Nuke Soccer - Soccer In Toronto: CSL Result 09.09.07

Courtesy Rocket Robin, Soccer In Toronto

Sept 9, 2007
The Soccer Centre, Vaughan 8:00 pm
Italia Shooters [0] Toronto Croatia [0]

Notes
Attendance was about 80 on this warm night. There had been rain the night before and it looked like rain from earlier in the day but nothing fell while the game was on.

Play was pretty even throughout the night with one patch between 15 and 21 minutes when no ball was inside the 20 yard lines of either team yet the passing was great, just one pass too short of getting a clear shot or a break in the box. Many of the shots throughout the game were blocked or saved by defenders rather than the goalies although they were both called on to make a few stops.

Camilo Benzi for the Shooters and George Azcurra for Croatia earned the shutouts for each team. Benzi had a tougher time lucky to stay in the game when he was crunched by a Croatia player when he charged to the edge of box to punch a ball away.

Shooters defender Rick Titus asked me after the game if I thought the game was boring. I didn’t think that because this was a close, hard fought game. Referee Steve Cahoon stopped the game in the first half to warn Croatian head coach Milodrag Akmadzic and in the second half on Shooters assistant coach Sam Medeiros to stop complaining from the sidelines. He never lost control of the game and kept the cards to a minimum. One of his cards though was at 68 minutes to Croatia’s Mario Pupic when Shooters Chris Turner suddenly went to ground while a group of players stood waiting for a cornerkick into the Croatia box. Shooters physio Stella Makcis examined his injury then came back off the field to tell their bench. “Nothing I can do for him, he got hit in the balls”.

Croatia coach Milodrag Akmadzic was very upset at the usually reliable Hayden Fitzwilliams who held back on some rushes and made some offside passes breaking up Croatian rushes. Tihomir Maletic and Hugo Herrera were the forwards for Croatia.

Shooters coach Tony DeThomasis answered me before the game to explain how they were beaten 4-0 by Croatia on Friday. They had three starting defenders at a Footsal tournament in South America. Fitzroy Christie was back for tonight’s game and Denny Velastegui and Alvaro Yaques will be back and ready for the next game. Midfielder Bill Androutsis was suspended for the rest of the year by the league for getting into a fight after already being subbed off. Forward Jason DeThomasis is serving a suspension for being ejected from the Open Canada Cup semi-final last weekend.

With a tie tonight, this showed that Shooters could rebound from their 4-0 loss, the Serbian White Eagles jumped into first place in the International Division with a 5-1 win over North York Astros. That game started an hour before this one and announcements were made during the game about the score 2-0, 3-1, 4-1, and 5-1 as the evening went on.

Next game for Toronto Croatia is against the White Eagles on Thursday night at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke. This game was sold as a ‘home’ game for White Eagles with tickets only being distributed through Serbian ethnic shops and clubs. There are no tickets available on the night of the game and one reason for the game being on Thursday rather than the weekend is to stop any travelling rowdies from out of the city from causing trouble. A game later in the season will be treated as a ‘home’ game for Croatia.