CSL 2012--Week 4

[Rocket Robin]

Result of the Friday May 25, 2012 CSL game between SC Toronto
and Montreal Impact Academy played at Lamport Stadium in
Toronto at 8:00pm.

41 min...MIA Red card...Wandrille Lefevre earns a direct
ejection from referee Rich Oliviera for a studs up sliding
tackle on SCT Charles Trafford at SCT 45 yard line
injurying him.

43 min...MIA Stefan Vukovic GOAL...MIA Victor Ndiaye gives
Vukovic a pass from the right and he connects on a roller
from 15 yards with goalie Scott Cliff out almost that far.
Vukovic rounded the goalie for a tap in if required but
the ball rolled into the right corner of the net.

70 min...MIA RED card...Goalie Jason Beaulieu earns a
direct ejection for tripping SCT Charles Trafford inside
the box as he ran past the fallen goalie to the loose ball.
The referee also awarded SCT a Penalty kick.

71 min...MIA sub...back up goalie Samuel Dufort replaces
forward Stefan Vukovic.

72 min...SCT Jarek Whiteman GOAL...Whiteman's Penalty kick
blast is low to right corner of net beyond diving goalie.

Final Score:.....SCT Toronto.....1.......Montreal Impact
Academy.......1......

Attendance was about 150 on this warm night (record high
daytime temperature in Toronto at this time of year).

MIA hung on to a tie playing two men down for the last 20
minutes. They actually almost scored again at 76 minutes
on a great individual play by Zakaria Messoudi.

The experience will be humbling for SCT who opened the
season with two straight wins. Their timing was just
off this evening whether even strength, up a man, or up
two men. MIA improve their record to 1 win, 0 losses,
2 ties.

Best non-scoring chances of the game were at 27 minutes when
SCT Alan Badat beat the MIA goalie on the right and his
15 yard shot had retreating defender MIA Kai Morton head
the ball over the net from 5 yards. 56 minutes had SCT
Jarek Whiteman receive a tap-over pass behind a defender
and take a 15 yard shot into the net but the play was
called offside. SCT had a set of four cornerkicks within
two minutes at 60 minutes and the best chance had an SCT
Badat cornerkick have to be palmed over the net by the
goalie. 76 minutes had MIA Zakaria Messoudi split two
defenders and deke a third and shoot a 12 yarder from
the left just over the net. 92 minutes had TFC Brennan
McNicoll take a cornerkick from the left that the goalie
backed up to catch the ball on the right post in front of
at least two SCT players waiting to head the ball in.

Quite a variety of fans watching the game besides the
parents of the ball girls. Toronto FC Ashtone Morgan
was in the stands watching with some friends and
SCT technical director Carmine Isacco. Morgan has a
big game tomorrow afternoon about six blocks away
when TFC plays Philadelphia Union in their attempt to
win their first MLS game this season. A scout from
Syracuse University came up to the press box at halftime
to write down some names from the rosters. There
were also some friends/family of Stefan Vukovic cheering
him on.

I talked with Stefan Vukovic after the game. He is on
a three month contract with the Impact but there's
no reason why that can't be extended.

The Impact Academy does allow players up to the age
of 21 while the TFC Academy turns their players over
at 18. It's a long leap to an MLS contract at that
age and TFC elected to let Vukovic go.

MIA wore all 'high' numbers with choices between 41
and 72. TFCA used that in their first year of play.
MIA goalies wear the same neon orange uniforms as
MLS player Donovan Ricketts.

The Impact Academy now stay in the GTA area and play
Mississauga Eagles tomorrow night at 7:00pm at
The Hershey Centre.

This game was filmed by Rogers and will be shown
on their Community Channel on Sunday night.

A week ago I hadn't expected to be here as the
TFC Academy were to open their new facility
at Downsview Park but that game has been put
off until Sunday afternoon. I'll be at another game
but expect I'll see TFCA play at least seven times
this season but now will miss their opponents
London City and will probably see them only once.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca

[Rocket Robin]

Result of the Sunday May 27, 2012 CSL game between North York Astros
and York Region Shooters played at Esther Shiner Stadium in
North York at 4:00pm.

Final Score:....North York Astros.......0......
....York Region Shooters......0......

Attendance was about 70 on this hot afternoon. There was the
threat of rain which started to fall for minute or two about
ten minutes after the game ended.

Antal Toth earned the shutout for the Astros. Enea Perego
is the usual starter but he's currently injured. He made some
key saves to keep the Shooters off the board.

Emanuelle Ameltonis earned the shutout for the Shooters. He is
the back up goalie behind veteran Camilo Benzi. Benzi's
brother Diego was a backup midfielder today but didn't get into
the game. Diego played years with the Astros.

Referee Yusri Rudolf gave out six Yellow cards that I counted--
three to each team--including a double card to Astros Kunle
Fayehun and Shooters captain Kadian Lecky for a pushing incident
in the Shooters box waiting for a freekick. An early Yellow to
YRS Aundrae Rollins probably led to his early subbing out for
Desmond Humphrey at only 37 minutes. Rudolf tried to impose his
stamp on the game at 8 minutes when he took NYA Stanley Ugochukwu
and YRS players Kadian Lecky and Aundrae Rollins aside and told
them to hold off the rough stuff.

Best non-scoring chances were at 25 minutes when YRS Ryan Dummett
crossed from 15 yards on the right and the goalie windmill swatted
the ball across the left side of the box. 55 minutes had NYA Brian
Alcantara send in a cornerkick from the left that NYA Kurt Ramsey
popped an 8 yarder over the net. 57 minutes had NYA Vasileios
Liagkos take a 22 yard freekick from the right that the goalie
palmed over the net. 59 minutes YRS Andre Stewart broke up a pass
play attempt at 6 yards in the YRS box. 66 minutes had YRS
Desmond Humphrey took a 35 yard freekick from the left that had
NYA Kurt Ramsey headed the ball away at 6 yards while surrounded
by two YRS forwards. 80 minutes had a YRS player cross from the right
and YRS Goncalo Almeida misses connecting on a shot at 12 yards and
the ball was knocked away but YRS Fitzroy Christey blasted a 15 yard
shot over the bar. The Astros were called offside often.

The last ten minutes (85 to 95 minutes) became almost a personal
duel between Astros forward Vasileios Liagkos and YRS defender Andre
Stewart. 85 minutes had Liagkos forced wide by Stewart and his
20 yard rolling shot was pushed wide right of the net by the
diving goalie. Two minutes later Stewart made another key block
sliding to break up a Liagkos rush. 88 minutes had Stewart make
a key delay on holding up a pass attempt that ensured that Liagkos
ran offside at 22 yards. 90 minutes had Astros defender Steven Craig
headed away a cross in the box then headed another ball over his own
net. YRS Desmond Humphrey took the cornerkick from the right and
the goalie charged forward in the box to punch the ball away.
91 minutes had the Astros goalie flattened as he misses a catch
and a YRS player kicked the ball into the net but the play was
whistled down. 93 minutes had YRS players get away two low shots
that had defenders block including Morgan Copeland who took one
off the leg and had him cramp up downfield two minutes later.
94 minutes had Liagkos on the right chip a 15 yard shot that
landed on top of the YRS net.

The Astros line-up has been almost completely turned over from
last year (a team that didn't win during the entire season).
The only ones I recognized from today's roster was defenders
Anthony Valentine, captain John Jung, Steven Craig and long
time stalwart Kurt Ramsey. Also midfielder Allan Cordon
(brother of Toronto FC's Oscar Cordon). I congratulated
Astros general manager Bruno Ierullo after the game for the
best Astros game I've seen the team play in a few years.
He said the team was "in a crescendo". A rumour I heard
later was that Ierullo would have run out onto the field
if the Astros won.

A still injured Diego Maradona (the nephew of the namesake)
was watching from the stands. The ex-Astros player has
signed with the Shooters but his wait continues.

Shooters are undefeated in their four games this season
but with three of those results ties, they are only
middle of the pack in the standings.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca

[Rocket Robin]

Result of the Sunday May 27, 2012 CSL game between Toronto Croatia
and SC Waterloo played at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke at 8:00pm.

18 min...TC Hayden Fitzwilliams GOAL...TC Boris Tomac received
a pass down the left side and after a long run sent in a low
cross that TC Tihomir Maletic in middle missed connecting while
tangling with a SCW defender. Fitzwilliams all alone on the right
after charging into the box shot a 6 yarder to the right side
of the open net.

19 min...SCW Shawn Brown GOAL...SCW John Inglis passed from 40 yards
that found Brown upfield and he took a 20 yard shot in a crowd of players
into the top right corner of the net.

25 min...TC Marin Vucemilovic Grgic cornerkick from the left had a charging
TC Daniel Niksic head an 8 yarder off the bar. The ball bounced to 15 yards
and a defender pulled down TC Tihomir Maletic. Referee Silviu Petrescu
called for a Penalty kick.

26 min...TC Tihomir Maletic GOAL...Maletic blasted the Penalty kick into the
top left side of the net beyond flying goalie Imad Hakura. After some
chatter between Maletic and Hakura, the referee made them shake hands.

33 min...TC Josip Keran GOAL...TC Marin Vucemilovic Grgic took a 30 yard
freekick from the left and a charging Keran headed the ball into the net from
7 yards just under the bar.

39 min...TC defender Sven Arapovic pushed over SCW Shawn Brown in the TC box
and referee awarded a Penalty kick.

40 min...SCW Drazen Vukovic blasted the Penalty kick to the low right and
goalie Panagiotis Koumoulas dove to the right to make the save.

72 min...TC Marin Vucemilovic Grgic GOAL...TC Tihomir Maletic rushed on a
breakaway towards goal from 50 yards tha had him run to 20 yards and his low shot
rolled over the diving goalie and Vucemilovic Grgic blasted in a 1 yarder
(although the ball probably would have gone in on its own).

78 min...TC Marin Vucemilovic Grgic GOAL...TC Tihomir Maletic rushed in
on the left and centered a pass to Vucemilovic Grgic who shot a low 15 yarder
over the diving goalie.

80 min...TC Tihomir Maletic GOAL...TC Marin Vucemilovic Grgic rushed on the
left and crossed from 15 yards that had Maletic in center flick 5 yard header
into the right side of the net.

Final Score:....Toronto Croatia......6........SC Waterloo......1.......

Attendance was about 150 on this hot night.

This was a match of unbeaten teams with the defending champions Toronto
Croatia off to a 2 win, 1 tie start against first season team SC Waterloo
off to a surprising 2 win season. Somethings gotta give!

I only recognized a few players of SC Waterloo by name. Midfielders
Haris Fazlagic and Drazen Bukovic both played for Brantford Galaxy
and Fazlagic scored the winning goal in the 2010 CSL Championship game.
Forward Shawn Brown played last year with Mississauga Eagles FC.

40 minutes was a key moment in the game. If Drazen Vukovic had scored
the Penalty kick before the first half ended, it could have changed
the result. Croatia turned the defence inside out in the second half
as SC Waterloo pressed to get back into the game.

Also important on the Croatia side of things was Maletic scoring another
goal at 80 minutes. He had a goal 'taken away' 10 minutes earlier when
Vucemilovic Grgic kicked in a shot from 1 yard that Maletic had sent
past the goalie which would probably have gone in on its own. There
was a defender closing in and kicking it in was the only way of
ensuring it was a goal. 78 minutes had Maletic set up Vucemilovic
Grgic for his second goal. The timing of the two of them was off
earlier in the game.

Best non-scoring chances were at 50 seconds when Maletic stole a ball
from a defender on the left and he crossed through the 6 yard box and
Vucemilovic Grgic all alone at 6 yards fired wide right of the net.
11 minutes Vucemilovic Grgic took a 35 yard low freekick from the left
sideline had Maletic charge forward to knock a shot in from 7 yards
but the play was flagged offside. 52 minutes had TC Josip Keran
take a 47 yard freekick that found Vucemilovic Grgic on the left
end line but his 10 yard shot was caught on the left post. 76 minutes
and Maletic got the ball off a tip by a SCW defender and kicked
a 20 yarder off the top of the bar.

Referee Sylviu Petrescu deservedly awarded one Penalty kick to each
team and gave out four Yellow cards (three to SCW) that I saw. It
was ironic that he was in the news by refereeing the Amway Canadian
Championship on Wednesday and was accused of bias by Vancouver
Whitecaps head coach Martin Rennie , bitter after their 1-0 loss
because he was 'from Toronto' although reporters later corrected
that to Waterloo. Nothing in his calls made me believe any bias
tonight. Petrescu hadn't been idle since last week as I noticed
from the MLS program guides that he was the referee of the Houston
vs Los Angeles game on Saturday night. Well this stadium is very
near the Toronto airport!

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca