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Result of the Friday September 30th, 2005 CPSL game between Toronto Croatia and Vaughan Shooters played at The Soccer Centre in Vaughan (!) at 9:00pm.
Toronto Croatia (blue socks, white shorts and numbers, red shirts)
........................1 George Azcurra
............4 Domagoj Sain...2 Robert Fran...6 Mario Kulis
3 Halburto Harris...14 Miles O'Connor...7 Caswain Mason...5 Antonijo Zupan...8 Hayden Fitzwilliams
..................16 Edin Kalic...10 Leo Laurito
Subs:...12 Vinko Kozina (gk)...13 Roman Harapyn (gk/def)...11 Velemir Crljen (mid)...18 Andrija Botica (mid)...19 Joseph Cosentino (mid)...15 Andrew Saulez (def)...21 Marko Milicevic (mid)
team officials:...head coach Velemir Crljen...assistant coach Kruno Culjak...team official Tom Granic...trainer Caralann Julien...club official Theo Krajacic
Vaughan Shooters (black socks, shorts and numbers, white shirts)
..........................1 Brian Bowes
17 Raj Takhar...2 Angelo Pollastrone (cpt)...8 Chris Turner...11 Fitzroy Christie
19 Desi Humphrey...13 Frankie Bruno...12 Danny Sanna...15 Matthew Palleschi
................9 Jason DeThomasis...10 Joey Todaro
Subs:...00 Pablo Alvarado (gk)...16 Luca Forno (mid)...6 Frank Ruschetta (def)...23 Aundrae Rollins (fwd)...7 Cameron Medwin (mid)...3 Dewayne Wright (def)...26 Nieo Martinez (fwd)
team officials:...coach Carmine Isacco...manager Ruben Toro...trainer Scott Howitt spc...assistant coach Tony DeThomasis...club official Elio Scarcello
Game officials:...referee Michael Roecken...referee's assistants Calin Pintea and Yusri Rudolf...fourth official Jacque Magliocco...(yellow shirts, black shorts and socks)
1st Half:...game starts 9:26pm...VS defend south end.
2 min...VS Humphrey cornerkick from right is cleared by defender.
3 min...Shooters Matthew Palleschi GOAL...VS Desi Humphrey runs down the right and cut in along right end line deking goalie George Azcurra but pushes ball too far ahead of himself into goalmouth where Palleschi pounds in 5 yarder into center of empty net.
7 min...TC Mason cornerkick from left has leaping goalie in crowd of players knock down and pick up.
8 min...VS Sanna low 25 yard freekick from right has defender clear ball.
9 min...TC Kalic jabs ball wide left from 20 yards after short pass from TC Fitzwilliams.
10 min...VS Humphrey cross in from right is low and through box.
11 min...VS Palleschi low 25 yard shot from left rolls to goalie.
13 min...VS DeThomasis injured in center circle.
16 min...TC Mason 30 yard freekick from left has defender knock away on right edge of box.
17 min...TC Fitzwilliams mid air shot from 10 yards is blasted well over net.
20 min...Toronto Croatia Antonijo Zupan GOAL...TC Hayden Fitzwilliams cornerkick from right has Zupan leap and flick 5 yard header from even with right post into left corner of net beyond goalie Brian Bowes.
21 min...VS Humphrey cornerkick from right is cleared by defender. Humphrey recovers on corner by right flag but checked by two defenders.
22 min...VS YELLOW card...Takhar for upending TC Fitzwilliams at VS 25 yards on left side.
24 min...VS YELLOW card...Rollins on bench for mouthing off! Rollins wasn't on the field.
25 min...TC Fitzwilliams 25 yard freekick from left is headed away on right.
26 min...TC Laurito 8 yard shot wide left after TC Fitzwilliams nods down header on left after cross from right on rush.
27 min...VS YELLOW card...Todaro for complaining about TC freekick deep in own end.
28 min...TC Fitzwilliams 30 yard freekick is cleared away.
32 min...TC Zupan 30 yard freekick up middle has goalie palm ball over net.
33 min...TC Fitzwilliams cornerkick from left has VS Palleschi head ball away. TC player's shot from 20 yards on right is caught by goalie in crowd of players.
36 min...VS Sanna 35 yard freekick from left is blocked in box.
37 min...VS goalie catches low cross from right.
38 min...TC Laurito cross from left end line is caught by goalie.
39 min...VS Sanna rush up middle after short pass and 15 yard shot is grabbed wide left.
40 min...VS YELLOW card...Sanna for complaining about call.
41 min...VS Christie 25 yard shot is well over net.
43 min...VS Todaro 22 yard shot is well over net.
45 min...VS Turner injured in collision with TC player also briefly injured.
49 min...half ends 10:15pm.
Shooters have four YELLOW cards and Toronto Croatia none so far.
2nd Half:...starts 10:32pm.
halftime sub:...VS Medwin replaces Todaro.
45 min...TC Fitzwilliams blasts 12 yarder well over net on getting pass on left.
46 min...TC Zupan 35 yard freekick blast up center is snaked wide right.
48 min...TC Harris cross from right is into box chest high but TC players can't get away shot.
49 min...TC Sain heads 12 yarder blocked by defender after cross from left on freekick.
50 min...TC Sain pops up 35 yard freekick from left that's caught by goalie under bar.
52 min...VS Humphrey 30 yard freekick from left worked in with VS Sanna and cross headed behind line by defender.
53 min...VS Humphrey cornerkick from left is headed away.
54 min...TC goalie slides to left to stop VS DeThomasis getting through ball.
56 min...TC sub...Milicevic replaces Kalic.
57 min...TC Laurito rolls 20 yard shot from left deflected wide right.
58 min...TC player's cornerkick from right is cleared by defender.
58 min...TC Fitzwilliams jabs 7 yarder covered by goalie on short right post.
61 min...TC YELLOW card...Kulis for pulling down VS player breaking in on right.
61 min...VS Sanna 35 yard freekick from right has VS Medwin slide and his 7 yard shot off left goalpost. VS player's rebound would be wide left of net but sliding goalie stops it. VS DeThomasis is injured on the play.
64 min...TC Harris throw-in is cleared by players on edge of VS box.
67 min...Shooters Matthew Palleschi GOAL...VS Fitzroy Christie rushes on left and gives pass to Palleschi who turns and fires 10 yarder that's saved by goalie but Palleschi gets to rebound and 8 yard shot is into right side of net.
68 min...TC YELLOW card...Sain for injurying VS DeThomasis in center circle.
69 min...TC Mason cornerkick from left rolls into left webbing of net.
71 min...VS DeThomasis 35 yard freekick has TC Fran head ball away on pop up.
72 min...TC Mason tap over to TC Zupan and weak shot from 10 yards hits defender.
73 min...VS Palleschi gets through pass and ball tipped off defender back to goalie.
75 min...VS YELLOW card...goalie, Bowes, for timewasting taking a goal kick.
76 min...TC sub...Crljen replaces limping Kulis.
77 min...VS YELLOW card...Palleschi for knocking down TC Crljen at VS 40 yard line.
77 min...TC Crljen 40 yard freekick has TC Sain pop up header wide left.
79 min...VS Bruno pushes ball through middle and VS Humphrey has shot attempt.
80 min...VS sub...Ruschetta replaces DeThomasis.
81 min...TC Sain injureds VS Palleschi on sliding tackle near center circle.
85 min...TC Fitzwilliams 30yard freekick from left is well over net.
85 min...VS sub...Rollins replaces Palleschi.
86 min...VS goalie charges out to grab ball on edge of box.
87 min...TC Harris through shot too far up middle for TC Fitzwilliams and goalie steps up for it.
89 min...Toronto Croatia Red card...Roman Harapyn earns it from referee Michael Roecken for an incident on the sideline after a ball had gone out of bounds near the TC bench and Shooters Fitzroy Christie had gone to get it. There is a pushing incident between players. Harapyn hadn't even been in the game but earned the ejection. (Roecken had given a Yellow card at 24 minutes to Shooters player Aundrae Rollins for mouthing off on the bench so he wasn't a stranger to this).
91 min...TC Saulez replaces Fran.
...............TC Botica replaces O'Connor.
93 min...TC Crljen 40 yard freekick has ball blocked by VS Takhar and cleared.
94 min...game ends 11:21pm.
Final Score:..............Toronto Croatia...........1.............Vaughan Shooters............2.............
Attendance was about 100 people on this cool night. The game had been postponed from Wednesday because of the waterlogged field at Memorial Park in Streetsville. The game was moved to the home of the Shooters. I hadn't read that part of the e-mail posting and knew that the game wouldn't involve London City but I didn't notice the change in venue. I was caught in a traffic jam for the first time this season and would have missed an 8:00pm kick-off. Some workers at the snack bar in Memorial Park playing cards in the back told me the game was in Vaughan. I expected I'd missed the first half but lucked in when the game's starting time was changed to 9:00pm. I'm still not sure why Toronto Croatia would give up a home game. The field would have been dry and has all its little quirks in contrast to the field turf of The Soccer Centre. The field was booked in Streetsville because London City was going to be the opposition. Apparently I wasn't the only one faked out by the change in venues as I heard complaints throughout the night.
This was a battle for first place in the Western Conference. Winner of the Conference gets a bye to the semi-final while the second place team hosts the third place team in one game knock-out (likely played Wednesday) and the winner plays Friday night against the "Wild Card/Hosts" North York Astros for a place in the semi-finals. So the reward of winning is to avoid two games!
The game was rough with a lot of hard tackling all over the field. There were a lot of Yellow cards given out in the game including a 4-0 margin against the Shooters (although three were for complaining about calls). Shooters won few calls during the whole first half.
Desi Humphrey and Matthew Palleschi were the most dangerous players on the field with their speed and ball control.
Durham Storm's manager John O'Neill was at the game tonight. He said the CPSL fined him $10,000 for causing them to cancel the game last night against Oakville but he wasn't going to come into the game with just ten guys lined up and no goalie. He didn't want to go through another fiasco like playing Brampton Stallions with just nine guys. He assured me they'd have enough players for their game against Laval Dynamites Saturday night. [Wow more news about that tomorrow afternoon!].
Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
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