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Result of the Friday September 4th, 2009 CSL game between Toronto Croatia and St Catharines Wolves played at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke at 8:00pm.

Toronto Croatia (blue socks, white shorts and numbers, red shirts)

.................19 Marko Culjak
16 Halberto Harris...21 Sven Arapovic...3 Ante Brkic...20 Ainsley Deer
14 Braeden Krampert...23 Tonci Piraija...5 Johnny Bustamante...8 Hayden Fitzwilliams (cpt)
...........10 Tihomir Maletic...15 Niko Pesa

Subs:...1 Sandi Matika (gk)...24 Ryan Tawill...30 Tom Granic...7 Tomislav Ples...17 Nicholas Goddard...18 Antonio Zupan
team officials:...head coach Velimir Crljen...assistant coach Alen Vukobrad...manager Ivan Kulis...trainer/physio Rachel Leroux...team official Pino Jazbec

St Catharines Wolves (black socks and shorts, blue shirts, red numbers)

...................1 Claudio Perri (cpt)
27 Danny Gallagher...12 Geoffrey Attard...20 Matthew Dimaria...6 Joe Conte
13 Scott MacLennan...18 Ruddy Pikuzinski...26 Matthew Stillman...23 Tony Mermigas
.............10 Carlo Arghittu...14 Matthew Cain

Subs:...21 Tony Visca (gk)...7 Brandon Jones (def)...11 Stefan Kamendy (mid)...3 Joseph Delpriore (fwd)...15 James Blair (mid)...17 Simon Murphy (mid)
team officials:...head coach* and manager Armand Difruscio...assistant coach Tony Visca...team official Angelo Pizzacalla
(* regular head coach James McGillervary is suspended for four games for abuse of officials).

Game officials:...referee Steve DePiero...referee's assistants Michael Anthony Izzo and Rich Oliveira...fourth official Alexis Vaughan... (all black, white and yellow trim)

1st Half:...game starts 8:06pm...TC defend south end on this mild night.
3 min...TC Deer 45 yard blast up middle is through crowd of players and caught by goalie.
6 min...TC Deer chips 25 yard cross from left that drifts just over net.
8 min...TC Bustamante 45 yard shot of partial clearance is blasted well over net.
9 min...W Gallagher cross from 15 yards is into box from right but cleared.
10 min...TC Krampert 35 yard blast down middle is wide right of net.
11 min...TC Maletic gets cross rolled across box from right and 8 yard shot is deflected and partially cleared. TC player's 25 yard shot is deflected high and wide right for cornerkick.
12 min...TC Maletic cornerkick from right has TC player head ball wide left from 8 yards.
16 min…Wolves Matthew Cain GOAL…Wolves Rudy Pikuzinski sends in through ball from Wolves 50 yard line to Cain at 40 yards who runs up middle and shoots 15 yarder into low left corner of net beyond sprawling goalie Marko Culjak.
18 min...W Gallagher 40 yard cross from right sideline is caught by goalie.
19 min...W Pikuzinski rush on right and 15 yard shot has goalie palm ball wide left for cornerkick.
20 min...W Gallagher cornerkick from left has defender clear.
22 min...TC Bustamante centered ball at 15 yards and goalie saves low at 10 yards and 12 yard rebound and covers up as TC Pesa kicks ball at 10 yards.
24 min...TC Bustamante cornerkick from left has ball headed around and goalie catches off popped header by TC player at 5 yards on the left.
26 min...TC Maletic rush on 3 on 1 play on right and W defender blocks cross attempt at 10 yards on right.
27 min...W MacLennan cornerkick from right is headed over end line for another cornerkick.
28 min...W MacLennan cornerkick from right has ball recrossed from left but cleared.
28 min...TC Deer cross from left has goalie catch in crowd of players.
29 min...TC Harris hurt leaping goalie who dives to right for save.
30 min...TC Krampert 20 yard shot from right is wide right of net.
33 min...W Conte 35 yard freekick from left is wide right of net.
34 min...TC Deer 40 yard freekick from left has TC player pop ball header in crowd wide right of net from right.
35 min...W YELLOW card...Stillman for knock down on TC Fitzwilliams.
36 min...TC Brkic 35 yard freekick from left is low and through player wall and smothered by goalie.
37 min...TC Pesa low 18 yard shot fromleft is blocked by goalie. TC Maletic flicks ball over him on kick and TC Fitzwilliams heads ball into net from 5 yards but play called offside.
38 min...TC Bustamante 20 yard blast is tipped wide left of net.
40 min...TC Pesa bumped outside box by goalie and ball is cleared.
41 min...W YELLOW card...Gallagher for argueing freekick that they won. W player's freekick from 35 yards has ball knocked around in box before pressure ends.
42 min...W Arghittu cross from right is over box and bounces wide left.
43 min...W Gallagher 40 yard cross from right bounces to goalie.
44 min...TC Fitzwilliams cross from left has defender block shot and clear in crowd of players.
47 min...half ends 8:53pm.

2nd Half:...half starts 9:10pm.
45 min...Croatia Tihomir Maletic GOAL…TC Johnny Bustamante freekick from 25 yards on left has TC Sven Arapovic head ball in box from 10 yards from right that deflects off Maletic at 5 yards on left side of box into left side of net.
47 min...W Arghittu 22 yard shot on pushed over pass is wide right of net.
49 min...TC Pesa 15 yard shot up middle is just over net.
51 min...TC Krampert rush on right and cross from 20 yards on end line is caught by leaping goalie in front of two players ready to head ball in from 3 yards.
53 min...TC sub...Ples replaces Pesa.
55 min...TC Fitzwilliams gets pass while charging up middle from right but pushes ball too far forward so goalie picks up ball on edge of box.
58 min...TC Harris cross from 25 yards on right has TC Ples twist header but stopped in box.
58 min…Croatia Tihomir Maletic GOAL…TC Tomislav Ples rolls pass from 25 yards on right to Maletic who shoots low 15 yard shot into left side of net beyond sprawling goalie Claudio Perri.
60 min...TC Deer 30 yard shot from left is over net.
61 min...W sub...Delpriore replaces Arghittu.
63 min…Croatia Tihomir Maletic GOAL…Maletic is tapped a freekick and his low blast from 15 yards while inside box is into right corner of net through charging players coming in from the right. This inside the box freekick was set up by what was considered a Wolves back pass that the goalie picked up. The referee gave out a Yellow card for someone moving in the wall before the kick. The players on the right charged in again but Maletic put the ball between them on his shot.
64 min...TC goalie dives out to fall on ball to edge of box.
66 min...W Cain goal is called back for offside.
67 min...TC goalie 80 yard freekick is caught by goalie.
67 min...W goalie outleaps TC Ples to grab ball into box.
68 min...TC sub...Zupan replaces Brkic.
69 min...W YELLOW card...Kamendy (when did he come on?) earns it for pushing.
.........TC YELLOW card...Krampert for his part in incident.
71 min…Wolves RED card…Geoffrey Attard earned a direct ejection for arguing a call with referee Steve DePiero within two minutes of him giving a card to a player from each team for a pushing incident.
73 min...W sub...Blair replaces Kamendy.
73 min...TC goalie misses ball on jump on edge of box. TC defender blocks 18 yard shot and goalie recovers to pick up ball.
75 min…Croatia Johnny Bustamante GOAL…Bustamante passes ball to left from middle and TC Tomislav Ples takes a hard 20 yard shot that’s blocked by the diving goalie Claudio Perri but Bustamante pounds in the rebound over the fallen goalie from 12 yards.
77 min...W goalie swats away cornerkick from right.
77 min...TC sub...Goddard replaces Krampert.
79 min...W sub...Jones replaces Stillman.
80 min...TC Fitzwilliams 30 yard freekick from right has leaping goalie palm ball over net.
80 min...TC Fitzwilliams cornerkick from right has goalie catch ball and clear.
81 min...TC Fitzwilliams freekick from 30 yards on right that goalie catches in crowd of players.
82 min...TC Fitzwilliams injured at 35 yard line.
84 min...W sub...Murphy replaces Cain.
.......TC sub...Tawill replaces Harris.
85 min...TC sub...Granic replaces injured TC Fitzwilliams.
85 min...TC YELLOW card...Maletic for diving when he trips over W goalie that he gets ball pushed by him. No penalty kick. TC Ples would have been offside if he'd have passed over ball.
87 min...TC Bustamante 55 yard shot tries to catch goalie off his line but goalie catches ball at 10 yards.
89 min...W Gallagher 30 yard freekick from left has W Murphy pop up header over net from 8 yards.
91 min...W Blair long throw-in from left has defender clear from box.
93 min...W Delpriore 15 yard roller past goalie on right and rolls wide left of post.
93 min...TC Granic 30 yard blast off referee is wide left of net so no cornerkick is given!
95 min...game ends 10:00pm.

Final Score:……Toronto Croatia……….4…………….St Catharines Wolves……….1………..

Attendance was about 125 on this mild evening with no real wind at all. This game was rescheduled from Sunday August 9th when the game never started because of a severe thunderstorm.

Wolves defence which was one of the stingiest during the first half of the season have really tailed off this last month letting in three goals, three goals and now four goals in their last three trips to play Toronto area teams. Wolves goalie Claudio Perri was often left on his own and his best sequence was at 22 minutes when Johnny Bustamante was centered a ball at 15 yards and Perri saved a low shot at 10 yards and followed up saving a rebound from 10 yards and covered up the ball after Niko Pesa kicked another shot from 10 yards.

Marko Culjak of Toronto Croatia had to make some important saves too. His biggest was at 19 minutes when Rudy Pikuzinski rushed in on the right and sent in a 15 yard shot that Culjak was able to palm wide left for a cornerkick. A 2-0 score at that time might have changed the whole complexion of the game. Tihomir Maletic scoring three goals was obviously the player of the game.

The game was full of fouls and referee Steve DePiero gave out plenty of Yellow cards. Fans were yelling insults at the officials. He couldn’t please them as even when he ejected the Wolves player, and the announcer said “….Referee…Red card…” some fan yelled “Referee Retard”. At 85 minutes he gave game hero Tihomir Maletic a Yellow card for diving in the Wolves box for trying to earn a Penalty kick when he barged by the goalie to get a shot away.

Wolves regular head coach James McGillivray who is serving a four game suspension told manager Armand DiFruscio who was serving as the head coach tonight that he’d be filing a FIFA report because he said the referee swore at his player, Geoffrey Attard. The referee told DiFruscio after the game that he’ll file a report for league officials that Wolves player Tony Memigas after the game swore at him and threw a water bottle.

A Croatian official was not surprised by the resignation of league commissioner Cary Kaplan the day before. The timing of the announcement was all planned ahead. I’m going to wait to I hear from other club managers from two more games this weekend before I write anything about it.

Toronto Croatia increases their lead on Serbian White Eagles with tonight’s win. White Eagles can keep pace if they win Saturday’s game against TFC Academy. Wolves have gone cold in the league and with North York Astros winning last night against London City (although we did not know that because of the late start), Astros are closing on Wolves, Portugal FC and TFC Academy for the last playoff spot.

I was going to wait until the season was over to comment but I want to thank players and club officials and from the CSL teams for helping me fill in assists on the goals to make my reports read better. Wolves players would not have been in the best mood after the game Matthew Cain gave me the name of who passed him the ball on his goal and a Croatian official waded through their crowded dressing room to survey the players of who was involved in the freekick tying goal.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca

Croatia starters

Wolves starters

Wolves players break out.

Croatia called offside on this play.

Wolves freekick deep in own end.

Croatia rush out of own end.

Croatia Hayden Fitzwilliams keeps ball in play.

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