THE MISSISSAUGA NEWS

Olympians, Croatia upset by Astros in CPSL playoffs


JOEL BROWN
Oct 25, 2002

NORTH YORK -- This city's cross-town soccer rivals, the Mississauga Olympians and the Streetsville-based Toronto Croatia, battled each other all season long in the Canadian Professional Soccer League.

But now they may look to each other for emotional support.

Both teams were upset by the underdog North York Astros in the CPSL Rogers Cup championship tournament last weekend. The Astros, who finished fifth in the Western Conference during the regular campaign, were only granted a spot because they hosted the event.

Yet they managed to knock off the conference's two best teams in the Olympians and Croatia.

On Friday, the Astros foiled any chance of an all-Mississauga semi-final by soundly beating the Olympians 3-0.

On Saturday it was the Croatia's turn to bite the dust. Croatia dominated the Astros for most of the match, but Astros' forward Guillermo Compton Hall scored a shocking goal in the 88th minute for a 1-0 win.

The goal came off a lucky length-of-the-field feed from the Astros goalkeeper that bounced over all of the Croatian defenders, allowing Compton Hall to head the ball into an open net.

"I don't want to lie, we are really surprised," said Compton Hall. "We knew the Croatia is a very good team. The only way to win the match was the way we won it."

"I don't even know what happened, I just saw it in the net," said Croatia forward Mladen Dikic. "We shouldn't have lost the game but that's the way it goes sometimes. We weren't lucky enough, but we also didn't do our job.

"I feel that I didn't do my job. I'm the one who is responsible for scoring on this team and I didn't do my job."

The Croatia had been riding high coming into the season's final weekend, due to its improved play over the last month coinciding with the insertion of Drago Santic into the head coaching role.

However, Dikic took no comfort in his team's accomplishments, including a first place finish in the Western Conference.

"You feel like it was a waste, we didn't finish it off the way we should have," he said.

As for the Olympians, head coach David Gee believes his team was too worn down by injuries and players changes to be able to mount a good effort against the Astros.

"They wanted to play and we didn't want to play," Gee said. "It wasn't a fluke. I think they were better team on the day -- we just couldn't get anything going.

"But I've got no complaints. We've done well."

On Sunday, the Astros' Cinderella story came to a end when the Ottawa Wizards beat them 2-0 in the championship game.