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2nd Half:...starts 8:03pm.
51 min...WBS Marshall injured TC Kresic just outside center circle with kick to his leg.
52 min...TC Harris runs down right and low cross into box cleared by defender.
53 min...WBS Hawkins 40 yard freekick from right is whistled down in box.
54 min...TC goalie runs to edge of box to pick up bouncing through ball.
55 min...WBS Hawkins 30 yard freekick from left hits head of player in wall and deflects wide left for cornerkick.
56 min...WBS Byrd cornerkick from left has WBS player flick 7 yard kick that goalie catches.
57 min...Toronto Croatia Edin Kalic GOAL...Kalic in crowd of players sends low 20 yard shot from left into low right corner of net.
60 min...WBS goalie charge out to block TC Harris shot from 20 yards after his long run up left.
61 min...WBS Vonella heads TC player's cornerkick from left back to own goalie to catch.
61 min...TC Zupan blocks 35 yard freekick from right into box.
62 min...TC goalie palms ball wide left on WBS Hawkins 25 yard blast from right.
63 min...TC goalie knocks down high cornerkick cross from left and defender clears.
64 min...WBS Byrd works out short cornerkick but TC Crljen knocks ball for cornerkick.
64 min...WBS Byrd cornerkick from left but ball is low and blocked by defender.
66 min...TC YELLOW card...Milicevic for talking back to referee.
67 min...TC Harris blocks goalie's clearance.
69 min...TC sub...Pavlovic replaces Milicevic.
69 min...TC Zupan 22 yard freekick from left has ball hit top of bar near right corner.
70 min...WBS sub...Chatterjee replaces Kolic.
..............WBS sub...Saric replaces Vonella.
..............WBS sub...Jas replaces Perica.
71 min...WBS Saric leaping header from middle 10 yard gently to TC goalie after freekick cross from right.
73 min...TC sub...Lewe replaces Kresic.
74 min...TC goalie bats down and grabs 30 yard freekick from right on left of net.
79 min...TC Harris rolls pass across box from left but defender clears before TC Kalic can get to it.
80 min...WBS player's cornerkick from right is over head of WBS Saric and WBS Jas charging on left shoots 6 yarder wide left of net.
81 min...WBS Hawkins 35 yard freekick from right is blasted well over net.
82 min...TC Kulis injured in own end.
86 min...TC Alstitud injured in WBS end.
86 min...TC sub...Spajic replaces Crljen.
87 min...TC Zupan 45 yard freekick from left is just wide left.
88 min...TC Antonijo Zupan long run on right and WBS Jeffrey Hodgson tips him with hip high foot tackle inside box. Referee Gord Arrowsmith signals for a Penalty kick.
89 min...Toronto Croatia Rudy Spajic GOAL...Spajic blasts Penalty kick into low right of net with goalie crumpling in middle of net.
90 min...game ends 8:48pm.
Final Score:..........Toronto Croatia.........5..........Windsor Border Stars..........0............
Attendance was about 250 on this cool evening with the temperature rapidly falling.
I was thinking Toronto Croatia would have trouble in offense before the game when I saw last week's hero Leo Laurito was not in the lineup. Their offense kept adapting to changes throughout the night. They started with forwards Edin Kalic and Jason Shannon but had to Shannon just five minutes after he scored when he couldn't recover from a hip injury. Andrew Saulez subbed in as a defender and Halburto Harris who had been playing defense moved up to forward.
George Azcurra earned the shutout for Toronto Croatia with some good saves on crosses. Defender Antonijo Zupan made some crutial clearances from the box. The players on the bench and the announcers were laughing on the sideline when they heard Rudy Spajic who'd come in just three minutes earlier would take the Penalty kick. The shot was perfect so I asked if I'd missed a joke. They said they let him take it as he didn't get much playing time.
Border Stars again came into the Greater Toronto area with few (three) of substitutes making all three at 70 minutes well after the game was out of hand. Midfielder Dan Kolic continued to play with blurred vision after taking a ball to the head when he got in a sliding tackle at 19 minutes.
Both teams finished with identical records of 9-7-4 and each team beating each other once during their two games this season although Toronto Croatia outscored Border Stars 3-1 in their head to head games with each team shutting out the other at home.
Toronto Croatia now move into the Wild Card game against Rogers Cup tournament host Brampton Hitmen scheduled for Friday night at 7:30pm. They'll need the rest as they'd have to win that game, the semi-final Saturday and the final Monday. Roster wise they had more chance than Border Stars to have enough players to get all those games in.
Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
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