotiation, promote the idea with a team locals can respect. Because otherwise you are just hurting yourself, and seeming a bit desperate, and suggesting indirectly that this is probably the one team they could find to come up against.

[Juby]

well actually it doesn't seem irregular at all really. They just want to get out there and play a game to show off their game. The opponent doesn't actually matter that much and if they pick a bad one they should if anything, look good.

It's not like the worst team in any league around the world has horribly harder time of getting friendly then their league mates, lower division teams still manage to arrange friendlies. Don't you think your inferring alot by assuming athletic's table position matters at all to the csl in a friendly?

I'm not saying your wrong but it is a lot to assume (that they couldn't get the other teams, that they cared what team, maybe the people from athletic made a good offer to visit etc.). So to summerise I just don't think their enough there to really reach any conclusions, sure you can get impressions but to just write this off is well wrong (and horribly horribly horribly counter productive).

Also I had pretty much wanted to say the same thing to richard but wanted to keep my response short, he is a inferring alot of details (he makes it seems as though athletic club bc is joining the csl imminently and that the csl is making a hodge podge of the worst teams it can just to be national, he makes all these conclusions off pretty much one sentence:

“We are looking forward to this game and we will take the opportunity to stimulate discussion for a CSL presence in British Columbia,” said Richard Gablehouse, Chairman of Athletic Club BC. "

isn't that a bit of a stretch? This was a big part of my problem argueing the other day, I don't just have to deal with the issues, I have to deal with the hyperbole, I have to deal with arguement not against the issues but made against an exxagerated caricature of the issues.

[Vic]

Key phrase - " in accepting an invitation to visit the province."

I really don't see TMC coming out and playing a friendly and a few CSL people taking the opportunity as a dreadful thing. How do you win in this game? It's either you never do things like this or you do them wrong. Are they better putting the money into facilities in the East? There are a lot of people who live and breathe by the statement that nothing will ever happen nationally because no one is willing to spend any money or try and work together. Well, someone is.

[Richard]

wow could you be more snotty?

Snotty..... bit of an over reaction don't you think? It was merely a statement of facts quoted from the PCSL website which you're welcome to look at yourself.

[Juby]

this was for vic

yeah it's so bizarre, a csl team goes for a friendly against a pcsl team, somehow this becomes a bad thing, and the first post responding to it is literally insulting it for the sake of insulting it.

this is for richard:

no, literally you made it seem like a dumb idea, then you say 'good luck csl' in a way that could only be termed as a scoff, maybe you could have been snottier (I'll give you that) and it's one thing to be snotty to me, but I'm not the csl, I think your statement was fairly rude towards the csl (a league you may not support but despite our differences shouldnt in itself bother you)

and I'm not saying this to argue, but in all honesty, it was a loaded statment that also had some pcsl facts.

[Richard]

I don't have a problem with the CSL paying a visit to BC, it isn't the first time by any means and likely won't be the last. I wish them well. With whom is CSL Commissioner Domenic Di Gironimo expecting to hold discussions.... "interested soccer administrators in the province" is very vague? I assume he has a series of meetings lined up though no approaches have been made to the PCSL or any of its member clubs in good standing as far as I am aware.

[Juby]

Hmmm... Athletic Club BC were bottom of the PCSL standings this past season, winning only one game out of 16 plus they were suspended by the league in July. Good luck CSL.

not so wonderfully polite? you can't act like you wish the csl well but the fact of the matter is you were scoffing at them because you got into an arguement with me a couple days ago. You know you won't melt if you admit you were kinda rude in a rash moment. you could have said something nice (they are visiting you after all), something unbiased or you could try and make them look silly (nothing was really pointing at them looking silly but you went with that angle)

And here's a wonderful point, you point out that somethings vague, therefore you make it into a negative, your literally taking all sorts of nothing and trying to make the csl look bad (smear campaign), what is your position in the pcsl that makes you the key source on the subject?

[paul-collins]

[Juby]

say waht you want I don't care (and that is pretty funny) but the point is (and I thought it was done) that just because we got in an arguement on another thread does not mean everything the csl does outside the the regular season is immiadiatly jumped on by evcessive cynicism (really, the csl will seem horribly pointless here if every thread on the subject gets filled with people trying to undermine for the sake of undermining it (just cause their annoyed with me, admittedly no one should have any problems with the csl so why can't the threads be hopeful? I'm gonna make a thread, with a business plan, if you wanna dump on a national league, do it there, elsewise, all I'm saying is being overly critical is just rude to the people actually spending their money)

[Unnamed Trialist]

Juby, if the CSL and a BC league were in negotation, and with no obligation at all decided to put together a friendly in a place like Swangard, we would all be for it. I think in any case that when the CSL did their cup they did have a rep from BC go out (two summers ago?), so there is a basis for doing something there. There is a history to build on, legit clubs that are probably willing to play a friendly vs. a CSL club, real soccer administrators who want to keep the lines of communication open, because eventually going to some sort of higher level cup for comparable leagues is rather attractive, however complicated (scheduling, distance, cost).

But this case is none of that. It is a bad move for the CSL, or not a good one, and discredits them in their quest to go national. Simple as that. If you were really a CSL supporter you would see that and accept it.

[Richard]

Juby, you see ghosts where there are none. Calm down, we all share the same long term objectives here.

[Juby]

what are you two talking about? richard's the easier one, your not talking in code, you saw a thread announcing a friendly and made a snotty comment for no good reason (well cause you were in the mood on dumping on the csl), then because a sentence is vague, you make something out of nothing (it's called being passive aggressive: act nice, hide your snide comment, hope no one calls you on it). Like I said before, when you catch yourself in the wrong, you won't melt if you say, yeah maybe I was little rude, and when you lie to save face, you do realize your still lieing right? And once again Richard, what is your position in the PCSL that would allow you to back up this statement? (are you perhaps bff's with all the teams owners?)

though no approaches have been made to the PCSL or any of its member clubs in good standing as far as I am aware.

seriously it's like if to be an ass you say to someone 'real smart' sarcastically, and look at you like your a douche bag so you say "I said 'real smart'', like good idea, you haven't saved face, you just become a lieing douche bag.

second guessing and overly (and irrationally) criticizing the csl, why don't you cut right to the chase and get on your hands and knees and pray to god to bring it down while your at it. since it seems to be your plan anyway to belittle it till no one takes it seriously

Unamed trialist, what are you talking about? how does it discredit them? they were invited for a friendly and their going, while their there, they will start talking with a few parties about working together in the future. What is this horrible mistep, that the team that invited them isn't very good. Am I missing something? Do the athletic players have leprosy? Do bad teams not deserve friendlies? No it's just a friendly and some talk, any other conclusions you have reached are complete speculation.

They literally just said they were going for a friendly in BC and will be talking to a few groups about expansion. This isn't at all negative or even really positive but your acting like the csl has done something stupid because ???poor teams shouldn't get friendlies???the other teams forgot to call richard???Just because you took that article and assumed the csl is going national like next year, with athletic club bc doesn't mean it's at all true, it just means you got robbed out of an education cause you clearly overread the article.

seriously, for all we know they just want to talk parrallel affiliation like just linking up a bit

And I'm about halfway through a big thread on a national division so hopefully soon you can realize you don't have talk as belittling as possible about the csl (you know the guys ACTUALLY spending their money on soccer) as a means of getting back at me, seriously look at this thread, all of a sudden (coincedentally right after that arguement eh) people are aggressively insulting the csl and how something as benign as a friendly and meet and greet somehow becomes a bad thing?

Seriously, as much as I've talked, half the posts here are actually their nonsense, smearing the csl just for the sake of it and claiming that the sky is falling. Is every csl thread going to have to deal with squad of cynics who even in mundane articles like this, will make up problems to just smear the csl.

[Richard]

You have no idea whatsoever what my reasons are for any post in this thread Juby, don't be so bloody juvenile and presumptuous.

[Juby]

so you just coincidentally belittle the csl for coming to your province and talking to people (I thought that's a nice thing)?

a week ago, would you have said anything like that? I'm purely guessing now but I'm inclined to think it would have been neutral positive considering almost nothing was really said.

I'm literally saying you were momentarily rash (that's hardly an admission) and wanted to remind you who your annoyed with.

I'm gonna shut up now unless your super rude back but the point is, It would be a serious shame if everything csl here had to deal with extra and unfair criticism just cause I support it.

[Richard]

I'm gonna shut up now.

Your most sensible post to date.

[tmcmurph]

Wake me when noise goes down

Lets get one of the top teams in CSL to play one of the top teams in PCSL. Now that would be something I've been wanting to see for a while. Even as a friendly it would be good to get the different regional leagues playing the odd game and talking to each other. How about the TFC academy going on a brief tour and playing a bunch of BC teams or the Caps residency doing a CSL tour?

Lots of opportunities.

[Juby]

i'm fine with that, I would have also accepted, 'sure i was rash, but you were a wanker'