CSL 2010 Week 17

[Rocket Robin 2]

Result of the Friday August 27, 2010 CSL game between Serbian White Eagles and Brampton Lions played at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke at 8:00pm.

40 min...Lions Kevin Omokhua GOAL...Omokhua rushes in from 35 yard line on right and from 25 yards on sharp angle sends in cross/shot that snakes into the top left corner of the net over goalie Milos Kocic who'd come out about 8 yards

to cut off his angle.

64 min...SWE Sasa Viciknez wins a Penalty kick when pulled over at 15 yards inside Lions box. Referee Hassane Rifai awards the shot.

67 min...SWE Milos Scepanovic GOAL...Scepanovic takes low blast to low right corner of net beyond sliding goalie Roy Blanche.

Final Score:......Serbian White Eagles............1..............Brampton Lions............1............

Attendance was about 250 on this mild evening.

The Lions have recovered from a bad start to begin the season and are now tenth in the standings. After they scored their goal, it looked like they were hanging on the rest of the game even after the White Eagles tied it. There

was a four minute delay at 48 minutes when Lions were awarded a freekick from 22 yards on the right in the SWE end. Kevin Omokhua went down while waiting in the box on the left. The referee ended up giving a Yellow card to both

Omokhua for time wasting (?) and SWE Mirko Medic for what he said to the fourth official after the game was a hand on the shoulder to turn him around. Finally at 52 minutes Andy Garcia sent the freekick into the outside right webbing of the net. Another delay was when SWE Dragaorad Milicevic was injured in the SWE box at 58 minutes and it took until 60 minutes before SWE Andre Orlando could take his place. Also no ball boys in those long end zones.

White Eagles did have enough chances to win in the second half. At 80 minutes SWE Kirie Dimitrov blasted a 30- yard shot down the middle which the goalie stopped on the right and in alone for the rebound, Milos Scepanovic shot a 12 yard roller from the right side that went wide left of the net. At 88 minutes SWE had a 2 on 0 break but they weren't spread far enough apart and both players crashed into the goalie out at the 25 yard line trying to clear the ball. Goalie Roy Blanche was injured on the play but did finish the game. The play continued as a 2 on 2 among other players before being whistled down. Sasa Viciknez was given a Yellow card for either his part in the incident or dissent. The game was finally called at 95:55 minutes which still didn't seem like enough extra time however I still felt even if another ten minutes were added, SWE wouldn't score.

Referee Hassane Rifai gave out one card to each team in the first half and five for SWE in the second half and one (although someone counted two) to the Lions not making him popular at all with the home crowd.

White Eagles have now had two ties in their last two games and hold onto first but they could be caught this weekend depending on results of the other teams.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca

[Rocket Robin 2]

Result of the Saturday August 28th, 2010 CSL game between TFC Academy and London City played at Lamport Stadium in Toronto at 3:00pm.

18 min...City Youna Samra GOAL...Samra on a rush down the wing blasts a 22 yard shot from the right into the top left corner of the net over goalie Xander Huggins.

64 min...TFCA Kevan Aleman GOAL...TFCA Joshua Janniere has a break and rolls 15 yard shot that hits the left post past diving goalie Scott Mueller and the ball deflects to the right and Aleman kicks in 8 yard shot into the open net.

Final Score:........TFC Academy..............1.................London City...........1..............

Attendance was about 60 on this hot afternoon. The game was delayed by 30 minutes as the refereeing crew (Joe Audi-referee) were coming all the way from Ottawa. The game ending at 5:30pm still left fans 90 minutes to get to the MLS Toronto FC game at BMO Field on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds three blocks away. There was a very small contingent of TFC fans.

Both teams had chances to win this game. At 87 minutes TFCA Kevan Aleman took a cornerkick from the right that had TFCA Nicholas Lindsay head the ball wide left from 12 yards on the left. At 91 minutes City Youna Samra on a 2 on 1

rush passed the ball over at 12 yards but the defender got a foot in to break up the play. At 93 minutes Samra took a 25 yard freekick from the extreme left that had City Andrew Loague not able to turn a header from 6 yards on the right.

I asked Academy head coach Jason Bent before the game about Doneil Henry who was announced earlier in the week as signing a contract with Toronto FC. It appears doubtful that he will return to the Academy if they are

in a playoff round and Henry is just spending time on the bench with the pro club. Academy have a makeup game on Monday against Toronto Croatia as their first try two weeks ago had the game rained out at 38 minutes. Bent

confirmed there were no reserve division games on Sunday--they were playing on the Saturday just like this game so there won't be any players trying to play three games in three days. With the Academy losing players to college

scholarships and today's reserve division game, the bench only had four substitutions available instead of the usual seven. Goal scorer Kevan Aleman came in at the start of the second half.

London City earned a tie and has been on a small roll lately with only one loss in their last four games. Manager Ryan Gauss told Alex B of "This Week in the CSL" show before the game that the team has won more games than last year

(so far three vs one) and has been competitive in every game. Today's result pulls them even with the slumping North York Astros who they thumped 7-0 two weeks ago. Gauss said that goal scorer Youna Samra signed from the WOSL league within the last month and has scored four goals already. This brought to mind their goal scorer Paul Munster who set a record in this league for goal scoring in his brief time over here. Gauss said Munster now plays in the first division

of his native Northern Ireland [Linfield FC].

A mistake in announcing a Yellow card at 88 minutes made it look like Michael Marcoccia earned his second Yellow and should have been ejected but it was actually Carson Green who picked up the card.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca

[VPjr]

Milltown FC dropped its first home game all season, falling 1-0 to Montreal Impact Academy.

[jpg75]

I watched the Portugal FC - Brantford match on Friday on Rogers Cable. Brantford were winning 1-0 when they had a man sent off late in the 1st half. Portugal then poured it on and eventually won 3-2 on the back of a Massimo Mirabelli hat trick! Brantford had another man sent off late and then PFC had a man sent off so the game finished 10 v 9.

[Califax]

Craziest game I have watched this year. The ref assessors we're sitting right behind me. It was a rather sloppy game and I imagine that the officials got an earful after this one. Mirabelli's second goal was a cracker. The kid might end up being OK.

[Rocket Robin 2]

Result of the Monday August 30th, 2010 CSL game between Toronto Croatia vs TFC Academy played at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke at 7:30pm.

1min 25 sec...Academy Tristan Jackman GOAL...Jackman takes low 22 yard shot up the middle into left corner of net beyond diving goalie Sandi Matika.

Final Score:......Toronto Croatia......0.........TFC Academy............1...........

Attendance was about 120 on this hot and humid evening. This game was rescheduled from Sunday August 15th at 8:15pm. That game actually got started but was stopped at 38 minutes with Toronto Croatia

holding a 1-0 lead and a thunderstorm interrupting and not stopping until the game was stopped. This game started from 0 minutes and went the full 90 minutes. With the scheduled game of Sunday between

Toronto Croatia and York Region Shooters being postponed to give Croatia time to recover after their trip to British Columbia to play an exhibition game (watched by 4400 at Swangard Stadium in Vancouver said message board posters), tonight's open spot was a good time to play this game with Croatia holding five games in hand on a few teams in the league and with less than five weeks left in the regular season.

This game was over very quickly with the early goal. I couldn't have expected any more scoring as TFC Academy have not allowed more than one goal against since five games ago when they allowed three goals

in a 3-1 loss to--Toronto Croatia. Croatia had not allowed more than one goal for their last six games.

TFC Academy continues to perform well despite losing players to call-ups to the MLS team and scholarships. Their bench was thin again for the second game in a row with only four players listed. It appears it's their junior

academy team that is suffering because they lost for the second week in a row with many players moving up the senior academy team to fill in the roster spots.

Angelo Cavalluzzo earned the shutout for the Academy without having to make many tough stops. Croatia was limited by play of Academy defenders Dino Gardner, Parker Seymour, captain Jordan Murrell, and Ashtone Morgan.

Croatia's shooting needed improvement with most the freekicks and shots skied over the net. Croatia's best chance was at 17 minutes when Halburto Harris crossed a ball into the box from the right and Dani Jankovic kicked a 7 yard shot that the goalie pushed wide right of the post.

Referee Justin Tasev had an easy game to officiate between the two disciplined teams.

Tonight's win and Saturday's tie for TFCA moved them up to 2nd place in the standings only one point behind Serbian White Eagles however TFCA have played more than York Region Shooters and Milltown FC who are just behind them in the standings. Toronto Croatia is stuck in 9th place; one place out of the playoffs but holding six games in hand on Montreal who are only one point ahead of them.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca