CSL 2011--Week 21

[Rocket Robin]

Result of the Friday September 23, 2011 CSL game between Serbian White Eagles and Toronto Croatia played at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke at 8:00pm.

37 min...Toronto Croatia Hayden Fitzwilliams GOAL...TC Marin Vucemilovic Grgic 40 yard freekick chip from left has SWE Milos Vucinic head ball down on right side of box but Fitzwilliams recovers ball, dribbles from 10 yards cutting to left side of net and shoots low 6 yarder into right side of net past goalie Milos Djurkovic.

63 min...SWE Milos Vucinic chips in 25 yard cross that TC goalie Antonio Ilic fumbles forward from 6

yards and runs after ball but SWE Milan Rakic gets to at 12 yards with chance for a clear shot at a goalie-free net but TC Josip Keran pushes him off his feet. Referee Yusri Rudolph calls a Penalty kick.

64 min...SWE Milos Scepanovic GOAL...Scepanovic blasts low Penalty kick to right side of net as goalie slides left.

Final Score:........Serbian White Eagles...........1..............Toronto Croatia............1...........

Attendance was about 180 on this mild but wet evening. A rain that went on for hours and just stopped before the game started discouraged a walk up crowd. It was a 'home' game for the White Eagles although both teams use this as their home grounds. This game was on artificial turf and the only problems were the players slipping around and the goalies dropping the wet ball.

Referee Yusri Rudolph kept the game under control giving out no cards until the second half except when he gave a Red to Toronto Croatia assistant coach Miodrag Akmadzic at 13 minutes for comments made from the bench. He wasn't afraid to call many freekicks in a row to Toronto Croatia that infuriated the mostly pro-Serbian fans.

Best non-scoring chances were at 15 minutes when SWE Milos Scepanovic took a 25 yard chip from the right that was over the goalie but TC Daniel Niksic headed the ball behind the net from 4 yards. At 32 minutes Niksic was in alone on the right side of the box and kicked a 10 yarder over the bar. One minute later a TC player passed forward to TC Bozenko Lesina who was in alone but shot a 15 yarder that the sliding goalie palmed over the net. Injury time found Niksic holding his injured head and a defender ignored him but he suddenly ran forward on the right to take a pass and race into the box but slipped at 12 yards and couldn't get away a shot. 72 minutes found TC Tihomir Maletic take a cornerkick from the right that had the goalie slip when he got a hand to it and the ball fell into the box but a defender cleared from 5 yards. 77 minutes had SWE sub Sasa Viciknez take a 30 yard freekick from the right that the goalie was able to palm over the net. 86 minutes had TC Niksic rush on the right on a 3 on 2 break and take a 15 yard shot to the short side but had the goalie, who'd been worried about a cross, flew to push the ball wide right. 88 minutes had TC Halburto Harris get a rebound of a cornerkick from the left that was partially cleared and blast a 28 yard shot down the middle between a crowd of players that the goalie palmed up and caught when it dropped. Last good chance was at 91 minutes when SWE Scepanovic's cornerkick from the right was knocked down in the box and SWE Darryl Gomez whiffed on a 4 yard shot.

This game was the rematch from one played at the end of May when Toronto Croatia earned a 1-0 win in a game that was called after the end of the first half because of a thunderstorm. That game with its all-day rain limited attendance. That has been the story for many of the games in the league this year.

There is talk of calling the Windsor Stars home game off tomorrow after 14 hours of rain in a row in that city so far today. London City's game tonight was called off earlier in the day because of a flooded field at Cove Road. The league had planned to start the playoffs in two weeks but there are some teams which still have three or four games to play and TFC Academy has six! Quite a few games that have been played have not had dry weather and attendance has been down overall over last year.

Tonight's result leaves Toronto Croatia nine points behind SC Toronto who were winning 5-2 over Brampton City United. That was the Rogers Community channel game-of-the-week and was cut off transmission wise at 85 minutes after having broadcast problems throughout the game. White Eagles pull into a tie for fourth but have played one more game than York Region Shooters who are scheduled to play on Sunday.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca

[Rocket Robin]

Result of the Sunday September 25, 2011 CSL game between Brampton City United and Windsor Stars played at Victoria Park in Brampton at 3:00pm.

23 min...BCU Oswald Adu GOAL...BCU Kevin McIntosh gets to ball sent into box from 30 yards on

left. He has ball at 12 yards on right and backheels ball across box and Adu blasts 12 yarder down middle low to right side of net.

46 min...BCU Marcos Nunes GOAL...BCU Jeremy Shepherd crosses in right to Nunes who shoots 15 yarder from right into top left corner of net over sprawling goalie Justin Danelon.

57 min...WS Stephen Ademolu GOAL...WS Mike Vjkic cornerkick from left into crowd of players in box has leaping Ademolu head in 5 yarder behind goalie Roy Blanche.

63 min...BCU Marcos Nunes GOAL...BCU Oswald Adu from 55 yards on right sideline pokes ball forward and Nunes races from 45 yards cutting in towards middle and shoots low 15 yarder to left corner of net.

83 min...BCU Oswald Adu pushes ball forward for BCU Marcos Nunes who's in alone up middle and diving goalie at 12 yards grabs his foot as ball rolls wide left. Referee Matt Arduini gives goalie Justin Danelon a Yellow card and awards BCU a Penalty kick.

84 min...BCU Marcos Nunes blasts Penalty kick low and well wide right as goalie dives correctly. Nunes missed his chance at a hat trick.

87 min...BCU Judah Hernandez GOAL...Hernandez gets ball in open on left from 50 yards and rushes towards middle on run and chips 18 yarder over goalie and into top right corner of net.

Final Score:.........Brampton City United............4..............Windsor Stars...........1.............

Attendance was about 100 which was a bit better than two weeks ago because this time they had boys from the Brampton Academy (and their parents) play a halftime exhibition game.

I could see this whole game laid out before it started when I saw although the Stars roster had 15 names after all the scratch outs, the team played with 11 players and NO SUBS. As expected they held their own in the first half and tired as the second wore on although BCU didn't exploit this by emptying their full bench until after the third goal. Windsor had played a home game the night before at 7:00pm

—a 4-1 win against the 2010 CSL champions Brantford Galaxy and now playing today after a four hour bus ride. Two goal scorer from that game David Kadoic played but two goal scorer Aaron Byrd didn't make the trip. Stephen Ademolu was their best player today making some solo runs through defenders but usually stopped by the final defender before he could get away a shot. Today reminded me of the bad old days of 2008 when the Windsor Border Stars made trips to the GTA and Montreal with not enough players.

BCU didn't play particularly well today and probably set a new record for the number of times they were called offside. Marcos Nunes, Jeremy Shepherd and Judah Hernandez were all guilty. I was surprised that Hernandez lost his temper a minute after he scored his goal. Putting up with all the offside flags he drew the whole game he earned a Yellow card at 88 minutes for kicking a ball into the net after another offside flag drew a whistle. League leading scorer Richard West injured two weeks ago has not returned to the line up.

Best non-scoring chances were at 36 minutes when WS Stephen Ademolu deked players at 30 yards for a clear chance and kicked a 20 yard chip over the goalie and the bar. A minute later BCU Judah Hernandez charged for a pass on the right and a low cross deflected off a defender. BCU Marcos Nunes turned back for the ball and sent a 12 yard low shot that the goalie saved. 42 minutes had WS Mike Vjkic pass forward to Ademolu on left for a 20 yard low shot that the diving goalie pushed wide left of the post. Start of the second half had BCU Jeremy Shepherd on a 2 on 1 break with Nunes

take a low 16 yard shot himself that the goalie smothered. The next minute Nunes scored but a minute after that Hernandez blasted a low 15 yarder from the left that the goalie blocked and Nunes blasted the 18 yard rebound down the middle that the goalie also stopped. 56 minutes found WS Ademolu rush through the middle and tap over a pass for WS Christian Mayorga to blast a 22 yarder that the goalie palmed over the net. The resulting cornerkick resulted in the Stars only goal. 60 minutes had Hernandez on a rush down the left cross from 20 yards near the end line over to Nunes who headed over the net.

Today's results throughout the league has BCU pulling into a tie for seventh place with an 11-9-3 record. They are in a tie with Mississauga Eagles with a game in hand but more important 6 points ahead of Brantford Galaxy with a game in hand with Galaxy having only two games still to play. Stars record falls to 4-14-5 and they just play through their final games.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca

[Rocket Robin]

Result of the Sunday September 25, 2011 CSL game between York Region Shooters and SC Toronto played at St Joan of Arc Field in Maple at 6:00pm.

6 min...YRS Mario Orestano GOAL...Orestano intercepts a pass at 30 yards in the middle and took a low 18 yard shot is into the left corner of the net beyond diving goalie Scott Cliff.

26 min...SCT Alexandros Halis GOAL...SCT Dominic Roberts blasts 35 yarder up middle over crowd of players and ball drops to hit bar. Halis blasts rebound from 18 yards from left into right side of net.

28 min...SCT RED card...David Alva earns a direct ejection from referee David Barrie for a sliding tackle on YRS Fitzroy Christey at YRS 50 yards.

46 min (injury time)...SCT Massimo Mirabelli GOAL...Mirabelli blasts shot off YRS Ricky Herron who slid into block at 25 yards down the middle. Mirabelli steps beside the fallen Herron and blasts a low 22 yarder into the right side of the net beyond goalie Adam Majer.

64 min...An SCT player is called for handball in the box after a YRS cornerkick.

65 min...YRS Chris Turner GOAL...Turner kicks his Penalty kick to right side of the net as the goalie moves left.

Final Score:.......York Region Shooters.........2.............SC Toronto............2...........

Attendance was about 120 on this mild evening.

The game was rough with lots of fouls but there was a bad injury at only 5 minutes when YRS Desmond Humphrey took a cornerkick from the left that a defender headed and YRS Alex Trujillo jumped from 8 yards and was injured when he missed the goalie and fell awkwardly. The players on both teams immediately called to kick the ball out of play and “Dial 911” and waved for the trainer. Some concerns were that he had a dislocated shoulder was knocked out. An ambulance did finally arrive and take him to the hospital. It turned out to be a dislocated elbow.

Best non-scoring chances included at 55 minutes when YRS Ryan Dummett crossed from 20 yards on the right that found YRS Dino Gardener on the left and his 12 yard low shot was blocked by the sliding goalie. 60 minutes had YRS Desmond Humphrey's cornerkick from the left find YRS Jason DeThomasis head the ball over the bar from 8 yards. 67 minutes Humphrey's cornerkick from the right had DeThomasis nod down a header that the goalie palmed over the bar. 80 minutes had YRS Nicolas Martinez catch the goalie outside the box but somehow miss scoring. A minute later YRS Marcelo Capazolo headed a 15 yarder over the net getting to a cornerkick. A minute after that Gardener had an 8 yard shot in a crowd of players sent just over the net. At 85 minutes on a play started on a YRS handball, Mario Orestano slid on a kick to send the ball over the bar from 6 yards. Injury time found DeThomasis tap a pass back to a YRS player who shot over the bar from 12 yards. Same minute SCT Massimo Mirabelli cut around two defenders and shot from 25 yards that had the flying goalie catch.

Both teams had players out. Shooters regular goalie Camilo Benzi wasn't even on the subs bench tonight and usual captain/striker Kadian Lecky watched the games from the stands because of Yellow card accumulation. Taylor Lord was listed as a sub but didn't come into the game as he's still resting up from an injury. Dino Gardener moved up to forward after the early Trujillo injury and played well. Gardener left the TFC Academy system after not signing a loyalty agreement. His father said he tried out for a team in Cologne Germany but is now back in Canada finishing high school. After the season he will be back for more tryouts.

I don't remember seeing head coach Carmine Isacco today. Isacco has coaching commitments (and some SCT players) on the York University team. He also coaches the women's team too. From headline reading it turns out Alon Badat scored for York University away against Windsor Lancers today. Adrian Pena, Casey D'Mello, Carlos Nogueira, Gerard Ladiyou, Jarek Whiteman (who scored for SCT on Friday night), and SCT backup goalie Sotiri Varlokostas are all listed on the York U roster. Brennan McNicoll is listed on the York U roster but played in today's SCT game. There is a joke going around the league that the way to beat SCT in the upcoming playoffs is to schedule a game at the same time as a York University scheduled game. Maybe it will take something like this because SCT held back the fourth place team today playing with ten men for over an hour.

The openings in the roster gave an opportunity for 17 year old Alex Halis to start and shine. He was not called on any offsides that I noticed (as compared to the game I'd just finished seeing in Brampton this afternoon) as he would be even with the defenders and facing the pass then he'd pivot and be on his way to a rush—so he'd not rush before the pass was on its way.

SC Toronto had already clinched first place with a win over Brampton City on Friday night. Their record improves to 19-2-3. Shooters improve to 12-6-6 for fourth place, one point better than Serbian White Eagles.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca

[Redcoatsforever]

Windsor Stars' draw with London City earlier this season has been changed to a win for London City, as Stars had an inelligible player in their lineup. The CSL made this ruling o the 27th of September.